Half Model of an 8-Gun Brig c. 1800

This is an anonymous half model of an 8-Gun Brig, mounted on a dark board. Though unassuming at first glance, objects such as this offer a poignant lens through which we can consider the complex dynamics of maritime history. Consider this vessel's purpose, likely war or trade, and the lives it would have touched. Ships like these were essential to global exchange, yet that exchange was often built on exploitation. They carried goods, but also enslaved people and the tools of colonization. The labor to build, sail, and maintain these ships was usually performed by people from marginalized communities. What stories would this ship tell if it could speak? What voices would it amplify? The silence of the model invites us to reflect on what is absent, on the human costs that are often unseen in grand narratives of exploration and commerce. It serves as a quiet, yet powerful reminder of the intertwined legacies of progress and injustice.