By Setarreh Massihzadegan
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

It’s no wonder his friends call him a “gentle giant.” At 6 feet 6 inches tall, Jean Desrochers works on the smallest of scales. The intricate details of his many model ships belie their creator’s size, from the precisely cut wooden planks to the tiny carved figurehead on the latest ship’s bow.

Desrochers, who lives at Brooksby, recently finished his model of the Halifax, a ship that took him more than three years to complete. Like the eight other ships on display in the den of his apartment home, the Halifax tells a story, not just of the labor that went into it, but of an actual English ship that sailed nearby.

Historic appreciation
During the Revolutionary War, Desrochers says, the Halifax patrolled the east coast from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to New Jersey. The vessel was built in the Marbleheader style, the same construction style as the first ship in George Washington’s navy, Hannah, which was the first model Desrochers built. “I was always interested in ships. Desrochers says. “I remember them being built when I was a boy.”

As a child growing up in Salem, Mass., Desrochers would often go north to  Essex, a town made famous for its shipbuilding, particularly of the sort of fisherman’s schooners that Desrochers has since replicated.

Full speed ahead
Desrochers began buying ship building kits and books about 40 years ago, when his hobby took off at full speed. After long days running a tannery, Desrochers would return home to work on his ships sometimes until well after midnight. “I would do my own drafting and I would make my own plans from books and I would build these ships… exactly the way the ships were built,” he says. In total, Desrochers says he made about a dozen ships, though he has since given away or sold a few.

Seasoned talent, new skills
While making the Halifax, Desrochers employed his newest skill: wood carving. After decades of ship building, wood carving came naturally when he gave it a try at Brooksby.