Every year more and more people travel to far away places to see new sights, taste different foods, and learn more about the world around them. Visitors make the trek to St. Augustine, Florida year-round and while there, visit the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum. When they make their way to the Gallery in the upstairs of the Keepers’ House, our team of ship-modelers enjoys the opportunity to talk with them. For the help we have received from those visitors, it’s time to express our thanks! And just how have the visitors been able to help the ship model team?
The most apparent way these incredible people help us is to simply stop by, talk and share their visit with us! We trade stories: theirs about their travels and ours about the ship we are working on and the Lighthouse. The children that come in are as terrific as are the adults! They are the ones who usually ask the most surprising questions … the ones we adults never even think of asking.
We also get a lot of input and encouragement from everyone about our current project, the restoration and completion of the model of HMS Victory. That input is as important as the research we have done.
Many of our visitors are from England, the home of the Victory. They know their ship! Others, though not from England, have actually had the opportunity to visit the Victory at her home in Portsmouth, England. Several of the visitors who have been aboard this majestic piece of history, have emailed some of their own personal photographs of the ship to us! Imagine working on such a project, geared toward authenticity, and have the help of the folks who come to look! Those pictures have been an invaluable source of information. We have used them time and time again to create accuracy with the various parts of the model.
The comments, input, suggestions, encouragement and photos are sincerely appreciated. Each of you have helped us in our quest to make this one of the best possible models. Come back and visit us often and THANK YOU!
(And don’t go away … when we finish the Victory, we will want you to help us with other models as time goes on!!)