Salt Lake Telegram | 1924-10-19 | Page 5 | Brings Ghosts of Dead Ships to Skippers Who Lost Them

Brings Ghosts of Dead Ships io To r Skippers PI Who Lost f Them I hem a vr s Y ets T I. I C in Captain Alfred McNeil an anBy and one of By GENE COHN CORN N NEA EA Service Writer SAILORS S SNUG UG HARBOR N N. Y T. Oct 18 18 lIe He is known as the I maker of ot lost ships Here where 8 old men of oC the sea have come to anchor awaiting the last ebb tide Captain Alfred McNeil is cheating cheating- Davy JOI Jones es of ot ancient victories by seeking to tl immortalize im- im Immortalize Immortalize Im Im- brave craft that went to romantic death By so so doing he has built up a one one- one one-I. man Industry that brings him hint himor or orders orders orders or- or ders from the four corners ot of the thee globe For most sailor folk have e I more than a a. little of sentiment and I there Is some Mme one ship that was I their pride and love Ships like men have a a. short I span of life before the seas s' s swallow low them or the socks rocks break them hem Such ships are are- like are like lost children to too their their- masters Thus philosophizes th the old Scotch skipper whose aged but adept fingers fingers fin fin- gers gelS piece together together- together replicas r of brigantines brig brig- an antines tines all schooners schooners J all the ship types known to the to-the the seven seas For For these he gets 1 0 and up I It started when I made models of ot ships on which I once had sailed sale but which had been lost explains I Captain McNeil who for more than forty five years followed th the sea He took out ships for tor nearly e eVery ery j firm on the Pacific coast many years r back k running to Hawaii and nd r the South o seas e I ISome I ISome Some of the best boats I ever ver Ier sailed went ashore or on the reo reefs reefs- she s j i he says sadly I ISo So in the Idle hours at the old I McNeil sailors sailors' home Captain j dreamed of the ships of ot his youth I and soon with wood and string he 1 I Iwas was fashioning them again Not a detail had escaped his memory The finished products were hailed hUed I as masterpieces by and I his reputation spread across the country Then he began to pa pattern te n the lost ships of ot other until un til now his unique industry is producing producing pro producing pro pro- as fast as aged hands can carry on the work his Jis ghost models of lost ships He lIe will trust the work to no other I for tor for he knows his ships and nd tl tl-e tl e finished model must be such that it shall rise as a wraith to some skipper skipper skipper skip skip- per somewhere I And maybe the fortunes lost when wJ his ships went down do may some day I bo be partially regained thanks lo to their miniature ghosts