This beautiful model was hand made and completed by my father John R. Costa who lived from August 7, 1940 ~ June 7, 2015. I can't imagine how he completed a project like this with a baby through toddler (me) in the house, and a full time job. He worked for the Naval Underwater Warfare Center formerly called the Naval Underwater Systems Center for nearly my entire life (40+yrs).
I have admired my father's models since childhood, as my father finished them during my youth. I can remember him soaking the wooden planks, and using boxes of toothpicks and hand drilling the holes to place them as pegs along each plank. I can remember him drawing the twine through beeswax and tying all the rigging by hand or with tweezers. I can remember him sawing bits of brass from small brass sheets with a jewelry saw, and hand drilling wooden pieces with a pin vise and rotary hand drill. He had a free standing metal cabinet in the kitchen that he would take all his supplies and the model out of, work on the kitchen table, then place everything back in the cabinet before dinner.
