Annapolis Daytrip: Rogers Ship Model Collection

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Ok, ok, so it’s hard to get excited about model ships, right? Not when they are as intricate as the authentic and priceless British warship replicas  housed at the Rogers Ship Model Collection at the U.S. Naval Academy Museum.

What makes these replicas – known as boatyard or Admiralty models – so cool is that they were created at the same time as the original ships. So the model of a 1650 ship was also put together in 1650, using the same plans. The models were built on a 1:48 scale, so they are quite large and weigh up to 20 pounds (they won’t fit in a bottle, that’s for sure).  

I found out about the models last month, when I was cruising the Grenadines on the Island Windjammer Diamant. One of my fellow passengers, Bob,  is a member of the USNA Ship Model Society. When we were in Bequia, he admired the model ship making skills of the local craftsman, but said that they were “folk art” compared to the replicas found in the Rogers collection.

What he said was true; the model that he’s creating of Henry Hudson’s Half Moon is far more developed than the simpler carvings we saw on the islands (then again, he’s been working on his ship for six years!)  

I took a tour of the Rogers collection in its renovated gallery, just opened in April 2009. Museum educator Grant Walker was extremely knowledgable and passionate about the replicas; he’s the type of person that could inspire enthusiasm for nearly anything. He took several of us around, pointing out the intricate carvings on the bows and explaining the history behind both the ship and the model.

There are only about 400 of these dockyard models remaining in the world – and the U.S. Naval Academy owns 50 of them, Grant said. The majority, about 250, are at the British National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. The Naval Museum received its collection in 1938 from Henry Huddleston Rogers, Jr., the son of a principal of Standard Oil, who spent nearly a lifetime visiting auctions and estate sales to swoop them up.

The models were usually owned by wealthy and connected Englishmen. Diarist Samuel Pepys, who also served as Secretary of the Admiralty, had several that he kept in cases custom-built to house them. The Rogers Collection has 11 of these carved cabinets – the most of any musuem in the world, Grant said.  

I’m not a big maritime history buff, but even I recognized some of the ships. The Collection has the model of the HMS Brittannia, a 1682 warship that played a pivotal role in the Battle of Barfleur, a sea battle with the French (I knew that reading all those English historical novels would come in handy someday!) There’s also a replica of a 1701 ship called the St. George, that has an intricate figurehead of the saint slaying a dragon on its hull.

Some of my favorite boats in the collection, though, weren’t created by shipwrights. Instead, they were built by French prisoners of war, some of whom were kept in cells on overhauled ships. These floating prisons were known as pontons – and the conditions inside were far worse than a land prison. The prisoners carved their own ship replicas – not to scale, yet equally elaborate – out of steer bone and sold them to the English public so they could buy better rations.

Admission to the Rogers collection is free. It’s definitely worth a stop if you are already touring the Naval Academy grounds.  It’s also a great place to take someone in your family who is either interested in boats or history (I kept thinking that my dad would enjoy seeing them).

Read more about my Annapolis daytrip – the Maryland State House & Kunta Kinte exhibit

I’m still looking for ideas on places to go for my next Annapolis daytrip. If you have any suggestions, let me know with a comment!