Emeralda Bow

Emeralda bulbous bow in the raw

"I wrote an extensive fiction about a 16th Frigate christened Emeralda, referred to as the "Jewel of the oceans." It was designed by a Basque marine architect who had been inspired in a dream, when "A woman all in white" showed him a way to make the craft faster than any ship built. The bow, known today as a "bulbous bow," reduced drag on the hull of the ship. To make such a bow, a tree with the peculiar growth shape, like this piece of wood I found in a park and cut down to size, was hewn to fit the keel. True to the dream, the ship could outrun any thing, even the speedy corvettes favored by pirates. I made this object as part of a story about a historic marker in Santander, near where the legendary Emeralda, badly damaged in battle, was beached during the failed invasion of England by the Great Armada. The landmark is, of course, fictional. In my story, this was the original Emeralda, and a second one was made in the 17th Century following the same plans as the original designer had drawn. It is this, the Emeralda II, which figures prominently in my story of the Halfwood Press, for it was this frigate that carried them on their way to China in the 1770s, only to be sunk by a tsunami in the area we know as the San Juan Islands."