In a totally random bit of serendipity, retired Savannah-Chatham police detective Billy Ray was putting the final touches on his model of a Spanish galleon just as the El Galeón Andalucía — the only galleon-class tall ship sailing today — docked at Rousakis Plaza last week.
Attention to detail — and a lot of patience — is part of the job description for a police detective. It also applies to the careful art of crafting authentic ship models. Maybe that’s at least partly why Ray, who was building models long before he was old enough to join the force, went into his line of work.
He likes solving puzzles, getting each piece in its proper place.
Regardless, it’s likely why, since retiring in 2008, he’s doubled his yearly output of models from one to two.
If that doesn’t seem like much, consider that he has between 250 and 300 hours of labor in each model.
I usually put in about five hours a day — any longer than that and I get cross-eyed,” he said, laughing.
His models run the gamut from the world renowned — the HMS Bounty and the HMS Beagle, the survey ship made famous by Charles Darwin — to such local icons as the Liberty Ship James Oglethorpe and Savannah’s first pilot boat. That was a small, fast-sailing ship circa mid 1800s that carried the bar pilots out to the big cargo ships, which also were operating under sail at the time.
The pilot ship model has special meaning for Ray’s wife, Carol, whose great-great-grandfather John H. Stegin — Captain of the German Volunteers during the Civil War – was later a bar pilot who sailed on that ship many times.
Ray started building his models around the age of 8, using scrap wood his father had discarded in his workshop.
“I’d get a piece of plank, shape it, drive a nail in it, attach a makeshift sail and put it in whatever little body of water I could find,” he said. “I just loved watching them move in the water. I guess you’d say I’ve been enthralled with ships ever since.”
By the time he was in eighth grade, Ray had graduated to the plastic models.
“I remember thinking they were so expensive at the time. But whenever I had a few dollars, I’d go buy a kit and put it together.”
School, marriage, his career and the birth of his son put his boat-building on hold for a few years, but Ray never lost his enthusiasm for the hobby.
He was already on what was then the Chatham County Police Department, when he started pursuing it steadily again, this time opting for the more elaborately detailed wooden models.
These kits, which he gets from a shop for the serious model builder in Hollywood, Fla., cost about $200 each and contain the wood, detailed plans and small accessories.
“They will also build the ship for you, but you have to add another zero to the price,” he said.
“And where’s the fun in that?”
The wood comes in planks and must be cut, shaped and, in many cases, bent to conform to the ship’s shape. He also likes to make some of his own accessory pieces in his home workshop outfitted with all the typical woodworking tools — a lathe, saws, dremels, sandpaper and razor blades.
Ray taught himself to bend wood with the help of his library of books on building ship models.
“There are very few right angles on a ship,” he said. “Everything is designed for movement, speed and strength. It’s one of the things I love about the old tall ships — they were beautiful, but they were also built to do a job.
“I guess you could call them functional art.”
Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.
SHIPPING SCHEDULE
Following are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean terminals this week. Schedules are supplied by GPA and are subject to change.
TERMINAL VESSEL ETA
GCT MSC VANESSA Today
GCT HS BRUCKNER Today
GCT MAERSK KENSINGTON Today
GCT MAERSK CAROLINA Today
GCT APL MEXICO CITY Today
OT EGS TIDE Today
GCT SEA-LAND RACER Saturday
GCT MSC CHICAGO Saturday
GCT OOCL KOBE Saturday
GCT ORCA I Saturday
GCT MOL MAGNIFICENCE Saturday
GCT ROSSINI Saturday
GCT E.R. SWEDEN Saturday
OT PARSIFAL Saturday
GCT APL CYPRINE Sunday
GCT HANJIN BALTIMORE Sunday
GCT PHILADELPHIA EXPRESS Sunday
GCT E.R. DENVER Sunday
GCT MARE SICULUM Sunday
GCT SINGAPORE EXPRESS Sunday
GCT KAAN KALKAVAN Monday
GCT XIN SU ZHOU Monday
GCT HYUNDAI FORWARD Monday
GCT WEHR OSTE Monday
GCT RHL FIDELITAS Tuesday
GCT ZIM TARRAGONA Tuesday
GCT MOL EXPRESS Tuesday
GCT MSC SILVANA Tuesday
GCT MSC ILONA Tuesday
GCT JAZAN Tuesday
GCT SHIPPAN ISLAND Wednesday
GCT CMA CGM LA SCALA Wednesday
GCT MAERSK KURE Wednesday
GCT HANJIN RIO DE JANEIRO Wednesday
OT KMTC CHALLENGE Wednesday
GCT MSC NAVEGANTES Thursday
GCT VARAMO Thursday
GCT MSC TAMARA Thursday
GCT HS COLUMBIA Thursday
GCT NORTHERN DEXTERITY Thursday