Bald Head

More wind this morning but we decided to go for a row anyway…. wanted this exercise ….. and I was looking for Bald Eagles.   Well I only saw one, too far away and flying farther.    

SO… for the wbc “Bald Head” instead of shaving off H’s hair or using a photo of his brother’s bald head from Colorado, I saw this ancient doll sitting in the cabin window.   Granddaughter Tatum named him Michael and he has no hair… that’ll have to do , I’m thinking.   It was given to me as a child (in the 40s or maybe early 50s) but I’ve never looked at the label on the inside of the back of his sailor collar.   It says, “Made in England by Norah Wellings”   The internet tells me that Norah Wellings made these all-cloth dolls from 1926 thru 1959.  (on her own and then for the Victoria Toy Works Co.)  I found some on antique doll sites and on eBay —this exact one ,labeled “rare” ,  different expression,  for $100.  One site told me many of the 8” sailors were made as tourist items for cruise ships and the name of the ship would be on the hat.   I have never noticed that! —it’s much too faded and dirty and has been lost and found many times … but on looking closely with a bright light I can see “MV Georgic” written on a label on Michael’s hat.   Back to the internet… the 711 ft. MV Georgic, built in Belfast in 1931, was the last ship built for the White Star Line before it’s merger with the Cunard line, sailed from Southhampton  (edit:   then from London-on the Thames to Southhampton) -to New York at first and then the Liverpool to New York run.  At the outbreak of WWll she was requisitioned as a troopship and bombed and sunk by German aircraft in the harbor at Port Tewfik.  She was refloated and repaired to work as a troopship once more before sailing immigrant service to Australia and New Zealand and then the Liverpool to New York run from 1950 until it was scraped in 1956.   
I found this history interesting as I was wondering who gave me this little doll and think it easily may have been a Swedish great Uncle Emil (my Dad’s father’s sister Selma was married to him) and I remember visiting them as a little girl at my grandparents home in NY and seeing him with his white sea captain’s suit on.    So now I will have to find out if that was a ship he worked on or was he a passenger…

Who knew what the bald head challenge would uncover?????

The boat is a remote controlled sailboat given to H by his bald headed brother (blipper stationmaster) as a retirement present.