Roger Hambidge

Roger Hambidge began his model-making career at the Seaport Museum at Mystic CT, an environment rich in seafaring history that offers exposure to every aspect of the wooden shipbuilding trade. Over the years he advanced from apprentice to Master Shipwright and in the 1980's assumed project lead responsibility for restoring the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, a designated National Historic Landmark. Today, serving as a principle consultant, he is once again lending his expertise to a keel-up restoration of the Morgan and in the process is training the next generation of craftsmen in an all-but-lost art — one of the few people qualified for that role.

Roger contributed to the construction, restoration and preservation of numerous other ships, models and artifacts at Mystic Seaport, served as Head Shipwright in the construction of the schooner reproduction Amistad and assisted in the conversion of the H.M.S ROSE for the movie Master and Commander. He continues this shipbuilding tradition with his plank-on-frame models.

These heirloom replicas can be found in private collections and have been displayed at the Mariners' Museum (Newport News, VA), the New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford, MA), the Herreshoff Marine Museum (Bristol, RI), the Essex Shipbuilding Museum (Essex, MA), the Maine Maritime Museum(Bath, ME) and at the National Geographic Society (Washington, DC).