Ships for a decade

Today, I was greeted by Nick at Work with the fact that we hadn’t seen each other for about five weeks: Either he’s been away or I’ve been nursing some injury or other. He told me that he’d spent most of yesterday going over my work in preparation for this morning and it had taken him about six hours.

Poor Nick…he also told me that I’ll probably be researching ships for the next ten years. I’m not sure how I feel about that but I AM sure I’ll know a lot more about them by then.

For instance, today I found out that a whole model of a ship does not refer to the masts and rigging. Rather, it refers to the body of the ship. If it’s a model that has, effectively been cut in half stem to stern, then it’s a half model.

I found this out because I queried the title of a model that was unrigged and unmasted but which was still called a whole model. I soon sat corrected.

I should add that there is a third type of model and that’s a section. For example, a model of a ‘slice’ taken through the body of the ship would be a section. In archaeology we create section drawings which are, basically, an elevation but of half a deposit which is then removed. This is a section through the deposit.

Anyway, that was all well and good and meant I didn’t really get to start anything new as I was going through Nick’s amendments to my work over the last month, for most of the day. Still extremely interesting.

For instance, I found out about a chap from the Isle of Wight called Wilf (short for Wilfred) McLachlan who built a boat building business up from nothing (a loan of £40) to become very wealthy indeed. He still pops down to the marina, just to survey the boats and have a chat with the old salts and fishermen.

But forget Wilf, lunch was the real treat, today. I met up with Sue and Bob and we sat and drooled over the Science Museum over food and drinks.

Bob was very impressed with the place (this follows on from his enthusiasm for the British Museum) and had booked himself onto the Flight tour at 1pm. Sue was looking forward to visiting the V&A.

They told me about the changes of plans coming up in the foreseeable, including the fact that Sue and Graeme are going to pop in and visit us at home on their way back from Scotland. I guess they just don’t believe that humans could live in a shoe box and want to see it for themselves.

I spent a somewhat lonely evening, as Mirinda stayed in town (not feeling well) but this didn’t last long. Following last nights four hours, I was asleep by 9pm, my brain switching off as soon as my head hit the pillow.