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Bottle 689 - Flying Fish
Date Added: 14 June 2009

Donald McKay, one of the greatest designers of his time, built the Flying Fish in 1851 at East Boston Massachusetts. Flying Fish was registered at the Boston Custom House as a ship of 1,505 tons, with a hull length of 207 feet, and a beam of 22 feet, She sailed from New York to San Francisco in 92 days - only three days short of the record set by her sister ship, the Flying Cloud. This is a museum specimen and competition model of the "Flying Fish" a 1951 Clipper Ship. This whole hull model is built to exacting details to the actual ship. The hull has an actual copper bottom and the remaining area is black. The ship's deck is individually planked and includes the same features you would find on the actual ship. She has a trunk cabin, built into a half poop-deck, with ample steering room aft, and good gangways. The ship's deck includes the gratings, hatches, and two large cabins. There are three white lifeboats turned upside down on the main cabin. There is white railing around the stern section of the ship. There are also the details of the ringbolts, hinges, hoops, bolts, anchor, and assorted metal fastenings. She has a windlass, chain stoppers, two capstans; one on the topgallant forecastle, the other on the quarter deck, pumps, and steering apparatus. The "Flying Fish" has 3 masts; the foremast, the mainmast, and the mizzenmast. The masts are all made from bamboo and are built in 3 sections and the masts have crosstrees on each section consisting of jib-booms of two trees: directly jib-boom and flying jib boom. The ship is displayed with 30 sails made from fine silk with the stitch and reef lines showing. The yards are built with footropes for the sailors to stand on while bending and unbending the sail. The bowsprit is built in two sections and has a dolphin striker. The bowsprit has gammoning as was on the real ship. The model has a fore figure or masthead in the form of a flying fish painted white. The ship has authentic detailed standing and running rigging. A special feature of this model consists in that that all strings have been made by the artist, Vladislav Babkin independently. He twisted them by means of the special adaptation and at close examination they are more similar to ship ropes than usual sewing a thread. The standing rigging is in black and the running rigging in gray/brown tone. There are shrouds with ratlines going to each section of each mast and each shroud has main chains. The chain wales are cutting; that is every one of the channels consists of two, as a result there are not three per side but six, for a total of twelve as would be found on the actual ship. The masts and yards are correctly proportioned to the size of the hull and to each other. The ship rests in a cradle in the bottom of the bottle. The bottle rests on two cradles held together by a decorative turned dowel. The bottle is sealed with a wooden stopper and decorative rope around the neck with a small chain extended from the rope to the middle of the stopper. The ship is mounted with two brass pegs to a plinth block on the bottom of the bottle. The ship's name is on a small oval plaque secured to the plinth. The bottle rests on two cradles held together by a decorative turned dowel. The bottle is sealed with a wooden stopper and decorative rope around the neck.
Type: 1851 Clipper Ship   Maker's Name: Babkin, Vladislav
Category: Sailing Ships   Made Where: Moscow Region, Russia
Bottle Size: Round Liter Bottle   Year Made: 2008
Bottle Type: Russian  

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