There are many travelers who go from one place to the other place by jet. Most of these are dram back to the days where people traveled in sailing ships. Mauritius which is located about five hundred and thirty miles east of the mainland of Madagascar which is in the Indian Ocean. The entire fascination that this place conjures up is created by the popular and rare craft of building model ships.
Mauritius is one of the places that institute a large scale production of, no not really ships that actually do sail in the sea, but of model ships.
These model ships are not just built in random. They are in fact faithful representations of the sail ships through history. These ships were only found formerly in museums and were quite inaccessible as they were expensive antique. Although now, things have changed. Now you can actually buy a good copy of most of the great ships in history.
The shop selling these models know that their produce would be bought by traveler , and that is why they have made sufficient protective packaging so that the models aren’t harmed in any way while you are taking them to and fro. The models can also be insured and sent to anywhere in the Europe and the united states for about forty dollars a square foot.
Some of the ships that are sold here in Mauritius are Santa Maria, Mayflower, the bounty and Admiral Nelsons Victory. Also there are many other ships that have long become a part of the history of Mauritius. The Saint Gerand was actually loaded off the northwest coast of this island in the year seventeen forty four. This French ship was recovered in the year nineteen hundred and sixty six. The Mahebourg currently rests as an antique in the naval museum of Mauritius.
Have you ever heard of the famous love story “Paul et virgine”, this was written by the famous Jacques Henry Bernardin de St Pierre. This love story ends tragically on the saint Gerand; when Virginia (the woman in the story), drowns in the sea while on her return from France to meet her lover Paul.
In both the seventeenth and eighteenth century , many pirates who , mostly were French corsairs were quite regularly terrorize and plunder and even loot the ships that were packed with spices that would return to Europe from the Orient.
When Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated in the year eighteen hundred and fifteen, this brought new peace to Europe and also to the faraway Isle de France. The British then Possessed and rebaptized Mauritius after it was originally owned by the Dutch Prince, Maurice of Nassau.
Check here in a while to know more about the models ships of Mauritius.
In the first part of this article we looked at the model ships of Mauritius, now we could go a little more into what is happening.
There are workshops which are located at Curepipe which is in the interior of the island. This industry is made of about three thousand boat makers. These people are usually Indian immigrants. These people came here in the nineteenth century.
The model here has a boat business which started in the year nineteen hundred and sixty nine. This basically started when Raphael Touze who was the French ambassador to this country arrived into the country. He later took notice of a model ship which was made by a friend of his chauffer. Jose Ramar who happened to be a hobbyist was quite good at making these model ships, and so Raphael Touze asked the Musee de La Marine in Paris, for the plans of many great ships in history. This at that time was the leading maritime museum in Paris. . Jose Ramar later took the help of some of friends whom he recruited and then had his hobby becoming his profession.
Till today, French remains to be the dominant language here on the island. The boats here are called Marquette’s de bateau. The workshop at where the model ships were made was named La Compagnie Maquettes Jose Ramar or even Comajora. This place now has about one hundred and seventy three wood cutters, fitters, polishers and carvers. It is said that on special request you can have you model built by just one person, which usually turns out way better than their regular method.
Apparently the most difficult part o the whole process is the fitting of the hull. The tiny strips of wood have to fit perfectly together otherwise the mast and all the riggings would just fall off and the entire construction would just fall to scrap.
This place has a sea blue exterior which lies on the Brasserie road which actually is on the side of Curepipe. To make one model ship, it takes about five hundred hours. On a normal average bases, about five ships that are from one feet to four feet are produced each day.
One of the specialties while building these model were the crowning figures, like to the soleil royal which was built for king Louis the fourteenths Navy. The white thread which is used here is dipped in golden paint. And the sails are made of cotton that has been soaked in tea.
Check back here to find out more about these amazing model ships.
Jose Ramar left the Comajora partners in the year nineteen seventy three. After this he also opened another workshop which was called the Les plus belles Maquettes. This place has the most amazing models. The smell here is quite heavenly and the shops smell of camphor wood.
There are shops that also import teak from Malaysia. Mala Maroo has been working for Mr. Ramar for about eight years. Teak has been chosen because it doesn’t even wear out in cold climates. The artisans of the Maquettes make the boats entirely by their own hands. There are shops that make model ships that use machines to accelerate the entire process of boat production.
There are many models of French ships and the most popular one if Cutty Sark. This ship is built of teak and elm. This ship is of Dumbarton Scotland and was made in the year eighteen seventy. This is probably one of the best whiskey brands in the world that has the same name of this ship. The original Cutty Sark ship is at the Greenwich Naval Museum in England. The model which is made on a smaller scale is about twenty eight inches long, seventeen inches high and about eight inches wide. All this can be bought at the Les plus Belles Maquettes. This ship costs about two hundred and twenty dollars and there is an extra thirty nine dollars for packing and insurance.
The soliel royal is a more bulky and ornate model of a warship. There is a seventy four canon superbe which was originally designed by the famous ship designing engineer Jacques Noel Sane. This ship and being designed, the plans were approved by King Louis the sixteenth in the year seventeen eighty two.
The famous ship Horatio nelson’s victory had a crew of about eight hundred and fifty and about one hundred and four guns. This ship has been at the Portsmouth dry dock in England since eighteen hundred and twenty five. There is a large model which measures about forty three by twenty eight and thirteen inches. The superbe, the victory and most other popular models come in smaller sizes like twenty one and ten inches.
The ships like mayflower or the pour quoi Pas that belonged to the Antarctic explorer Jean Baptiste Charcot, went down along with his ship with it sunk in Iceland in the year nineteen hundred and thirty five. This ship now exists only in models which are based on the designs of the naval museum.
A lot of these have workshops that stock a lot of popular models. If there is a design which is requested on a special basis or if it is totally unavailable, then it would table about two months to make it on a priority basis and then transport I to anyplace.
Most workshops give you a glass case along with the model that they sell. A medium case will cost you about sixty dollars. If you want to get the dust off the ship, there is no way to wipe it; the best thing that you could use is a hair dryer.
