Ship Model of the British Merchant Ship <i>Thomas Hicks</i>
date: label: date made
content: ca 1825-1840
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: This model was donated to the Smithsonian in 2005 by the CIGNA Corporation of Philadelphia, PA. According to a 1930 letter from the London agent for the Insurance Company of North America (INA), CIGNA’s predecessor company, an INA Liverpool Surveyor found this model of the fully rigged, frigate-built East Indiaman merchant ship Thomas Hicks in a remote Yorkshire village. The letter also said that the Surveyor was told “that only an old time sailor could possibly have made and rigged it so accurately and that it must have entailed a considerable amount of skill and patience.” Off duty sailors often had spare time that could be applied to crafts such as ropework, scrimshaw or wood carving. Some also might build ship models, which was a subject they knew well. Sailor-built models traditionally are considered to have accurate, if unscaled rigging, since so much of what they did was associated with raising, trimming and lowering sails.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Maritime
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0279.071
label: accession number
content: 2005.0279
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0279.071
objectType: label: Object Name
content: ship model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 29 in x 32 in x 15 in; 73.66 cm x 81.28 cm x 38.1 cm