I recently looked at the earliest copies in my collection of SMA newsletters, these going back to the early 1970’s. One thing that stands out is that many of Captain Armitage McCann’s articles on ship models were reproduced in our newsletter. These articles had originally appeared in Popular Science magazine between 1926 and 1938, but were still considered to be of practical value 40 years later. A complete list of the 33 articles is appended to this article.

Captain McCann was the driving force that propelled a renaissance of ship model building in America in the 1920’s and 1930’s and even later, as we shall see. Many of us who have been around the club for ten years or more will remember Henry Bridenbecker, who was one of Captain McCann’s earliest followers. It could be fairly said that Henry was a mentor for more than a few modelers of my generation. Just ask Bob Graham about Henry.

I visited Henry in his home a few times. He had several ship models on display including a magnificent model of the Brig Irene of 1806. If you asked him about his other ship models, he would proceed to open cabinets, drawers, and every other space you can imagine and there would be a ship model. His shop was in his garage in the back yard, and even though he was the consummate ship modeler, he only had hand tools and a Dremel tool and some type of saw. Henry was the only person I have known who worked on ship models as if he were working at a job. He would go out to the shop in the morning, return into the house for lunch, and then go back to work in the garage for the afternoon of model making. He always worked at least 35 hours a week

To appreciate Captain McCann’s contributions, it is useful to recall some of Henry’s comments about the Captain in his book The Scratch Modelers Log. Keep in mind that Henry started to build models in the early 1920’s. Popular Science magazine was Henry’s prime source of ship modeling information in the early years. In 1926 Henry began to build ship models based on Captain McCann’s articles, which were being published in the magazine. His first McCann model was a Spanish Galleon based on drawings and instructions that were in the May and June, 1926 issues.

Some quotations from Henry’s own book will give you an idea of Captain McCann’s importance to a young model builder in the 1920’s and 1930’s. “Captain McCann has been often called the father of modern model ship building.. He provided many fine articles on ship modeling years ago. I will never forget his advice . . . “

In 1937, Henry began work on his first true plank-on-frame model, the merchant brig Malek Adhel. This was, of course, one of Captain McCann’s models that appeared in Popular Science that year. Henry chose this model as the very first model to be shown in his book. Here are some of Henry’s comments:

“ Once again, Captain McCann’s Popular Science articles provided me the plans and how-to’s. When I started making ship frames and cant frames, and fastened them to the keel and deadwood, fashioning bilge stringers and beam shelves, and building the many structural members of the hull, I became completely involved in this fascinating new dimension of the craft. The model was held together with white glue and small 3/8 inch brass pins whose heads were later filed off.”
 

Biographical Sketch of Captain McCann

Captain McCann was born in 1875, the son of an Irish clergyman. He went to sea at the tender age of 14 and was apprenticed to the Elder line of wood clippers. When he was 16 he built his first ship model, and by the time he was 19, he had worked his way up to master of the iron bark Umvott, which was plying the Indian Ocean. Wow!!

He served in the Imperial Light Horse during the Boer War in South Africa, and after he was wounded, went to Johannesburg, where he acquired a modest fortune. After an adventurous life that took him to places all around the world, he settled in London where he directed the International Art Association for several years. When World War I began, he went back to sea on transport ships. He was an “old salt” who held Captain’s licenses on both the British and American Mercantile Marines. During the war he had three ships sunk under him.

After the war, he occasionally went to sea as the captain of an American ship, but he seems to have lost his enthusiasm for life at sea, or perhaps he was just getting older. He landed in Brooklyn, N. Y. where he was a consultant to the movie industry for a time, and he began to build ship models.

The first model he made attracted the attention of the Marine Artist Gordon Grant, and it was sold to Col. H. H. Rogers, donor of the superb Rogers Collection at the US Naval Academy. Though Capt. McCann is not always remembered as the greatest model builder of his time, it is fair to assume that Col. Rogers would not have bought junk. (There are varying opinions on the quality of the models he built, and for reasons that will be discussed later we do not have actual examples to look at.)

Capt. McCann wrote and published the series of articles on ship model building for Popular Science between 1926 and 1938 as noted before. When he began to receive letters in response to his articles, he conceived the idea of a national organization of ship model builders that would have its own journal. Along with the artist Gordon Grant, the naval architect Charles G. Davis, and other men of distinction he organized The Ship Model Makers’ Club in January1929. The club was intended to loosely connect the various ship modelers around the country. The journal of the club was The Ship Modeler, Edited by Captain McCann until 1933. In all The Ship Modeler contained over 1200 pages. Annual dues, including a subscription to the magazine were $2.75 per year, By 1930, there were over 1000 members in the club. The club encouraged members who lived near each other to band together into chapters of the club, and there was considerable success in doing that. Between 1929 and 1933, a total of 15 groups from Washington DC to San Diego became chapters of the club. In many ways, The Ship Model Makers’ Club could be viewed as a precursor of the Nautical Research Guild.

In the referenced article by William Crothers, who personally knew Captain McCann, he gives us an interesting description of the Captain as a man. “During his lifetime, Capt. McCann was a man of sober, almost gaunt, expression. Rarely given to a smile, he was certainly not a man of ....(to be continued next  issue...!)