Ships, Folk Art, and Whimsey in Bottles

This is a model of the famous "Clermont" built by Robert Fulton. The Clermont was the first commercially successful steamship of the paddle steamer design, North River Steamboat (later known as the Clermont), operated on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany. This model faithfully represents the original features of the original with its planked hull, metal railings, and planked wooden deck. The ship has a large low deck cabin with 5 large windows on each side, and two on the end with a door between them. A coiled rope is laying on the flat roof. A smaller but similar cabin is on the bow but it is about half the size of the main cabin. Midship is a lower deck with stacked logs on each side ready to be put in the burner or tender box. A large black smoke stack rising from the burner's housing and there is also a large boiler attached. The tender box and the boiler have brick walls around them. Three copper metal rings go around the boiler and a small duct extend from the top. The main smoke stack has 4 metal copper colored rings around it and white billowing white smoke comes from the top. The smoke stack is stabilized with white rope rigging on each side. A long curved copper pipe comes from the boiler and eventually goes below deck in front of the engine housing In the middle of the ship are large pumps that are built like pistons. Metal pipes connected to the paddlewheels on each side of the hull span across the deck. The paddlewheels are made from wood and the hub is red and the paddle painted white. A lifeboat hand from davits from one side of the ship near the stern. The ship has two masts with standing riggings supporting each mast. A large aged sail with stitch and reef lines drawn on each sail flies from each mast, and a large triangle sail extends from the front mast and extends to the end of the ships' bow. An American flag flies from the sail on the stern mast. The deck has coiled rope and there is a ships' anchor on the bow of the ship. The following is stenciled along the top length of the bottle "20PS the North River Steamboat of Clermont 1807 M1:200" The last part referring to the models' scale of 1:200. The bottle is sealed with a cork with a red plastic cap. It rests on a wooden stand.