Exercise in ingenuity and dexterity

[Sparks]

I made this recently.   No trick.     I drilled a hole in the end of a brass rod, put it inside a small bottle, and fitted a long nut & bolt with a washer on either side of the rod.    This was done simply by fiddling about inside the bottle with a long thin stick.    Took about an hour - totally pointless, but I just wanted to find out if I could do it!
bob
 

[Mike Watterson]

The special tweezers etc to assemble a ship inside a bottle, plus the patience... oops, I've given the secret away. Long voyages used to be even more boring and tedious than today, though changing / trimming sails was a lot of work. I suppose it the course was constant and wind unchanging they were set to holystoning the deck etc. I think they have DVDs, Playstations, Satellite TV etc, so not so much crafts such as carving teeth/tusks/bones and models. Probably not so much card games either.

[Refugee]

There is another secret out there.
They sell a very expensive liquor that has a pear in the bottle.
When they grow the pears the tree looks like they are growing glass bottles on it all summer.

[Mike Watterson]

Competition time!

Superhet including power in a bottle! May use AA, AAA, CR123, or Solar power

[Sparks]

No boring times in sailings ships - it was work -work -work.   Four hours on, four hours off, all day and all night, as long as the ship was at sea, that could be months on end!    
I have never made a ship in a bottle though, and my brass rod, nut & bolt was done using my usual methods of making it up as I went along!
Radio in a bottle - might be able to do that, as all the bits would go in easy enough and switch-tuning done via reed switches inside operated by a neodymium magnet on the outside.
Modern ships crews don't have much time for any leisure these days, as the manning levels have been cut to the bone.    Again, it is work - work -work.   But they often get equal amount of leave.    i.e.  For my last 13 years at sea, I did two months on, two months off.   The off time being with full pay!
Bob

[Brianc]

For my last 13 years at sea, I did two months on, two months off.   The off time being with full pay!
Bob

That sounds a bit like the Alley Pally shift the BBC worked with some operational and engineering staff. Not quite the two months off/two months on but it was a great shift to be on. A fortnight was divided into a 7 off 12 hour day periods giving 84/2 hrs per "week". The "Working Week" comprised Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The other days were non-working days.
There were two shifts interleaved to cover the full working week.
Many worked on their days off such as TV service engineers, Aerial erectors and the like and some teamed up with someone on the other shift to hold down a full-time position.
I remember my father could not get used to me being at home so often and would say "Another day off? You'll get the sack, mark my words!".