Hello and thank you for stopping by! My name is Glen McGuire and this is my collection of ship in bottle art (other than the above picture of my beautiful longhorn, Dimples). The idea of putting unique items inside bottles for artistic purposes has been traced back to the early 1700’s when Monks constructed symbols of Christianity in the body of various shaped bottles. The first known ship in a bottle was made in 1784 by the Italian artist, Gioni Biondo.
I have tried to add a unique twist to this classic form of art. In most ships in bottles, the bottle rests on a stand and primarily acts as a vessel holding the ship. I try to bring the bottle to life, where it becomes an active part of the presentation. For example, in the pictures below, one bottle serves as the barrel of a cannon. In another, the bottle acts as cargo lashed to an Antarctic man-hauling sledge.
I am new to this artistic endeavor so please let me know how I’m doing. I welcome your reactions, comments, and suggestions on the blog page. Thank you again for visiting.
Glen McGuire
GALLERY
Banshee II - Confederate Blockade Runner (1864)
Bottle - Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum
In Gaelic legend, the Banshee is a female spirit whose wailing or shrieking warns of an impending death in a household.
The Banshee II was a Confederate blockade runner employed by the South during the late stages of the U.S. Civil War. She was built in Liverpool, England in 1862 and her predecessor, the Banshee, was the first steel-hulled ship to cross the Atlantic.
The Banshee II was launched in 1864 and considered state of the art, driven by two steam-powered sidewheels that could achieve a remarkable 15 knots. She was manned with English officers and Confederate crew. As it was late in the war when the Banshee II entered the fray, her wartime naval career was short but thrilling, consisting of a single, harrowing run from Havana to Galveston Bay and back.
On the morning of her daring run, the ship was near the Texas coast. As dawn broke, the Captain and crew found themselves in close quarters with the Union blockade. The Union fleet rained fire upon the Banshee II, but rough waters played havoc with their accuracy. Miraculously, the Banshee II made it to Galveston with only one crewman wounded and the ship suffering merely from shell splinters. They received a hero's welcome from the town folk that had gathered on the city's wharf to watch the fireworks. By the time she returned to Cuba, the War Between the States was over and the Banshee II's military career came to an end.
My presentation of the Banshee II suggests her ties to Texas history. The bottle rests on a small representation of the Galveston Bay wharf of the mid-1800's overlooked by a walnut shape of Texas as a backdrop.
The Ghost Ship Jenny - English Schooner (1822)
Bottle - DoubleWood Single Malt Scotch Whiskey
I chose the Jenny as a subject because it shares the same name as my niece. The Jenny was an early 1800's 3-masted schooner. In 1822, she left the Isle of Wight in southern England for a journey to Callao, Peru on the west coast of South America. Late in the year, she got trapped in ice on the return trip while navigating the Drake passage between the southern tip of Chile and Antarctica.
Seventeen years later, a whaling boat named Hope spotted a large schooner drifting among broken ice floes. The Hope's captain and several crew members rowed over to the ship and boarded her. They discovered it was the long-lost Jenny. The entire crew was found dead with their bodies well preserved by the cold. The Jenny's captain was frozen at his desk hunched over his last log entry, "May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive."
Adding to the intrigue, there's uncertainty about whether the story is true or simply urban legend. Jenny's tragic plight was written about in several periodicals during the 1840's, but none cited reliable sources. There is also speculation that Jenny's story was really about another ship named Octavius that was found near Greenland 50 years earlier. Both stories share remarkably similar circumstances despite taking place on opposite poles.
For my presentation, I tried to make the Jenny appear as the Hope would have found her - thawing out from a deep winter freeze while showing 17 years of weather beaten effects.
Wa'a Kaulua - Traditional Hawaiian Ocean Voyaging Canoe (circa 1000AD)
Bottle - Rich and Rare Canadian Whiskey
The Wa'a Kaulua is the Hawaiian name for a traditional double-hulled ocean voyaging canoe. They were built by native Hawaiians for travelling between islands of the Hawaiian archipelago. The design of the Wa'a Kaulua evolved from earlier Polynesian ocean canoes called Vakas that navigated thousands of miles throughout the south Pacific. The Wa'a Kaulua was propelled by both sail and oar and adapted to the unique Hawaiian geography. With no barrier reefs protecting the islands, the Wa'a Kaulua had to be able to maneuver through large ocean swells close to shore.
The Hawaiians held a special reverence for their ocean voyagers. Hawaiian historian and artist Herb Kawainui Kane described it as such, "The Wa'a shaped the Hawaiian people physically, intellectually, and spiritually as much as the Hawaiians shaped the logs that became their canoes." Paying homage to their tradition, I chose to make my Wa'a Kaulua with all native Hawaiian woods for its construction. The hull is made from koa, which is the same tree the original hulls were carved from. The deck is queensland maple (not actually a maple, but named for its resemblance to curly maple). The masts and rails are bamboo. And finally, the sails are dried leaves from a pineapple plant.
