A Schooner’s Story

The schooner diorama is complete.

But what’s the story behind the diorama? That’s the thing about this type of presentation: there is a story. The schooner depicted here was typical of many built along the Coast of Maine in the eighteen-eighties and nineties,

While researching the carving, you discover the story behind the photo of it departing on a maiden voyage or that wonderful Antonio Jacobson painting. In those images, you never see it going aground off the Isles of Scilly, having a cargo catch fire, or foundering in a mid-Atlantic gale. But that, and “going to the breakers,” was the ultimate fate of many of the vessels.

Most proud owners commissioned and purchased images of their ships sailing on calm seas with all sails set. It’s a dramatic view—the vast billows of sail, the hull cutting through the waves, making its way towards New York or some European port. I’ve carved several similar views. But this one is different. It’s a stark contrast to the typical scenes, a unique portrayal.

The skipper has been caught out, and the crew is scrambling. A good blow is coming on fast. The large stays’ls have been doused as we view the schooner, and the crew is wrestling with the tops’ls. A few crew members have doused the outermost jib ( the flying jib). The mate and skipper are at the wheel discussing further reductions in sail. Later, they’ll rig a sea anchor to steady the ship. Off to leeward, the sky is beginning to threaten, and the seas are running high. 

As a diorama, it’s the sort of scene a sailor might have memorialized years later. It’s something worth recalling long after the ship had been cut down to become a coal barge or gone to the breakers and after you’d swallowed the anchor and taken work ashore.

See more at:https://loucarrerascarver.com/home/a-portrait-carved-in-wood/