Half Model of a 3-Gun Schooner Gunboat

Entry

Polychromed bracket model of the starboard side of a two-masted ship, mounted on a framed rectangular wooden backboard.

The side of the ship is depicted by ribbands attached to frame moulds. Above the wale the side is planked. A black rail on stanchions runs along the entire length of the ship. The beakhead is low, there are two gun emplacements in the bow next to the bowsprit and foremast (of which only one is shown, this being a half model). The deck is closed and raised in the middle with hatches. Twenty-four thwarts and twenty-four thole pins are fitted on the gunwale. On the aft deck one gun is placed on a slide, with a companion ladder positioned just in front of it. The sheer is almost flat. One wale and a sheer rail are indicated, both are painted black. The stern has a square tuck and a straight rudder without a helm, probably to be steered with a rudder quadrant. The hull is S-bottomed, though flat and low, with sharp bows and painted white below the waterline. The position of two masts and the bowsprit is shown in a truncated form.

This schooner is very similar to the so-called ‘war galleys’ (see models NG-MC-666, NG-MC-668 and NG-MC-669). According to Obreen this schooner gunboat was built in 1803.¹

Scale unknown.