THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180902
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 174 lines
SAILORS OF YORE who relied on the stars to set their course could look today to a man named Comet to keep their history and sealore alive.
Robert Eric ``Bob'' Comet, 69, has been in love with the water and the vessels that sail on it since he was growing up in Pennsylvania. Now, after retiring from careers as a Navy officer and as a Union Camp Corp. executive, Comet has found his ideal job.
A resident of the Oak Ridge section of Suffolk, he is a volunteer docent/ship modeler at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News and at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk.
``I am doing the work I love, in a place where people are pleasant and nice and interested in what I am doing,'' Comet said.
Comet loves crafting exquisitely accurate ship models - an art requiring skill in metalworking, woodcraft and stitchery, and knowledge about plastics, glues and all sorts of miniature things. Steady nerves, a high frustration tolerance and a broad sense of humor are important, too.
``One of the most frustrating things is when you are sitting in your workshop, working on some little doohickey for hours, and then you drop it on the floor,'' he said with a laugh. ``You get down on your hands and knees, muttering and looking, but the rule is: You won't find it until you step on it or until you have made another one.''
Looking at the fine detail of Comet's models, it's hard to believe he ever lost anything. Comet works from scratch or from detailed kits that he customizes to meet his exacting standards. A ``rag and string'' man, Comet especially enjoys building sailing ship models.
The ``Shore Bird,'' his most recent creation, was built from scratch because no kit exists for the sleekly styled skipjack that was built in the early 1900s specifically for poaching Chesapeake Bay oyster beds.
``It was built fast to slip in at night and dredge other people's oyster beds and to be faster than the police boats,'' Comet said.
He fitted his ``Shore Bird'' with a tiny, pot-bellied stove, bunks, a dredge, a working handwinder complete with a clutch, and manned it with little poacher figures - devoting hundred of hours to the creation.
One side of the ``Shore Bird'' is finished, but the opposite side is open to illustrate the boat's construction, a touch typical of Comet's casual teaching style.
Comet thrives on the sea history he learns with each model.
``I am not a student as such,'' he said. ``But when I start working on a model, then I get interested in it and its story.''
``He has a great way of being open for people to ask questions, and they do,'' said Teresa Fremaux, a media relations manager for The Mariners' Museum. Comet spends his Wednesdays there.
On Tuesdays, he can be found at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum in Norfolk. He is one of three ship modeler/docents there.
``There is an invaluable interaction, one on one, between the visitor and the modeler that brings out the personal side of history,'' said Becky Poulliot, the museum director.
``Bob is an obviously skilled artisan and very disarming, very low key when he dispenses his information, but I never fail to learn something from him,'' she added.
Many of Comet's visitors at both museums are schoolchildren. The question they ask most frequently is the one Comet hears most often from everyone: ``How long does it take to make that?''
One boy paused to watch Comet at work for a few minutes and then went on his way. Half an hour later, as the child passed by Comet's workbench again, he stopped and asked in amazement, ``Is that still the same one you were working on before?''
``Kids are used to living in an instantaneous world and don't realize that even a fairly simple kit model might take 100 hours,'' Comet said.
One of Comet's favorite models, a New Bedford whaling boat, was built from an advanced kit that included an instruction book half an inch thick and took 220 hours to complete. As he points out the features of the Delano whale boat, originally built in the mid-19th century, Comet sidetracks into anecdotes of the whaling experience.
The whale, according to Comet, was more than an even match for the seven-man whaleboat crew who were armed with harpoons, lances, and sheer courage. After the harpooner had hit his target and firmly affixed the harpoon, the whale was likely to make a wild dash for freedom, dragging the whale boat behind. ``And that was what they call a Nantucket sleigh ride,'' he said with a grin.
Comet's shipbuilding hobby started when he was just 14 and building models from plans in ``Popular Mechanics'' and ``Popular Science'' magazines. The son of a self-sufficient Swedish immigrant machinist, Comet and his four brothers were raised with the attitude that if he really wanted to do something, he could do it.
His first model was a little brig made from a set of plans he had to scale down to half size and with wood salvaged from orange crates.
``I didn't have the tiny little drills I have now, so I used needles and ground down nails,'' he remembered.
``I studied those plans, figured out the rigging and learned about sailing vessels, that there is nothing on them without a purpose, everything is orderly and functional,'' he added.
In 1945, Comet was commissioned as an officer in the Navy and received his degree from the University of North Carolina. During the next 26 years, modeling took a back seat to his Navy career, marriage and three children.
In 1990, Comet retired from his 21-year second career in manpower development and training with Union Camp and was looking for a productive way to spend his time. After an extensive training program with the Mariners' Museum, Comet had been volunteering as a tour guide there for about a year when he noticed an unfinished model of a schooner.
Comet mentioned to one of museum managers that the schooner was rigged improperly and needed some work. Three hundred hours later, Comet had the 6-foot model rerigged and equipped with a full set of handsewn sails. And he had a new assignment as a ship modeler.
When the Hampton Roads Naval Museum moved from the Navy base into its current home at Nauticus on the Norfolk waterfront, Comet joined its docent staff.
He also has become an active member in The Hampton Roads Ship Model Society, a group with 50 members from far as Richmond.
``It is a wonderful resource for anyone who is looking for help or who wants to get started in any kind of ship modeling,'' Comet said.
When he is not modeling or talking about his models and about ships in general, Comet may be off with his Chesapeake retriever, Chessie, sailing his own boat on the James River. Or he may be singing with the choir at Trinity Lutheran Church in Newport News. Or he may be with his wife, Dorothea, at their second home on the Outer Banks. Or he may be windsurfing on the Currituck Sound.
``I have so many things that I do that I can't play with all my toys at the same time,'' Comet said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Comet paints a crewman figure on the deck of this skipjack.
Bob Comet, 69, is a docent and ship modeler at The Mariners' Museum
in Newport News.
Comet's 19th century New Bedford whaler is on display at The
Mariners' Museum.
One of Comet's sailor figures stands upon the deck of a merchant
Viking ship model .
A figurehead at The Mariners' Museum hangs behind one of Comet's
model ships.
This sailor is destined to crew for the Delano whaling boat, one of
Comet's favorites.
The ``Shore Bird'' is modeled after an early 1900s oyster-poaching
vessel.
Graphics
MODELERS AT WORK
Hampton Roads Naval Museum: Second floor of Nauticus, on the
Norfolk waterfront.
Summer hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission free. Enter guest
relations door of Nauticus.
Mariners' Museum, 100 Museum Drive, Newport News.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: $6.50 for adults, $3.25 for
children 6 to 12 and all students of any age, free for those
younger.
During May, children 6 to 12 admitted for $1 with paying adult.
AT A GLANCE
Glebe Episcopal Church was established in 1642, when Percival
Champion donated 450 acres to the Anglican Church's Lower Parish.
In 1737, the current building was erected on land donated by
Richard Bennett and Thomas Tilley. It's located at 4400 Nansemond
Parkway, near Driver.
Information: Call the Rev. Webster Maughan: 255-4168.
by CNB