The Miniature Ships of

August and Winnifred Crabtree

By Vincent P. Scott By Vincent P. Scott
This book is dedicated to my wife,
Dorothea R. Scott
 Foreword
In the dozen or so years of my association with The Mariners’ Museum, one thing re-
mains constant when I meet people who have visited the museum. “Oh,” they say, “You
have that wonderful collection of ship models!” And although the name “Crabtree” may
not be on their lips, I know exactly which collection they have in mind—The Miniature
Ships of August and Winnifred Crabtree. Indeed, if there is one Mariners’ Museum col-
lection that, more than any other, represents what a maritime museum can be, it is this
world-class collection of 16 miniature masterpieces created between the 1920s and the
1970s.
Sadly, I never had the honor and pleasure of meeting August Crabtree, much less
hearing him talk about his beloved ships. As a lover of things maritime and as one who is
awed by those who so beautifully combine art, craftsmanship, and deep historical knowl-
edge, I know that this is my great loss. I did know August’s widow, Winnifred, for a
couple of years before her death, and what she told me about her late husband and their
lives together was inspiring and fascinating. Through their partnership and their tireless
work, they fulfilled August’s lifelong dream of a collection of thoroughly researched and
historically accurate miniatures that trace the evolution of ships from ancient Egypt to
the middle of the 19th century. In creating these masterpieces—and in choosing The
Mariners’ Museum as the collection’s home—they have given untold thousands an op-
portunity to see true genius. No wonder so many people who visited The Mariners’ many,
many years ago still remember the Crabtree miniatures with clarity and fondness.
Now, the person who was closest to August and Winnifred during their years in
Newport News, and who has served as a docent and guide for the Crabtree gallery, has
put pen to paper. Vincent Scott has neatly combined a wealth of historical information
with anecdotes of these two wonderful people and their amazing collection. Vince is a
storyteller of the first order. His knowledge is encyclopedic. With his beautiful late wife,
Dottie, he led countless people through the exhibition and thus carried on the tradition
established by August Crabtree himself—namely, a guided tour of the collection every
Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Vince and Dottie picked up the torch, and I am certain that the
Crabtrees’ voices come through in this lively manuscript.
In this age of new technologies and new challenges for museums, I am very
excited about this product, for it goes to the heart of what museums do: inspire, delight, and
educate visitors by presenting collections through the eyes of the dedicated staff members, volun-
teers, and docents who know the collections best. Funded fully and so generously by the Bronze
Door Society of The Mariners’ Museum, The Miniature Ships of August and Winnifred Crabtree
will now and forever be available to the countless people who visit The Mariners’ Museum actu-
ally and virtually. Everyone who has already seen the collection is indebted to the Crabtrees. Now
even more people will join those ranks, thanks to Vince Scott’s engaging and informative work.
Enjoy this wonderful product and this amazing collection.

—William B. Cogar, President, The Mariners’ Museum

 Preface
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882),
American philosopher and essayist

I decided to write this book after August and Winnifred Crabtree passed away leaving no known
family survivors. It has been my goal to get all of it right. August set a similar goal when he
began “The Project.” I hope that this book will help define and preserve the Crabtrees’ legacy for
many years to come.
August and Winnifred Crabtree earned the title “artists” the hard way: they earned it
from scratch. August studied academic accounts of the many facets of marine art and technol-
ogy and, with Winnifred’s unwavering help, raised each facet to a new artistic level. The couple’s
artistry places them among the very best in all fields of marine art.
Visitors to The Mariners’ Museum, whether landlubbers, experienced ship modelers, or
old salts, are awestruck by the beauty and intricate detail of the Crabtrees’ miniature ships, which
relate the story of the evolution of water transport from raft to steam power.
“Such patience!” many visitors comment. To the contrary, August Crabtree was the most
impatient man I ever met. “What a hobby!” others exclaim. But these models represent not a
man’s pleasant diversion but rather a lifetime of concerted work toward a well-defined goal. They
are, in fact, not models, but miniature ships—the exquisite work of a self-taught, self-made
genius and his artistic and dedicated spouse.
Part I of this book follows the fascinating life story of the Crabtrees. Part II traces hu-
manity’s ages-old struggle to meet the challenges of the sea and offers a look at the technology of
the historical period of each of the miniature ships.
The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, is extremely fortunate to have been
chosen by the Crabtrees as the permanent home for their miniature ships, which are both archi-
tecturally accurate models and masterpieces of art. Unlike most maritime museums, The Mari-
ners’ Museum is international in its mission “to preserve the culture of the sea,” and is therefore
the perfect permanent home for the Crabtrees’ incomparable work. As the English poet T.S. Eliot
wrote, “The sea is all about us.” The miniature ships of August and Winnifred Crabtree—the
matchless legacy of two uncompromising artists—eloquently tell the story of humankind’s rela-
tionship with the sea.
 Part I: The Artists
Genius begins great works, labor alone finishes them.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824), French moralist

