Steady as she goes
Rolph “Towney” Townshend holds out his hands before me. “See, they are as steady as can be,” says the Annapolis sailor. Sitting on a loveseat in his living room, I observe that he is correct. At age 95 Towney’s hands don’t shake at all, which explains how the lifelong sailor can still create impressive half hulls and stunning model boats with intricate details.
I visited Towney in December to see his current project and ask how he got started creating half hulls and models. He was working on a model of the Edna E. Lockwood, a sailing log-bottom bugeye built in 1889 by John B. Harrison of Tilghman Island. The model, which Towney says will be his last, will be a gift for his daughter. He shows me at least a dozen photos of other models and half hulls that he has made and given to friends or are on display at yacht clubs or museums.
I was first introduced to Towney’s body of work last summer, when he and his lovely wife Joan held an open house for family and friends. I attended with my sailing friend, Ann, who is Joan’s daughter. Stunning half hulls and model ships crowded the surface of their dining room table. An old sailing friend of Towney’s pulled me aside and shared a bit about our host’s life-long love of sailing (he considers himself an Alberger for life!), his artwork, and that the Annapolis Maritime Museum had recorded an interview with him years ago (He’s also written a book, “Growing up in Chestertown 1929-1945”). Here are Towney’s answers to a few questions that I posed that day.
When did you make your first model and why?
I started making models when I was 13 years old, while growing up in Chestertown, MD. It was during the war, and after school the high school the classroom used for ‘shop class,’ was open for building models of American, Allied, German, and Japanese war planes. We were given templates, and when we were finished, our models were given to the corps of airplane spotters to help in the identification of the planes that they sighted. At home, for fun, I would make paper airplanes from model kits, put a firecracker in them, toss them off our porch, and watch them explode.
I began to make models of the boats that I would see in my neighborhood. Many of my friends had Hampton One Designs, although my first boat was a skipjack.
What materials do you use and where do you source your wood?
When I was a boy, there was a furniture store in town, and furniture was shipped to it in crates. After the crates were ripped open, the lumber from the crates was put out for the trash. My friends and I would bring some home and build a boat. Today, for my models, I use basswood. Its straight grain and hard wood are ideal for the models, and there’s a nice selection at a specialty lumber store near the Bay Bridge. The paint isn’t anything special. I start with a can of white spray paint and cover the boat, let it harden for a few days, and add the color by hand with small paint brushes. To make the sails, I use cloth that comes from a shop in Annapolis near the Naval Academy.
I don’t use kits for most of the boats, although I have for some. My model of the Pride of Baltimore II was made from a kit. I’ve always been interested in that vessel. When the original Pride was built in the 1970s, I went to the boatyard in Baltimore and took lots of photos during its construction. I did the same when Pride II was built, so I had those photos for reference.
How many models have you made, and how long does each one take?
I’ve made so many models; I’ve lost track of the number. Usually, each one takes about three months if I work on it every day.
Describe some of your models or half hulls.
There have been many. Among them: my Alberg, a Hereshoff Fishers Island, an E-Scow, a Draketail workboat, and the log canoe Magic. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has displayed one of my Hampton One Designs and a skipjack. An Alberg 30 half hull that I made for an Annapolis Yacht Club past commodore was displayed in the club’s model room but was lost in the 2015 clubhouse fire, so I made him a new one to replace it. I’ve also made half hulls to present as the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake’s Ralph H. Wiley Award, which goes back to 1976.
I once revived a five-foot model of a boat that a friend commissioned to be built in France and sailed to the US. The model sat in her garage for 40 years, until it was broken, dirty, and paint splattered. I completely redid it, and now it is displayed in her home. I’ve made models for each of my children, my friends, and the friends and children of my friends.
Mostly I’ve built the boats that I see and like and ones that are important to me and my friends and family.
~As told to Beth Crabtree
Read more about Towney here:
An Alberg Sailor's 50-Year Love Affair
Hear Towney here:
