T was May 19, 2006 and the estate auction was being held in Paget. Someone mentioned that a model ship, in very poor condition, was being auctioned the next day.

It was featured as item number 129 in the catalogue and there it lay on a coffee table; a fully-rigged model sailing ship in what was left of a broken Bermuda cedar glass case. Two panes of glass missing, the model virtually dismasted and covered in dust. To many it would have been a candidate for the trash bin.

But a small piece of bone inscribed "GPOW-Bermuda 1916" was pinned to the base of the case ? the initials meant "German Prisoner of War Bermuda" and a treasure of World War One in Bermuda had been discovered.

It sold for $300 and there was only one bid.

With the outbreak of war in 1914 Bermuda was faced with the problem of dealing with German residents and merchant seamen. Ports Island was the logical choice as a prisoner of war camp because of its isolation and semi-readiness, having been used as the administrative camp for the Boer prisoners of war in 1901 and 1902.

The first internees were officers and crew from the ships , , , , and . And in December 1914 three local German residents were also interred on Ports Island.

For the first three years of the war, German interests in Bermuda were represented by the United States Government. The US Consul General faithfully made his monthly visits to the island until the United States entered the war in 1917 and then the prisoners' welfare became Switzerland's responsibility.

Unlike during the Boer War when there were 4,619 men imprisoned in the POW camps on the islands of the Great Sound, the Germans interred in Bermuda during World War One numbered no more than 58. By 1917 this figure had reduced to 48 and of these, 35 were merchant seamen, ten merchant marine officers and the three locals.

The prisoners were guarded by a detachment of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and they occupied their time by cultivating vegetable gardens, raising chicken and rabbits, and pig rearing.

Some prisoners were transported to Warwick each day to work for local farmers. However the main source of income was the carving of cedar souvenirs for American tourists.

Many of the souvenirs reflected their maker's links with the sea and included a model ship in an electric light bulb, model life belts, napkin rings, boxes, walking sticks and picture frames.

The carving was exquisite and the maker would normally carve the letters "GPOW" on the item, often with the year and an initial. German prisoner of war work is very rare but occasionally appears at local auctions and what happened in May 2006 solved a 90-year mystery. Who carved the piece of bone marked "GPOW Bermuda 1916"?

A unique item in poor condition required a unique craftsman to bring it back to life. Was it worth repairing; could it be done? Well the answer lay with master craftsman Fred Phillips and the model with its attendant bits was placed in a Lindo's paper bag and duly delivered.

On September 9, 2006 four months of painstaking work was unveiled. The sailing ship in its restored cedar case looked magnificent. A work of art reborn. But the poignant part of the story had been unveiled two months earlier when Fred dismantled the case.

a small three-inch piece of cedar strut a name was very faintly inscribed in pencil. The German Prisoner of War list had been found among a pile of rotting papers at Fort Prospect back in 1975 and by glancing through the names it was possible to discern that the model in the glass case had been made by 25-year-old Karl Heinrich Junge, POW No. 11, who was captured aboard the SSon August 10, 1914.

Junge had been in the army but had transferred to the German Navy. Of the 58 German POWs on Ports Island, 38 came from the .

Fred's eye for detail had unravelled the 90-year mystery for at the Bermuda Maritime Museum, Dockyard, are two much larger sailing ships also in glass cases. Each ship has the tell-tale piece of bone attached to the case and inscribed in the same detail as the one on the reconstructed ship. And there are some other striking examples of Junge's work in Bermuda.

When it comes to historical detail Fred Philips is the go-to man ? a master of incredible craftsmanship coupled with the fine instincts of a historical detective.