Build-a-boat

Dan
New Jersey
master craftsman

Not too long ago, I had completed writing this screenplay about one of the greatest conquistadors in the annals of history, a story that had always captivated my imagination and sheer interest for the last 13 years.  When I was doing my full research on the subject, one facet of the topic that thoroughly enthused me was the amount of information and detail that encompassed about the galleons used by the expedition, those gargantuan, three-masted sailing ships used in the 16th century by the Spanish armada.

For Dan, creating the miniature versions of these galleons and massive vessels is just equally daunting and detail oriented.  I came across Dan at the South Street Seaport where a perfectly-crafted model of the Sovereign of the Seas, the British Navy flagship during the mid 1600s was displayed at his table.  Catching sight of the precious ship model instantly roused my attention, as I had longed to see a physical representation of these colossal warships after reading so much about them.  Thankfully, Dan was the kind of captain who had all the information for his fleet of model ships.

Like most renowned navigators who undertook their monumental voyages in the centuries past, Dan discovered the wonders of model ship building, literally, by accident.  He had torn off a joint in one of his knees, which prohibited him to enjoy his favorite hobbies of racquetball and high-end furniture building for a long time.  A friend bestowed the then trial attorney a wooden ship model kit to while away the time and to keep Dan doing what he enjoyed — and that was creating things with his hands.

After finishing the wooden ship that his friend gave him, Dan realized that he loved the process of model shipbuilding, most especially with the historical research that entailed with it.  Soon enough, he ventured into hobby shops to collect more model kits, as well as acquired magazines and books on the subject, and then joined a club of model shipbuilders.  Twenty years and a flotilla of impressive naval models after, the passionate hobby turned into a beloved livelihood for this skilled artisan.

In 2004, Dan retired from the active practice of law to devote his attention and energy to model shipbuilding, which allows him to not just build wooden ship models, but more importantly, to conserve history and restore the interest for these ships and stories, especially among the young ones.  Aside from being a full-fledged builder, Dan also shares a lot of his time and knowledge with the South Street Seaport Museum, Christie’s Auction House, and his most exciting project at present is spearheading a restoration of some portions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s model ship collection.

He also gets commissions from private collectors who rely on Dan’s technical and theoretical expertise to restore their antique bone and ivory models that date to as old as 200 years, some of them handcrafted by prisoners back in the day.  Over the years, Dan also built something of an equally colossal nature that didn’t really involve any masts or rigs but is something just as dear to him — his private research library with an extensive collection of over 400 books and periodicals on anything and everything that talks about ship building and historical voyages.

Pointing to the tight-knots on the lateen rigs of the Sovereign of the Seas encased in glass on his table, Dan explains with a smile glinting on his eyes, “Shipmodeling itself is the highest and most difficult aspect of the craft of modeling because the ships themselves are so complex.  If you think about it, the large war ship was at the cutting edge of technology of every culture that it’s ever been in until the jet airplane came along.  They’re so complicated, they’re so interesting, that building miniatures of it, for me, is as interesting and enjoyable.”

I nodded at this, amused, and for a moment, an image flashed in my mind of the great Ferdinand Magellan walking towards the forecastle deck of the Trinidad and looking out into the calmness of the uncharted horizon, still waiting to be discovered, an ocean’s reach away.