Joseph Hubbard Model Snow

Joseph Hubbard
Snow rigged brigantine ship model, c. 1970

Snows were built for over 100 years from about 1750 through the Civil War and were well suited to costal military surveillance and light merchant service in restrictive waters. Snows (pronounced “snoo”) or (“snaw”), were two masted sailing vessels often-referred to as “snow brigs”). The best-known twin brigantines Lawrence and Niagara, American warships of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1812, were both snows. The USS Niagara eventually sank in 1820, but was raised in 1913 and restored, and is berthed in Erie, Pa. as an operational commissioned ship and a museum.

Records show the snow Rowland left Rotterdam and sailed to the port of Philadelphia, arriving in September 1853, q.v. with new immigrants to the U.S., proving the snow’s sea-worthiness in open ocean conditions. Snows built for ocean use were typically larger than those on the Great Lakes.

Snows carried square sails on both masts, but had a smaller mizzen mast called a snowmast, stepped aft of the mainmast. One or more trysails were sometimes carried aloft between the two masts. The snow mast additionally carried a gaff boom and yard, with the luff of the centre trysail hooped to it. Sometimes, instead of a trysail mast, snows carried a “horse collar” on the mainmast, with the luff of the trysail attached to it by rings.

The foremast on a snow was staysail rigged with 2 to 4 triangular jibsails tacked to a very long bowprint. It is also faster and more maneuverable than solely square rigged vessel but was eventually replaced by clippers and schooners. The trapezoidal gaff sail on the snow mast allowed the ship to sail to a closer angle to the wind and is typically seen on the sail plan used on fishing schooners after 1860 and through WW1.

This generic 3/8” model British snow was built by Joseph Hubbard between 1966 and 1970 while at the University of Illinois in Champaign. It is equipped with a pilot house and contains about 10,000 parts. Materials include basswood, balsa, birch, pine, fiberglass, and teak. Working rigging and blocks were machined from brass, and the model features hand-blown glass oil-lamp chimneys which may be illuminated with battery or A/C power. Windows are microscope cover glass. The model is watertight and may be floated with the addition of 25 lbs. of lead ballast (for photographic purposes). The model is 150cm (four feet eight inches) long x 126cm (four feet, three inches) high. The original ship was 155 feet long, carried 30 crew, and was about 1/3 larger than the Niagara.