Ketch Brothers Wooden Spoon 2007.012.00013D Model
This hand-carved, wooden spoon has quite a past. In the bowl of the spoon is written “Ketch Brothers. Taken by the USS Marion, Mayumba Point, West Coast of Africa. Septr. 8th, 1858. E.E. Stone, Decr. 7th, 1858.” The Ketch Brothers was a suspected slave ship captured by the USS Marion of the US Navy’s African Squadron. Lieut. Stone was put in charge of the Brothers, and he delivered it to Charleston, SC for adjudication. Onboard was a barrel filled with wooden spoons; intended for use by captive Africans. Stone and other sailors of the Marion apparently took the spoons as souvenirs of their small victory against the slave trade, signed them, and gave them to friends. (Note: The “hole” in the bowl of the spoon is caused by its being carved very thinly at that point. The 3D software is unable to render such thinness.)
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