F8952-003

A French, third rate, 74 guns warship (1800) Long Caption: A contemporary full model of a French 74-gun two-decker warship mounted on a slipway prior to launching. The hull is carved from a solid piece of boxwood and is finished in a natural varnish. It is complete with a variety of fittings including, capstans, guardrails, deck hatches and gratings, carved quarter and stern galleries, catheads and a figurehead on the bow. The hull is set on keel blocks on the slipway and supported by shores which would have gradually been knocked away prior and during the launching ceremony. The model is fitted to a wooden baseboard with a carved and fretted wooden fence around the perimeter. Described in the RUSI Catalogue page 114 as made by a French prisoner of war at Portsmouth about 1800. This style of model was popular with the visitors to the prisons and as such was made in fairly large numbers by the French prisoners of war, with large a number of these still surviving today. Credit line: © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Royal United Service Institution Collection. Object: SLR0638 Artist: unknown Date: circa 1800 Medium: fruit wood: mahogany; varnish Size: Overall model and base: 62 mm x 242 mm x 146 mm Click here to buy a bespoke print of this image.