I wanted to be there, I really did! I wanted to see what the buzz was all about. And I knew that one of the Alfatross' brethren was going up for auction, Bill Kelly's car *01947*. From the catalog images and description it sounded like a largely original example, minus the original engine.
I asked around at the Car Table what Monterey Car Week was like, and was told that it is one of those annual events that was better in the past, before it was "discovered". Unless you like throngs of people, high prices for food, lodging and transportation, and frenetic hype--or are buying or selling a car at auction--better to read about it later in Sports Car Market or Octane. One guy said about Pebble Beach, "You can't see the cars for all the people in the way!"
I still wanted to go, but I had previous work commitments. I was scheduled to return to Santa Fe a few days before the Gooding auction where the Kelly car would be offered, but I knew from previous experience that the job I had to do, installing an exhibit in the Turks and Caicos Islands National Museum, would likely take longer.
While I was in the Islands Tim Marinos of Vintage Autocraft called to say that he needed to see the Kelly car to help answer some questions that had come up while he was working on the chassis and body of The Alfatross. There was also the possibility of seeing another one of the brethren, Arturo Keller's totally restored *02056*, but that was not certain. With relief, I agreed that Tim should make the trip and see and photograph both cars, if possible. By this time I knew I would still be 3,500 miles from Monterey during Car Week.
When I finally returned to the US I discovered that Tim had closely inspected and photographed the Kelly and Keller cars as well as Corrado Lopresto's "barn find" *01845*, whose presence at Monterey was a big surprise to both of us. So not only did Tim get to see three of the Alfatross' brethren but also a complete spectrum of examples from a non-running restoration candidate to a numbers-matching, running, preservation "barn find" to a fully restored example. Between the two of us we have now personally inspected six of The Alfatross' brethren--or about 24% of the known survivors. Our database of 1900C SSZ characteristics is growing!
During the five weeks I spent in the Turks and Caicos Islands installing the new exhibits I kept thinking about The Alfatross and the many common threads connecting archaeology, carchaeology, and museology. One of the exhibits required us to fabricate a mannequin of a helmet diver from the 1800s who salvaged shipwrecks from all around the Caribbean Sea, and put him in his "dive locker" surrounded by his air pump, diving equipment, and objects he brought up from beneath the sea.
The other exhibit was a lot more complicated. We had to build a full-scale reproduction of the "Lantern Room" of the Grand Turk lighthouse, install the lamp, lens, and mechanical clockwork--and make them all work together again for the first time in decades. We had to balance authenticity with practicality, figure out how to get Industrial Age machinery working again, create physical contexts to put them in, pay attention to authentic materials, textures and finishes and, most importantly, tell a true story. Not so different from restoring an old car!
But the thing that struck me as the most important correspondence between exhibit creation and car restoration is that they both take longer and cost more than expected!
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| *01947*--Bill Kelly's 1955 1900C SS Zagato. Gooding and Co. |
I still wanted to go, but I had previous work commitments. I was scheduled to return to Santa Fe a few days before the Gooding auction where the Kelly car would be offered, but I knew from previous experience that the job I had to do, installing an exhibit in the Turks and Caicos Islands National Museum, would likely take longer.
While I was in the Islands Tim Marinos of Vintage Autocraft called to say that he needed to see the Kelly car to help answer some questions that had come up while he was working on the chassis and body of The Alfatross. There was also the possibility of seeing another one of the brethren, Arturo Keller's totally restored *02056*, but that was not certain. With relief, I agreed that Tim should make the trip and see and photograph both cars, if possible. By this time I knew I would still be 3,500 miles from Monterey during Car Week.
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| *02056*--Arturo Keller's beautifully restored 1955 1900C SS Zagato. Tim Marinos. |
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| *01845*--Corrado Lopresto's "barn find" 1954 1900C SS Zagato. Tim Marinos. |
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| Jeremiah Murphy mannequin in full diving regalia along with air pump and salvage items. |
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| The "lamp room" recreation utilizing the original Fresnel lens, gravity-driven clockwork, and lantern parts. |
But the thing that struck me as the most important correspondence between exhibit creation and car restoration is that they both take longer and cost more than expected!
