SHIPS IN BOTTLES

This ship was presented to Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fraser of Northcape GCB KBE by the Girls Nautical Training Corps in 1952. It is a nice example of an "Impossible Object". The puzzle being to work out how it got into the bottle.

The techniques for launching ships into bottles is well documented; but there are many other things that can go into bottles.

The late Harry Eng was a master of the Bottler's Art and these two photos show the front, reverse and side of
HARRY ENG'S SHIP in a BOTTLE.

He presented this to the Puzzle Museum in 1993 explaining: -

The Ship is a CUTTER (Scissors).
The 52 Playing Cards are the Ship's Deck.
Through these are a Bolt drunkenly pronounced as the Ship's Boat.
The Padlock is obviously the Ship's Locker.
The 25 cents coin is the Ship's Quarter, which shows the officer George Washington.

The stick is the ship's Log.
There is a Compass, There is a Ring from the ship's bell, there are holes in various things for the Portholes.

The "not" from the "Not for Sale" notice can be added to the 4 rope knots to make the ships speed of 5 knots.

She achieves this speed by using the "For Sale" which might be the Foresail or alternatively also Four Sails.

The ship is being sailed by the Two Nuts on the bolt.

It is a very thin and flat bottle - Less than 2 inches thick. Note how the scissors, the padlock, compass, and the large knots are all too large to pass through the neck of the bottle. It is a skinny bottle so getting the playing cards into it will be difficult, but turning the bolt around to pass it through the deck would be impossible. Anyway if you unscrew the plastic cap it will NOT quite come clear of the neck of the bottle.

CLICK HERE to find out how Harry Eng made his bottles. ;=)