For my presentation, the bottle nestles up to a secret Hawaiian waterfall hidden somewhere among the islands. Cool waters from a crystal stream cascade down the rocks and into the bottle providing a calm float for the Wa'a Kaulua.
Roman Quinquereme and Archimedes' Claw - Siege of Syracuse (212 BC)
Bottle - Texas Pot Still Bourbon
The scene above depicts the Roman Siege of Syracuse during the second Punic war, circa 212 BC. The ship inside the bottle is a single-masted Roman quinquereme equipped with 180 oars, 6 scorpio artillery weapons, a corvus, and an archer’s tower. The main sail is emblazoned with a traditional red eagle and the inscription, “Senatus Populusque Romanus” (translated The Senate and People of Rome). The quinquereme rows thru choppy seas inside an empty bottle of Texas Pot Bourbon from a local distillery here in central Texas.
The bottle is snagged by a mechanism invented by the Greek mathematician, Archimedes. During the 2nd Punic war, King Hiero tasked Archimedes with devising a defense for the seawalls of Syracuse. The king’s concern was an amphibious assault from Roman quinqueremes. Archimedes’ solution was to build a mechanical contraption which became known as the Claw of Archimedes.
The claw hooked the prow of incoming Roman quinqueremes, lifted the front of the ship out of the water, then suddenly released it causing the ship to crash violently back into the sea. The Greek historian Polybius described the result as such, “Many of the vessels heeled over and fell on their sides: some completely capsized; while the greater number, by their prows coming down suddenly from a height, dipped low in the sea, shipped a great quantity of water, and became a scene of the utmost confusion."
Oseberg - Norwegian Viking Ship (AD820) and the Kraken from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Bottle: Kraken Rum
This project was inspired by an iconic piece of Texas garage sale art from the 1980's - an armadillo on its back holding up a bottle of Lone Star beer. In my creation, the Kraken rises from the depths and struggles to drink the Oseberg out of the bottle.
The Oseberg was a Norwegian Viking longship that was discovered during the excavation of a burial mound in Tonsberg, Norway. It was constructed in 820 AD and buried 14 years later as a funeral ship containing the skeletons of two women who were believed to be of royalty or high social status.
The Kraken in my display is made from thick stranded copper wire and modeling clay. It is based on Jules Verne's description from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:
"It was a squid of colossal dimensions. It gazed with enormous, staring eyes that were tinted sea green...The monster's mouth - a beak made of horn and shaped like that of a parrot - opened and closed vertically. Its tongue, also of horn substance and armed with several rows of sharp teeth, would flicker out from between these genuine shears. What a freak of nature! A bird's beak on a mullosk...Its unstable color would change with tremendous speed as the animal grew irritated, passing successively from bluish gray to reddish brown."
Captain Kidd's Adventure Galley - Privateer/Pirate Ship (1696)
Bottle: Appalachian Distillery Moonshine
This is my presentation of Captain Kidd's Adventure Galley. Captain Kidd was a pirate hunter turned hunted pirate. He began as a privateer commissioned by England to hunt pirates. He weighed anchor in the fall of 1696. Two years later, he took his greatest prize, the 400-ton Quedah Merchant, which was an Indian ship carrying a large treasure of gold, silver, silks, and other valuables. Shortly afterwards, Kidd was declared a pirate by the same English government that had given him his commission. He was lured to Boston with a false promise of clemency, but not before he supposedly stashed much of his treasure near Long Island, NY. After surrender, Kidd was extradited to London and hung for piracy and murder.
Captain Kidd's main ship was named the Adventure Galley, a 284-ton 3-masted frigate equipped with 34 cannons and designed for a crew of 150 men. In addition to a full complement of sails, it had a bank of 13 oars on each side for mobility in calm seas. After Kidd captured the Quedah Merchant, he scuttled the Adventure Galley and took over the Indian ship renaming it the Adventure Prize.
Captain Kidd is one of the few pirates that actually did hide his treasure (or at least part of it). Some of his loot was found on Gardiner Island outside of New York before his hanging. But rumors still persist today that Kidd buried additional treasure at various points along the Jersey shore. My treasure chest is fashioned out of oak slats from an old desk and heavily rusted metal strips from a weathered barn.
Zheng He Treasure Fleet - Ming Dynasty (1403 - 1433)
Bottle: Morey Limoncello
This is my illustration of the Zheng He Treasure Fleet. Zheng He (pronounced "Jung Huh") was a court eunuch in the Ming Dynasty and an accomplished mariner of the early 1400’s. In 1403, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, ordered construction of a massive fleet of ships which would later be known as the Treasure Fleet. The fleet was a large collection of 250 - 300 ships manned by an estimated 25,000 crew members. The main ships of Zheng He’s fleet were called “treasure ships” and they were massive – each one nearly the size of a football field according to some accounts. Other (much smaller) ships in the fleet included equine ships, supply ships, troop transports, guardships, patrol boats, and water tankers.
