Grey-Bruce Boomers Winter2023

THE BUCKET LIST
by Doug Archer
many years, and the cottages we rented were always
in need of repair,” he said. “So I learned to work
with wood out of necessity. Then, during the long
winters when our cottages were empty and I was
bored, I started carving bits of wood and piecing
them together into miniature ships.”
He has been constructing model boats ever since.
While they may be miniaturized versions of the
actual ships they represent – Tom builds them to a
scale of an eighth-of-an-inch to the foot – crafting
these models is no small undertaking.
“The planning phase alone takes a lot of work and
time,” he explained. “I do a lot of research on my
ships.”
That’s an understatement. Tom haunts libraries
and museum archives for months before starting a
new model, combing through books and articles for
information and photos on the vessel he plans to
construct.
“I spent almost an entire year reading everything I
could find on the Franklin expedition before I began
designing and building the Erebus and the Terror,” he
said. “But the results are worth it. My models are
authentic down to the ladders, cannons and even the
rigging the sailors used to climb through the sails.”
Research done, Tom begins to build. Cloistered in
his basement workshop, he uses knives, planes, drills,
22 • GREYBRUCEBOOMERS.COM