Introduction
What manner of man was August Crabtree, who, with his talented wife, created these master-
pieces and elevated maritime art to new heights? To know an artist’s background and life experi-
ence brings a better understanding and appreciation of his or her craftsmanship. To date, only a
scantling of the Crabtrees’ life experiences has appeared in publications. That was what August
wanted. The purpose of Part I is to discover from whence came this rare talent and his lust for
ships and the sea. The following pages trace the events and stories that influenced August and
Winnifred’s work.
Much of the information in Part I came directly from the Crabtrees themselves and was
passed on to me during our many pleasant conversations. After August’s passing, Winnifred
blessed my use of quotes from our conversations and from Crabtree correspondence. August’s
recollections and my research on his life and work have also been supported with information
from other individuals noted in the Acknowledgments.
In 1980 August wrote a short autobiography on the envelope of a 78 RPM record. It
appears to be a summary response to the many personal questions he had ignored over the years.
A few quotes from the autobiography appear in the following pages. (The document, which was
wrapped around the tube of a roll of paper towels, is now in the archives of The Mariners’ Mu-
seum Library.)
August once said, “Never set aside a challenge, ever.” That advice has been a great help.

—Vincent P. Scott

A Promising Beginning
August Crabtree said his mother told him he talked before he walked. According to a relative, he
spoke well at age two—even words he did not understand. August attributed his verbal skills to
the songs and ballads his mother and sister had sung to him.
 When August was three years old his father, Fletcher Crabtee, bought him a primer so he
could learn the alphabet. The boy sketched the letters and soon memorized them.
Fletcher taught his son to read, scanning the words in newsprint and books with his
finger. August mimicked his father’s pronunciation, smiling as he went. He had exceptional
eyesight—an important factor in his later career. One day all those words came together and he
began reading whole sentences with ease. When his Uncle Frank came to visit, he always brought
him some books. “Kid stuff,” August would say with a grateful smile for Uncle Frank, the
County Clerk of nearby Linn County, Oregon.
From the “kid stuff” books, August began to re-create the pictures he liked with pencil
on paper. Later he created his own images and added color with paint. He also collected small
scraps of wood left over from his father’s occasional carpentry work. He assembled various shapes
and sizes of the scrap wood to see what images he could create.
“Every child is an artist,” wrote Pablo Picasso, “the problem is to remain an artist once he
grows up.”
August Crabtree met the challenge.

The History Buff

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask
remains a fool forever.—Chinese Proverb