The purpose of the Treasure Fleet was to display the power and majesty of the Ming Dynasty while conducting trade as far away as Africa. From 1405 – 1433, the Treasure Fleet made seven far-reaching voyages to coastal territories and islands in the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and the East coast of Africa.
My presentation includes 3 junk ships that would have been a typical part of the fleet: a 9-masted treasure ship, a 4-masted guard ship, and a single-masted patrol boat with an oar deck. With sufficient imagination, you can see the bottle as part of a sheath resting on a decorative Chinese sword holder (purchased off Amazon). The four characters inscribed on the front of the base translate to, "A great treasure in your house."
U.S.S. Independence 1814 - First U.S. Navy Ship of the Line
Bottle: Cruzan Rum
This is my tribute to the U.S.S. Independence, the first ship of the line commissioned by the United States Navy. Launched in 1814 during the War of 1812, it was outfitted with 90 guns on three decks, but saw no action in the war as it was blockaded in port along with the U.S.S. Constitution. In 1836, the Independence was razeed down to a single gun deck because her lower gun decks were too close to the waterline when the ship was fully outfitted. The razee version of the Independence earned a reputation as a fast and powerful frigate.
In my presentation, the original version of the Independence, with its full complement of 90 guns, floats on calm seas inside a bottle that serves as a cannon barrel. The cannon's carriage is built from scratch using the wood of an English elm that grew on the south lawn of the Texas capitol. It is closely modeled after standard naval armament of the early 1800's.
SY Aurora - Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911 - 1914
Bottle: Knob Creek Bourbon Whiskey
The SY Aurora was a barque-rigged steam yacht built in Scotland in 1876. Launched originally as a whaler, it was purchased in 1910 by Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson for his Australasia Antarctic Expedition. Thereafter, the Aurora became arguably the most reliable ship during the golden age of Antarctic exploration.
Between 1911 and 1917, the Aurora made five trips to the continent, four under the command of Captain John King “Gloomy” Davis. The only Antarctic voyage not under his command almost ended in disaster after the ship got caught in pack ice while supporting the Ross Sea Party of Ernest Shackleton’s Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Davis returned to command of the Aurora for its subsequent rescue mission of the ill-fated Shackleton party. Soon afterwards, the Aurora disappeared in 1917 on a cargo run delivering coal to Chile. It is suspected that the ship was a late casualty of World War I.
My presentation of the Aurora is a tribute to Captain Davis and Sir Douglas Mawson for their extraordinary leadership and heroism during the Australasia Antarctic Expedition. It highlights the ship and the treacherous pack ice that Captain Davis navigated as well as the man-hauling sledges that Mawson and team used during their multi-hundred mile exploratory treks across sastrugi and other obstacles. The sledge was made from scratch using basswood and old leather from a worn out work glove.
Charles W. Morgan - American Whaling Ship (1841)
Bottle: Fredericksburg, Texas Peach Cider
The Charles W. Morgan is the last and most famous of the American Whaling ships that roamed the seas throughout the 1800's and into the early 1900's. The square-rigged whaler was named after Charles Wain Morgan, a 45 year-old Quaker businessman originally from Philadelphia who moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Morgan was launched in 1841 from New Bedford. Over an 80-year span, the Morgan made 37 voyages with most of them lasting at least 3 years. Her pursuit of whales for commerce led her across the Indian Ocean, the Western Pacific, the China Seas, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the South Atlantic, to Africa, South America, the ports of Valparaiso, and Hawaii.
The Morgan's whaling days came to an end in 1921. In 1941, the Morgan was saved from salvage by the Marine Historical Association. She was fully restored and is now a permanent centerpiece of the maritime village museum located in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut.
In my presentation of the Morgan, she chases a submerging whale inside a peach cider bottle from Fredericksburg, Texas. The bottle conforms to the natural twist of a piece of pinion pine from the Spanish Peaks area in southern Colorado.
Hannah Continental Schooner - First armed ship of the Continental Army (1775)
Bottle: Included in Amati kit
From the National Museum of the U.S. Navy: "The schooner, Hannah, was the first armed vessel to sail under Continental pay and control. Acquired on August 24, 1775, her first captain was Nicholson Broughton, a captain in the Army. She was utilized to aid George Washington in the siege of Boston by capturing ships making for the harbor from British ports. On September 7, Hannah captured the Royal Navy sloop Unity with naval stores and provisions. While sailing on a similar mission, she was run ashore on by the Royal Navy sloop Nautilus near Beverly. Saved from destruction and capture, Hannah was soon decommissioned."
This was my first attempt at a ship in bottle project. It was a kit from Amati that I found on eBay. Amati is an Italian model manufacturer that dates back to 1879. My presentation shows the bottle secured to a ship's deck with running rigging looped around belay pins.
