What’s in a Ship?
Greetings, Grand Voyagers! One of the things we are most excited to show off are the immaculately crafted interiors of our first two ships, Empress of Ireland and TSMS Lakonia. Recreating these interiors is no small feat, as our resident researcher and 3D modeler Liam Sharpe can attest. Liam was nice enough to answer some questions about his process, and tell us more about what it’s like to bring these incredible spaces back to life.
The music room on board Empress of Ireland, just waiting to be explored.
Can you briefly describe your process for recreating historic spaces like the ones seen in Grand Voyage?
In order to recreate the spaces as seen in 'Grand Voyage', it is a necessity to have the necessary material needed to create these rooms. This material would include deck plans/cabin plans, archival photographs, descriptions, etc.
The first day of modeling a historic space typically entails me gathering all of this information, and afterwards, 'blocking out' the layout of the space with basic walls. Afterwards comes the more intensive work. After blocking out the room, I begin to detail these simplistic walls with decorative paneling, mouldings, wall fittings, etc. After the walls are finished, furniture work begins which is usually what takes the longest time considering how many of these rooms often have several different types of plush furniture with different shapes, sizes, etc. Afterwards, I will create the light fixtures, ceiling mouldings and beams, and finally add finishing touches as well as last minute fixes to the rooms. It can take me up to 1 -3 weeks to finish one room, depending on the complexity. For an example, the café of the Empress only took me 4 days to complete, whereas the Saloon took significantly longer due to its complexity.
The sheer amount of work that goes into this sounds absolutely insane honestly. What would you say are some of the biggest challenges you face while modeling these spaces?
I like to believe that every space typically has its own challenges! Usually, the biggest challenges for me are that of carvings, and mouldings. In the case of the Empress of Ireland, she was decorated very heavily with these intricate details that required me to analyze these interiors heavily, and try to replicate them with as much precision as possible. For an example, just the skylights, and saloon ceiling alone took many days just to try and replicate with as much accuracy, and detail as possible. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I have never been fully accustomed to creating detailed carvings until working with the Empress of Ireland. As a modeler, I have grown significantly since working with her, and am taking those new skills I have learned, and applying them to the Lakonia, which is my current focus.
Some of the intricate mouldings found on Empress of Ireland (WIP)
What do you think people might be surprised to see when they get a chance to check out Lakonia's interiors?
I believe that people might find themselves most surprised by the simplistic beauty of the Lakonia's interiors. In contrast to the Empress of Ireland, the Lakonia is a vessel that does not nearly have as many mouldings, or carvings. She is instead, a very 'relaxed' vessel so to speak, with simplistic fittings compared to what is seen on the Empress.
Although she is not as complex as the Empress, she still manages to be just as beautiful in almost every way to the Empress. Just as the Empress was a tasteful ship for the 1900's and 1910's, the Lakonia is a tasteful ship for her time period of the early 60's.
When we talk about recreating these ships as they looked in their glory days, it would be ideal to be perfectly historically accurate, but that of course is not always possible. How do you handle those moments where you know you might have to take some liberties or fill in the blanks, so to speak?
No space on any ship I believe is perfectly documented. In many cases however, many sections of these spaces have little to no photographic record of them. More often or not, this would include items such as furniture, carvings, and other certain fixtures. Unfortunately, a certain level of educated-guess work is required to fill in these gaps, and create a complete picture. This would often entail taking what is already known, and comparing descriptions, plans, etc, and piecing all of this information together to create a full picture.
Which is a monumental undertaking in itself for sure. Are there any particular areas on either Empress or Lakonia that you really wish we had better documentation of?
That is a great question for sure. If there was one particular space I had to pick that had better documentation, it likely would be the staircase of the Empress of Ireland. We are fortunate enough to have photographs of the top landing, and central landing of the vessel. However, only the central landing photograph is of perfectly clear quality. The top landing images are stretched, and are unfortunately not clear. The saloon deck landing, and lower deck accommodation landing beneath that have absolutely no photographs. I was fortunate enough to have a drawing of the saloon deck landing at my disposal to use, but no images for the lower landing. Having better documentation of this staircase would have no doubt allowed for me to model the staircase more efficiently!
All part of recreating history it seems! Last question - if you could model the interiors of one ship of your choosing, what ship would it be and why?
That is a tough question! Anybody who knows me, knows that I obsess over a new ship almost weekly. Therefore, I am interested in modeling almost every room for any one of these ships!
One of the ships I have taken a non-stop interest in for the past 6 months nearly - and has actually risen to become one of my favorite ships of all time is that of the beautiful Orient Line vessel 'Orcades' of 1937. I would love to model her long gallery at some point, or perhaps even her dining saloon.
Her exquisite art deco fittings, and plush furniture designs are something that I have deeply admired for this last half-year. The interior design of this magnificent liner is truly stunning, and perhaps one of my favorite interiors on any liner. She is the embodiment of 'art deco' naval architecture.
And we all do love our art deco ships on this team! Thanks for answering these burning questions and giving us some insight into your work!
My pleasure, thank you for the questions!
