The Art of Building Ships in Bottles

The first ships in bottles date back centuries though these original creations were actually placed in bottles with the spout point downward — not on the side as is usual today. The craft really exploded in the mid-19th century when improved glassmaking made bottles thinner, more even, and free of air bubbles that would otherwise distort the image of the model inside. Jim Goodwin, a retired geologist who for 25 years, has been perfecting the maritime tradition of fitting pint-sized keels, hulls, and top sails inside glass bottles. Proud owner of his own business Carolina Ships in Bottles — a not-so-subtle shout out to his home state — Goodwin is a self-described textual kinesthetic, meaning he’s a bit of a fidgeter. So for nearly a quarter-century, he’s kept his hands busy crafting ships of all types, whether the notorious pirate vessels, famous U.S. frigates, or the many other famous ships-of-line that navigated the world’s oceans during the Age of Sail, and placing them snugly inside their own glass