by Gary Cook –
Deltaville is known for its rich history of wooden boatbuilding centered around the commercial work boats of the Chesapeake Bay. While most Middlesex County residents and frequent visitors to the area are well aware of the Deltaville Maritime Museum’s (DMM) commitment to telling the story of this region’s maritime history, many may not know that DMM also sponsors a local model boatbuilding group, the Deltaville Ship Modelers Guild.
The group was started two years ago by John Earl after he decided that DMM would be the logical home for a ship modelers’ group in the area. He approached Richard Rodgers, then president of the DMM, with the idea, and received the go-ahead for it. The first meeting of the guild took place on Oct. 14, 2021 with Earl as its leader. Ten prospective members attended.
Earl grew up in Northern Virginia, but several of Earl’s relatives lived outside of Kilmarnock on Dymer Creek in nearby Lancaster County. It was during visits there as a child that his fascination with the wooden boats of the Chesapeake Bay began.
As an adult, Earl’s work took him to California, where he joined the Hyde Street Pier Model Shipwright’s Guild. It was with this group that he began to develop his model building skills. “Those were preinternet days and there was a general lack of information about model shipbuilding available,” he reported. With the group, he learned the value of being with other more experienced modelers of whom he could ask questions and get advice. It was his very positive experience with the Hyde Street Pier group that motivated him to start a modelers’ guild in Deltaville.
Earl currently has six models and three dioramas on display in the DMM. He built the impressive model of the F.D. Crockett the museum raffled off last year for its fundraiser.
At the most recent meeting of the Deltaville Ship Modelers Guild, Earl teamed with another, very accomplished and experienced wooden model ship builder, Roland Griffin Jr. of Richmond, to compare and contrast their different shipbuilding styles and techniques. While Earl had been in the other guild and learned from its members, Griffin has never belonged to any modeling group and describes himself as “self-taught.”
Griffin builds from multiple sources including purchased plans, book drawings, or photographs of boats, and by the “rack of the eye” as he calls it, whereas Earl usually builds to exacting scale from detailed plans. While both build everything from scratch, Griffin uses mostly hand woodworking and metalworking tools to build his models. In contrast, Earl has a well-equipped model making workshop full of most of the hand and power tools one would ever want or need to construct his ship models.
Griffin was born in Baltimore, Md., but his family moved to Whitehaven, Md., on the Wicomico River next door to a shipyard when he was a child. From their house on the river, he would watch the workboats of the Chesapeake Bay come and go. It was there his love of these wooden boats was kindled.
Griffin has been building model ships for 45 years. He has built more than 100 model boats and has 23 models on display in the DMM. “The reason I have been building model ships for so long is that I have a passion for preserving these wooden boats and they are fast disappearing,” he said.
The Deltaville Ship Modelers Guild meets on the second Thursday of each month at 10 a.m. in the events pavilion on the grounds of the Deltaville Maritime Museum at 287 Jackson Creek Road in Deltaville. Meetings typically last one and a half to two hours. The first hour is usually devoted to a presentation or demonstration by one of its members or an invited guest concerning modeling skills or techniques. Following that is a show-and-tell by the members of their current projects.
The group welcomes new members of any skill level from novice to expert. The only requirement is that members of the guild be, or become, a member of the DMM. If you are interested in model boatbuilding, or think you might be, and would like to attend a meeting, contact the DMM staff at 776-7200.
