Many members will be aware of the wonderful arts and crafts vintage copper sailboat mounted on a wooden base, that normally adorns the festive board table at Mariners Lodge. The boat is suspected to date from about the 1950/60’s and was made locally and is engraved with the number 168 on one of the sails to distinguish it belongings to Mariners.
Recently another small example turned up for sale in Guernsey and is considered to have been made by the same hand and depicts a smaller craft, but again mounted on a wooden base and is approximately half the size of the original sailboat. The sailboat is also used at Mariners Chapter and one of its members Companion Armitage thought it would be a good opportunity not to be missed to get the second example and have it engraved with the number 168 but also add the words Chapter.
This we feel helps to demonstrate that inexplicable link between Craft Masonry and Royal Arch and in essence both sailboats will be used at both the Lodge and the Chapter festive boards bearing the same number and reenforcing that link and hopefully this will become a talking point for members looking to complete their journey and take that next logical step in their journey in Freemasonry.
The new sailboat is on display in the main cabinet in the dinning hall and we are grateful to Companion Armitage for his generous gift and to Martyn Guille for the wonderful engraving and polishing of the same. The museum would be interested to know if anyone can shed light on who the craftsman of both artisan pieces was so we can improve the information we have on both items.
