1:24 Scale Class A Scratch Built Model
This model represents a whaleboat of the later part of the 19th century.
By about the 1870’s, the whaleboat had just about reached the end of a centuries’ long evolution. Change by degree, rather than radical redesign. This model was built from the plans at Mystic Seaport of the whaleboat Charles Beetle built for the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Virginia. All of the whalecraft in the boat were built from notes and measurements taken directly from the actual articles themselves on display at the Nantucket Whaling Museum, Nantucket, Massachusetts.
By the early 20s, the demand for whaleboats had all but disappeared. But the Beetle brothers (John and Charles) were not ones to sit idle for very long. They had built a small catboat for their kids to sail round the waters by the boatyard. The sweet little cat caught the eye of few of the neighbors, and the Beetles moved from building whaleboats to catboats. The Beetle boat shop operated in New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts until sometime in the 1930’s when it was sold the Concordia Yacht Company. Concordia operated the Beetle Catboat shop in South Darthmouth, Mass. The Beetle Catboat shop in still in operation, today in Wareham, Mass.
This model is available in three scales: 1:48 (1/4″=1′), 1:32 (3/8″-1′) and 1:24 (1/2″-1′)
Prices and display options are available upon request
