Star of Memphis

Year: 1350 BC
Category: Ancient
Vessel Type: Merchant Ship
Scale: 1/8" = 1 foot
Overall Length: 100 feet

Highly decorated ships like this one sailed the Nile in the ancient Egyptian times. This particular ship is from the 18th Dynasty and is regarded by modern scholars and Egyptologists as a "Traveling Ship." It was designed primarily for passenger service between the many cities along the Nile.

The red on the ends of the ship is ivory that has been painted with red oil paint. The intricate quilt pattern designs were painted on the real ship and here they have been scrimshawed into the ivory. The shaded areas such as the dark checkerboard areas have been "stippled" into the ivory using a needlepoint and then darkened with India ink.

Plans, drawings, photographs, and information provided by Maritime Historian Bjorn Landstrom of Sweden and the Cairo Museum, Cairo, Egypt.