French Prisoner of War Bone Model Man O'war Ship

AssociatedAssociated with Sir James McGrigor (Cromdale, Moray, Scotland, 1771 - 1858)

Datec. 1805

Object NameShip Model

Mediumbone

ClassificationsMaritime History

DimensionsLength: 94.3 cm, Width: 35 cm, Height: 74.4 cm
Stand: 104.1cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1974 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions.

LocationOn Display - Aberdeen Maritime Museum

Object numberABDMS003152

Keywords

Warship

About MeThe model was originally given to Sir James McGrigor (an Aberdeen man who founded the Royal Army Medical Corps) by French prisoners at Dartmoor. It was presented to him by the governor of the prison in recognition of his medical services to both staff and prisoners.

Prisoner of War models refers to French prisoners of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792 - 1815) who were captured in large numbers and held on prison hulks and in specially commissioned prisons all across Britain.

The prisoners were often highly trained craftsmen in skills such as carpentry who had been conscripted into the navy. They would build models of ships as a way of supplementing their prison rations and the prison authorities encouraged this by holding prison markets where the models could be sold.

Eventually, the skill and quality of the prisoner's models made them highly sought after and some model makers actually undertook commissions from inside prison.

Prisoner of War models are usually made from animal bone, which came from the prisoner's meat rations, thereby using the materials most readily available to them. Some examples of prisoner of war work show that customers sometimes supplied ivory and exotic woods for commissioned models, but more often models are constructed using whatever the model maker could find.

Bone is not so easy to carve as wood and so does not allow a model maker to be very detailed. Occasionally, Prisoner of War models are found which have been made of wood and in these cases they can be much more elaborate.

Rigging would be made from human hair and horsehair, sails and flags from clothing and scraps of material. The masts and spars made from bone and the wooden hull given a thin layer of bone.

The models vary in accuracy of detail and construction. Model makers had no ship plans to work from and so often the hull size and shape is inaccurate. However, because the model makers were often sailors themselves deck and rigging details can be quite precise.