Where does this ship go?!

As I mentioned earlier, I built a pirate ship out of bottles for a class project. Well, I turned it in and it was very well received. In fact, it was actually an entry in a contest. . . and it won! We'll just ignore the minor detail that it was the only entry . . .

Here's the neat thing about winning contests at MIT: The prizes are good. How good? Here's what I won:



It's a 2 gig flash drive/mp3 player/voice recorder. Not bad for building a ship out of bottles, eh?

After the contest I was left with a predicament. What do I do with the giant, bottle pirate ship? I could sail it in the Charles but it's cold, I'm busy, and it would require too much work. I can't take it back to the dorm because there's nothing to do with it there. I can't really just leave it in the main lobby of the Media Lab, so what now? Well, MIT has this place called the "Hart Nautical Gallery" in building 5 that displays amazing model ships.





What better place than this for a giant Poland Spring and duct tape pirate ship? I sailed (slid) my ship down the infinite corridor and turned left in lobby 7. After accepting many compliments and posing for some reporter (not kidding) I arrived at port. I took advantage of an empty display pedestal and lifted my ship up onto it.





There, perfect! The only thing missing was a descriptive placard to place next to it. A quick visit to a nearby Athena cluster was all it took and soon enough I was the proud parent of an (un)official entry to the Hart Nautical Museum.



I have no idea if it's still there, I try to avoid leaving the dorm now because of the terrible weather (foot and a half of snow on the ground, 6 inches of wet slush in the streets, and sleet in the air). So, if you happen to walk by building 5 and see it, say hi to it for me!