itemsforsale

CREATIONS BY DUGIE

Norman "Dugie" Russell

Items for Sale

All of these out-of-the-ordinary and one-of-a-kind works of art
are made from the main timbers of the U.S.S. New Hampshire,
the last of the United States' 74-gun battleships.

When considering the value of these items, kindly take into
account that I had to scuba-dive in forty-two feet of water to
recover the four tons of timber that I salvaged. It was necessary
to hire a work boat with captain and also rent a barge to raise
the timber from the sea floor, as well as a wrecker and flat bed
truck to haul it from the beach to my house.

Once I had the timber at my home, I then had to separate the
monster beams, which were held together with large, copper
trunnel pins. These pins were forged in the early 1800's at Paul
Revere's foundry in Canton, Massachusetts, as were all of the
copper and bronze fastenings.

After the timbers were separated, I had to cut the nearly
petrified wood with chain saws because no saw mill would touch
the large (and extremely hard!) timbers. Three chain saws and
numerous bar-chains later, I was only halfway through. It was
forty years later when I finally found someone who could rip the
timbers with a heavy-duty saw.

At that point, the labor of love to create the finished products
from this material was just beginning. (To give you an idea of
this tedious, step-by-step process, please refer to the page
entitled "The Making of a Cribbage Board.")

Only about a quarter of the rare and historical wood that I
raised is left and, once it is gone, there will be no more of this
proud Ship of the Line.