Ed Von Der Porten | Ship Modeler

About a week ago, I ran across an article from the San Francisco Chronicle about the Manila galleons. It war of particular interest because the article by Carl Nolte mentions ship modeler and friend, the late Ed Von der Porten. The article included a nice photo of Ed displaying his then-under-construction model of the San Juan, a Basque whale ship, which is very similar to the Manila galleons. You can read the full content of the SF Chronicle article here.

The exact whereabouts of the now completed model are presently unknown to me, or the other members of the South Bay Model Shipwrights club, but it was last known to be on display at the Sonoma County Museum. I’m hoping it’s still there, so I can see it again.

I did manage to get a nice photo of the model as it was displayed. The photo was taken by Ken Lum, who is currently the vice-president of the South Bay Model Shipwrights club.

Photo courtesy of Ken Lum.

I dug around further and found a couple photos of my own of Ed and his San Juan model, including a nice close-up I took at one of the club South Bay Club Meetings.

We lost Ed in 2018, but he and his work are not forgotten, so it was nice to see the mention of him in the SF Chronicle article. Meanwhile, I’ll be doing to some follow-up work to see if I can locate his San Juan model. Ω

I was shocked to read just a short time ago that my friend and long time ship modeler, historian, author, editor, teacher, Edward Von Der Porten passed away on Sunday, April 8th, 2018, following surgery complications. He was 84 years old.

Ed was a long-time member of the South Bay Model Shipwrights, which is where I met him. He served as co-VP and I know the members there will miss him and his fabulous work and expertise he brought to the group. Many of his ship modeling articles have graced the pages of Ships in Scale magazine, and he read over and critiqued many of my ship modeling articles for me, and guided me toward becoming a better writer. He even helped me get some ship model repair work with the National Park Service. I will always be in his debt for his guidance, kind support, and friendship.

There was an article posted on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website today about the man and his life. I hope you’ll take the time to read it: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Scholar-on-Sir-Francis-Drake-s-North-Bay-12826077.php

Edit: There was another article in the local Press Democrat: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8209238-181/ed-von-der-porten-santa?sba=AAS