# Collier brig 1809 - 1875



## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

A very simple little ship, scratchbuilt to a scale of 25 feet to 1 inch. Just under 4 inches long on the waterline. It took 25 hours to build, spread over 13 days. Masts, spars and rigging 100% metal. She was a Geordie collier that spent 66 years humping coal from the northeast coaling ports of Great Britain, down to London, but did the occasional trip to Baltic ports.  Not a very popular type of model. The ports did not conceal guns, they were just painted on, initially to make enemy ships think they were Royal Navy brigs-of-war. After the war ended, most collier brigs kept their painted ports just as decoration, as did many of the big iron and steel windjammers, right up to the end of the days of sail in the early years of the 20th century. These are, for some strange reason, often referred to as "working ships," but as we all know, ALL merchant ships were "working ships!"

Bob


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## NoR (Mar 24, 2008)

That's a nice model.


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## Erimus (Feb 20, 2012)

Lovely work,well done.

geoff


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## Gerold (Dec 13, 2020)

Shipbuilder said:


> A very simple little ship, scratchbuilt to a scale of 25 feet to 1 inch. Just under 4 inches long on the waterline. It took 25 hours to build, spread over 13 days. Masts, spars and rigging 100% metal. She was a Geordie collier that spent 66 years humping coal from the northeast coaling ports of Great Britain, down to London, but did the occasional trip to Baltic ports. Not a very popular type of model. The ports did not conceal guns, they were just painted on, initially to make enemy ships think they were Royal Navy brigs-of-war. After the war ended, most collier brigs kept their painted ports just as decoration, as did many of the big iron and steel windjammers, right up to the end of the days of sail in the early years of the 20th century. These are, for some strange reason, often referred to as "working ships," but as we all know, ALL merchant ships were "working ships!"
> 
> Bob


Hello Bob,

beautiful model with a relation to my family. 1875 the SICILY was sold to Germany, nee home was located to Brake, a town at River Weser in the north.The ship was renamed to KOENIG. From 1876 to 1878 the Captain was Taak Hinrich Bueschen, cousin of my Grand-grandfather. A little bit of the ships history is do***entated in my family history. The most dramatic was the lost of the Captains 16 years old son in 1877 in Christianssand, Norway, he died in the sea. 1880 the ship, owner and captain now was Johann Otten, became wreck and was condemned.
Kind regards from Germany!
Gerold W. Bueschen 
genealogie att Bueschen-online dot de


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## Gerold (Dec 13, 2020)

Gerold said:


> Hello Bob,
> 
> beautiful model with a relation to my family. 1875 the SICILY was sold to Germany, nee home was located to Brake, a town at River Weser in the north.The ship was renamed to KOENIG. From 1876 to 1878 the Captain was Taak Hinrich Bueschen, cousin of my Grand-grandfather. A little bit of the ships history is do***entated in my family history. The most dramatic was the lost of the Captains 16 years old son in 1877 in Christianssand, Norway, he died in the sea. 1880 the ship, owner and captain now was Johann Otten, became wreck and was condemned.
> Kind regards from Germany!
> ...


Right name EDUARD KOENIG


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## Shipbuilder (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks for additional information - Bob


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