Photograph of Italo Tiezzi holding wooden ship, 1941

Photograph of Italo Tiezzi in 1941, holding a wooden ship made by an Italian merchant marine in Camp Petawawa, where his father Gino Tiezzi was interned. Italo named his ship Rosina after his mother.

Letters from the camps relate how many of the men occupied their time by carving wood. Many internees brought wooden objects home to their families, including mirrors, painted reliefs, jewellery boxes, serving trays and ships.

Other ship carvings made in camp have been noted in the video interviews. Frank Martinello still cherishes a bottled wooden ship his father Felice Martiniello brought home from camp. Alessandro Biffi remembers playing as a child with wooden rowboats his father Alberto Severo Biffi brought home.