Untitled

Artist/Maker Prisoner of war in Dartmoor prison

Date1812

Mediumbone, horn, wood, string

Dimensions45 × 43 in. (114.3 × 109.2 cm)

Object number1908.4

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionFull rigged model of a 74 gun British frigate, complete with yards, spars, rigging, and guns sticking out of portholes. Small boats hanging from yard arms. Figurehead on prow. Materials used include soup bones and horn for planking, fastened with brass pins to a wooden hull block, brass and bone for cannon, linen, silk, and hair for the rigging. Made in Dartmoor prison by Cape Cod sailors; Great Britain; War of 1812.Label TextOn Saturday, September 25, 1813, a large ship arrived in New Bedford, flying the flag of Russia. She was returning over 400 men from New Bedford and Cape Cod imprisoned at Dartmour by the British during the War of 1812. This model, made of beef soup bones by one of these prisoners, was presented upon arrival to Colonel Obed B. Nye of Sandwich, grandfather of the donor. The ship carries a British flag, the condition imposed in order for the model to leave English soil. ProvenancePresented by the sailors to Colonel Obed Nye of Sandwich, MA, grandfather of Willard Nye, Jr.

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