As a schoolboy living in the Bronx, George Lowery became fascinated with all things miniature after a field trip to a natural history museum. Staring in wonder at the tiny depiction of an ancient village, Lowery became enthralled, so much so that he began building airplanes and other models from kits. He also ventured into the imaginative world of dioramas. Thus began a lifelong hobby-turned-career in 1987.
Yes, there were years of providing for and raising a family, but always fermenting in the background were models. He joined the Air Force, became a police officer and moved along, building a family life. But he also became fascinated with ship building. Fate would find him opening a door to Mattapoisett’s well-known history as a whale-boat-building mecca.
Lowery is a perfectionist when it comes to building models. He sought out and eventually found an artisan who would help him develop skills in model-ship building, one Frank Mastini. As Lowery told us, Mastini didn’t teach, he advised. Students were given models to build, and throughout the process Mastini would critique and give guidance. Over time and dedicated effort, Lowery learned what he had longed to know – how to turn raw wood into stunning pieces of maritime art.
An opportunity to build a whaling-ship model came into view in 2017 when Lowery was approached at an art fair near his Arizona home by a gentleman interested in a model of the Wanderer, the last whaling ship from Mattapoisett. The gent was planning on opening a business in Mattapoisett and would use the Wanderer model as a showpiece in the establishment.
Lowery would need a set of plans in order to build the model. Enter the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Mattapoisett Museum. New Bedford offered engineered drawings, scant though they were, but coupled with pictures from Mattapoisett, Lowery was able to build the model.
Some 2,000 hours later, the ship was completed and ready to take its place of honor in Mattapoisett with a price tag of $100,000. Using price points that he pays for tradesmen such as plumbers, electricians and the like, Lowery believed the price was fair based on his expertise and the quality of the finished product. The client hadn’t baulked at the estimated price at the beginning of the project. Everything was sailing along.
But wait – the gentleman who commissioned the boat was not to be found. Since no money, no deposit had been exchanged, Lowery was free to do as he pleased with the model. He recalculated the price tag to $90,000 and held onto the boat. “My models are my children,” Lowery told us. He wants them to be appreciated and cared for.
With that in mind and having built a long-distance relationship with the Mattapoisett Museum curator, Connor Gaudet, Lowery offered the Wanderer model to the museum. In doing so, he stated appreciation for the assistance received from former museum curator Jeffrey Miller.
Without hesitation, Gaudet accepted the gift.
“I can’t believe it’s here,” he said on Tuesday afternoon, marveling at Lowery’s talent.
Needing help from handyman volunteer Bob Clifford to unpack the model from a sturdy, wooden crate inside tight quarters and in view of a small audience including the press, Gaudet found humor in the moment, comparing the plastic bubble wrap around the bottom of the boat to an angry, wind-driven sea.
Launched on April 16, 1878, the Whale Bark Wanderer is the last ship among the whalers built in Mattapoisett. The original Wanderer 1878 weighed 288 tons and was 116 feet long with a 27.5-foot beam and 15-foot, 8-inch draft. Though the model only measures 31 inches long, 25 inches high and 11 inches wide, Gaudet was dumbfounded at the detail Lowery managed to achieve, not only in terms of the visual but in workmanship.
“He absolutely did (go to the extreme),” said Gaudet, likening Lowery’s effort to the monumental statue of Crazy Horse being constructed in South Dakota. “Stuff I didn’t even realize from the photos when it got here, the boats are … not glued in there, they’re set on tiny little hooks from the pulleys.”
The first detail that captured Gaudet’s attention was the workmanship to shape the oars, which he noticed are “smaller than toothpicks.”
It officially took Lowery 2,000.5 hours of his time to complete his replica on May 29, 2019, and Gaudet suspects that those hours did not include a meticulous packaging of the model for a safe, cross-country transport. The shipping cost exceeding $1,000 was covered by a member of the Demakis family.
The Wanderer was shipwrecked during an August 25, 1924, storm off Cuttyhunk, but its beam resides in the Mattapoisett Museum.
Gaudet considers this latest, superior model a focal point to a 2024 theme of celebration of the Wanderer’s place in local culture, not omitting the local newspaper of record. The ship’s 100-year legacy immediately took hold in the 1928 edition of the local junior high school yearbook named The Wanderer, and there was a Wanderer gift shop in Mattapoisett Village around the same time.
“Getting this gift was a surprise and an absolute boon,” said Gaudet. “We decided to do not just an exhibit about the Wanderer and how much oil it got when it went on its voyages. It really focuses on its rebirth and afterlife since 1924, the mythology and the symbolism behind it and how it’s grown … for the town.”
By Marilou Newell and Mick Colageo