Our Museum: James Annal's Model Ship

During the period of COVID-19 in 2020 when all of the archives and museums around the world closed, many museums an individuals started posting on twitter with the hashtag #MyMuseum.

In particular, I was inspired by the tweets being posted by @farmersfriend who shared a photo and story of an item from his personal museum every day on twitter. He wrote, 

"As we grow older many of us create our own 
museum of things..."

I loved it! The idea of sharing photos from our personal museums inspired me to create this new genealogy series entitled  "Our Museum". 

This model ship is a treasure in #OurMuseum because it was made by the hands of our 2nd great-grandfather James Henry Allen Annal (1849-1930) who was a sailor and built model ships as a hobby.

My brother has been the caretaker of this most valuable family heirloom passed down to him through the generations.
When I first saw this model ship, I was amazed at the level of detail, particularly in the ropes and masts of the ship. No one knew for sure, but we believed that this was the ship that our 2nd great-grandfather James Annal came on from Orkney, Scotland where he was born.

The story of his voyage can be read here: https://moynahangenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/02/william-sutherlands1870-passenger-list.html

In 2018 when I found the name of the ship that James had sailed on, the S.S. Columbia built in 1866 in Glasgow, Scotland, I desperately searched the archives for an image of the ship (there were no cameras in those days) and I found a Norwegian advertisement from the 1870s (Source: Norway Heritage). This is what the ship looked like with the sails down:

This Currier and Ives print is available for sale at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/140283.html

She was a "Clipper stem, one funnel, three masts (ship-rigged for sail), iron construction, single screw and a speed of 10 knots. There was accommodation for 80-cabin and 540-3rd class passengers.(Source: http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=colun)

The more that I compared the SS Columbia to our great-grandfather's model, the more I was convinced that this was not the ship he created.

But James also sailed in the Arctic Ocean for three years as a young boy on whaling expeditions and when he arrived on the Bruce Peninsula (and later in Wallaceburg, Ontario), he sailed for many years on many ships and was considered a "fearless sailor" on the Great Lakes.

I found the fact that the smaller "ship" in the water was included. On whaling ships, this would be the boat used to pursue the whale. Could this ship be a whaling ship that he sailed on as a boy around the Orkney islands of Scotland?

The model ship is 17 inches wide and is in incredible shape despite its age. It needs only to be cleaned, the intricate details having gathered some inevitable dust over 100 years.

I am grateful to my brother (his reflectionion the photo below) for having kept this treasure safe over all these years.

And grateful to my 2nd great-grandfather James Henry Allen Annal (1849-1930) for creating this incredible heirloom and to all of the ancestors who kept it safe and passed it down our way.

Now tell me, what's in YOUR museum of things that you kept over all the years, what does it say about your family history and what does it mean to you?

2nd great-grandfather James Henry Allan Annal

Obituary July 3, 1930,
Wallaceburg, Ontario
Wallaceburg News