Tuesday, April 4, 2000

Ships from distant times set sail again

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Spaniard Julio Allo has carved 10 oversized replicas of ships. His works include great ships of history and original designs. He says this one, the English ship Great Harry, took him four years to complete. In addition to handcrafting the woodwork, he sews the sails himself.

Growing up in the coastal village of La Coruña, Spain, Julio Allo saw his share of ships come and go from the village harbor and spent countless hours daydreaming of their faraway ports of call.
   But when he laid eyes on Virgen del Carmen, a hand-carved wooden replica of a ship named after Spain's patron saint of sailors, ships became a lifelong passion.
   "My family was so poor that I had no carving tools. So I used a pocket knife that a neighbor made for me," said Allo, recalling how the wooden ship carved by a craftsman from the province had been donated to a church and suspended from its ceiling for all of Coruña to see.
   Forty-five years later, Allo, 52, is still that 7-year-old at heart, carving ship after ship, the memory of Virgen del Carmen never far away.
   "I've made several ships since that first one, but so far I haven't made the one I've been envisioning for so long," Allo admitted.
   After serving four years in the Spanish navy, Allo came to Corpus Christi and married a year later. It was here that he carved his first large-scale replica in the garage of his home.
   "My wife and I used to go to the museums and we'd see small replica ships on display," Allo recalled. "I'd say, 'Oh, that's nothing. I can do that with my eyes closed.' "
   La Niña
   At his wife's encouragement, Allo decided to take on the challenge. Allo quickly found out that the skills he had developed in childhood using crude tools helped him years later to develop his own wood-carving techniques.
   To date, Allo has carved 10 replicas, five of which he has given away as gifts to friends and family. All of those, from the gun powder kegs to the cannons, he has crafted by hand. Allo also meticulously sews his own ship masts from canvas and paints the mast insignias himself.
   Allo's replica of Christopher Columbus' Niña is by far the smallest in his home collection, dwarfed in size by his replica of the Great Harry, which measures more than 7 feet, 7 inches tall and 9 feet long. The Great Harry, a 16th-century English ship, took Allo four years to complete.
   'A simple block of wood'
   Another of Allos' works is the Golden Hinde, a 16th-century English flagship. Last year he carved a ship modeled after a vision that came to him in a dream; he named this Galicia, after the Spanish province where he grew up. Allo is now carving a replica of the USS Constitution, a frigate launched in 1797, the oldest commissioned warship afloat today. Eventually, Allo said he'd like to carve La Pinta, the Santa Maria and a 1600s English ship, Sovereign of the Seas.
   "It's amazing what he can do with a simple block of wood," said Allo's wife, Delma, a Carroll High School English teacher. "He is so patient with it all, down to the smallest detail."
   Allo has never displayed his hobby outside his home.
   But when his son and daughter, now high school graduates, were in school, he occasionally took one or two for show and tell.
   Allo hopes to one day find a suitable venue to display his work.
   "I don't mind that they sit in our living room," Allo's wife said.
   "In fact, I encourage him because I know it's something he enjoys doing and that does my heart good. So much love goes into these ships that they are breathtaking."
  
  
 

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