A five-year-old boy was seated at his favorite spot on the bank of the Columbia River near his
home in Portland, Oregon. Alone as usual, he was enjoying his new pastime—whittling a scrap
of wood with his most precious possession, a pocketknife.
Suddenly a sailing ship, a wooden bark carrying lumber, appeared in the distance. The
boy waved excitedly to the crew as the ship passed by. The crew waved back. The lad wondered:
Where are the ships going? Where did they come from? The boy also knew that in the springtime,
thousands of fish swam up the Columbia River. Where did they come from, and where are they
going, he wondered.
He would ask his best and dearest friend, his father.
August hurried home to greet his father with those questions. He always had questions.
His wife, Winnifred, later said, “His first words must have been questions.”
After-dinner get-togethers—an old Scottish custom—were routine in the Crabtree
household. August’s mother and sister would retire to the sewing room to practice crafts, espe-
cially quilting.
August and his father would go to the backyard for some basics in carpentry and gardening and a
bit of fun.
On this particular day, sensing August’s questions, Fletcher took him to the front porch
for a lesson in history.
“Where are those sailing ships and all those fish going?” August asked. “We will go there
on the morrow and see,” his father replied. “But now I will tell you the story of the Great River
of the West and you will know.” August was in awe as he sat on the floor with his legs crossed,
listening intently.
August learned that Captain Robert Gray discovered the Great River of the West in 1792.
Gray named his discovery Columbia’s River in honor of his ship, Columbia Rediviva. Sailing first
from Boston in 1787, Gray made two three-year circumnavigations of the globe, seeking new
trading ports throughout the world for the new and rapidly growing United States of America.
August learned that from British Columbia, the Columbia River flows southwest, then
turns west for 350 miles, serving as the northern boundary of the state of Oregon. The Columbia
is rich in fish, especially salmon, which ascend the river each year to spawn in great schools. At
the confluence with its northward-flowing tributary, the Willamette River, the Columbia begins
its role as an estuary, i.e., the part of the lower course of a river in which the river’s current meets
the sea’s tide. It is a wide and winding deep-channel estuary flowing northwest for 100 miles to
the Pacific Ocean.
Accessible to ocean vessels of sail and steam, the confluence of the Columbia and Wil-
lamette Rivers became an inland trade center, aided by the great Gold Rush of 1849. Two New
England developers surveyed the trade center and mapped a town, and the city of Portland in the
Oregon Territory was chartered in 1851. The developers named the city after their hometown of
Portland, Maine.
Fletcher Crabtree well knew the history of Portland and its environs. He had learned
much from his own father by oral family history, as August would learn. (More about that his-
tory later in Part I.) And Fletcher’s work kept him abreast of local industry. He worked first as
a watchman for the old Ainsworth Docks, then as a clerk for the Southern Pacific Railroad, and
later as a clerk for the Northern Pacific Terminal Railroad. He pursued some evening schooling
and in 1907 he became a telegraph operator for the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
In 1912 he joined the Western Union Telegraph Company. Fletcher and his wife, Mollie, moved
their homestead five times to accommodate his job changes.
Portland became the grand terminal for lumber, grains, sheep, cattle, and metals traf-
ficked over the Columbia River Valley by rail and sail. Mills and processing plants were es-
tablished in Portland and along the Columbia River Estuary. By 1910 (the year of August’s
first history lesson), there were 20 miles of waterfront, four miles of docks, and two major rail
freight  lines.
Sailing ships were the prime movers of lumber and grain, for they could easily anchor
anywhere along the Columbia. The wind, free and clean, was favorable for sailing vessels all along
the Great River of the  West.
August enjoyed his history lesson, but his mind was set on finding the answer to his
 second question: “Where are the sailing ships going?” Fletcher made arrangements with one of
his engineer friends so that he and August could ride in the locomotive the next day. Their route
included the rail line that nearly paralleled the Columbia River.
Early that next morning a loud voice called “All Aboard!” Anxiously August climbed onto
the train and sat beside his proud and smiling father. With a toot-toot and puffs of steam and
smoke, the locomotive tugged and pulled a long train of railroad cars. The train had to move
slowly along Portland’s busy waterfront. To the right August could see the sailing ships on the
river. He waved and cheered.
The slow pace of the train gave Fletcher a chance to explain what was going on in some
of the many buildings along the way. He pointed out a cannery, a flour mill, a meat processing
plant, and a lumber mill.
When the locomotive had passed the last building on the Portland waterfront, August
pointed across the river. “That’s Vancouver in the state of Washington,” said his father. August
would later work as a shipwright’s apprentice at the shipyard in Vancouver.
The train headed northwest at moderate speed. August waved and cheered at every sailing
bark and schooner. There were steamships on the river, too, making smoke and noise like the
locomotives. They did not impress August, though he dared not tell his father. “We’re bound for
Astoria,” said Fletcher. “We’ll be there in about two hours.”
Eighty miles northwest of Portland, Astoria was founded as a fur-trading center in 1811
by financier John Jacob Astor and was named in his honor. Today it is the principal northwest
coastal port for heavy trade.
Fletcher concluded his lesson on the history of Astoria as the train approached the
outskirts. After a tour of the train terminal, father and son walked to the shore. It was a bright
and sunny afternoon on the beach. August was awestruck as he stared at the place where the
sky touched the water. “That’s called the horizon, son,” said his father. What’s on the other side?
“More horizons,” his father answered.
Father and son waded along the beach. There were conversations about blue water, waves,
and horizons. It was a long and tiring day, but fun and full of learning.
The next day, after helping his mother with a few chores, August slipped away to his
favorite spot on the Columbia. He waved to the passing ships as always, but this time, he knew
where they were going.
A history buff had emerged.

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