Spotlight: The Admiralty Shop

For some reason many people have always been fascinated by the ocean and by the thought – and the challenge – of conquering it to see what lay beyond. This fascination has not been just with the boys raised near the ocean but for the farm lad from Nebraska, the cowboy from Oklahoma and the rancher from New Mexico. They did not have to be able to see the oceans to be fascinated by them – just look at the crew roster on any ship and see where the sailors are from.

For the most part, and for the little boy in many of us, this just remains a fascination and an unrequited love for the sea. Whether we have had opportunity to sail the seven seas or to just dream about it doesn’t matter. To us anything nautical is of great interest.

A favorite shop of mine (my love for the sea is an unrequited love) is The Admiralty store in the 2200 block of Strand. The owner/proprietor is a very skilled model builder and is a collector of fine ship models. The displays around the store are amazing and represented almost the full range of the types of ships that have sailed the Seven Seas.

How anyone could have the patience and the skills required to build these masterpieces is beyond the comprehension of us klutzoids whose model-building skill is limited to inserting the wings into a 25-cent balsa glider and hoping to get it right.

The array of choices of all things nautical is not limited to ships models. There are ceramic lighthouses, games, puzzles, jewelry, photos, prints, and on and on.

The owner, Allen LeCorneau is building a special model just to be raffled off during the rally. He calls it the Hog Ship. It is a ship model that morphs into a motorcycle.

Creative and unique idea, some lucky person is going to win a model that is truly “one-of-a-kind”.