Billhead WILCOX BROTHERS, Ships' Chandlers and Grocers. Corner of Madison and Warner Sts., Opposite Steam Elevators. Dealers in all kinds of Hemp and Manilla Cordage, Tar, Pitch, Oakum, Hooks and Thimbles. Common and Patent Blocks, Oars, Handspikes and Capstan Bars. Also in Flour, Pork, Smoked Meats and complete stocks of Ship and Boat Stores and Provisions. Toledo, Ohio, July 24, 1864. Everything the sailing master needed. At first look, you would think this was a seafarers one-stop-shopping mecca. Instead, it's a chandlers shop located on Lake Erie.
Cabinet Card print of Full Plate Tintype Shipwrights, Ship Hull. Location - New England c1880? The small right angle black areas at the bottom two corners of this print indicate that this was originally a full plate TinType. Someone saw fit to make an Albumen print at Cabinet Card size. It's rare enough to see a full plate tintype but even more unusual to see one taken in the great outdoors. You needed a calm day and a lot of calm, motionless people. But that's my guess. All I know is that this image was found in New England. I'm not an expert on the early shipbuilding industry so I can't describe just what type of ship they are building. If you look closely you can make out carpenters squares, augers, axes, saws and a variety of massive hunks of shaped timbers waiting for something to happen. If you can add to the description, please let me know and I'll add your comments.
Update: The consensus is that this is a barge in the making, rather than an elegant sea-going ship. Still and all, the builders certainly took pride in their workmanship.
Photograph: Cabinet Card Three Shipwrights. At least that is my current guess. The photograph came from the New Jersey coast. These three fine looking gentlemen are wearing matching coveralls, spiffy hats and holding the tools of their trade. The gent on the left is holding a mallet and what appears to be a deck chisel. The fellow on the right is holding what looks like a riveting hammer. The swell in the middle is holding a patented Brace-Drill, complete with a heavy auger bit, possibly a scotch pattern bit for boring trenails? Somehow how is better versed than I am in patented braces may be able to identify this make and model.
Drill-Brace ID'd: From Jim Erdman - "It's a Bennett & Bloedel patent brace with a crank driven geared mechanism for drilling in tight corners.They were made in a couple of different versions with different chucks and different crank arms..." The patent can be found over at Google Patents. George Langford has a good review of this Dril-Brace at George's Basement.
