The Sea Lion Saga

Chapter 2: The Plan Takes Form

Years before the first mighty oak was harvested for the Sea Lion, Earnest Cowan, an accomplished artist and carpenter, began his research into British naval history and the construction of 16th century vessels.

As a youngster Ernie had visited the Mayflower replica in Plymouth and admiring the beauty of the ship, as well as the workmanship it took to build it, dreamed that someday he might build a similar vessel.  “Wouldn’t it be great if it actually sailed,” he recalls saying at the time, and carried passengers like in days of old.

Ernie’s dream endured throughout the years until finally in 1971 he discovered a rare treatise drawn in 1586 by the English shipwright Mathew Baker (1530–1613). Baker was one of the most renowned Tudor shipwrights, and the first to put the practice of shipbuilding down on paper for posterity. The treatise explained Baker’s method of building a ship according to the three-arc principle in which only a compass and straight-edge were used to shape the hull. Baker developed the concept of ‘laying down the lines’ for a ship on paper instead of relying on the traditional practice of utilizing scale models.

His imagination fired by his discovery, Ernie began the long, hard fought battle of gaining support for the venture since most considered the herculean task of building a full sized 16th century ship pure folly for ordinary men to try and undertake. But then, Ernie Cowan wasn’t an ordinary man.

The marvelous photo of the Sea Lion overlooking Barcelona Harbor was provided by David Brewster dcbprime

Next Chapter 3: The tools of the Shipwright