Scale: 1:96. Waterline model of the 'Container Venturer' (1958), a container ship The wooden and glass case is marked SLR3044.1

A rather quaint looking model depicting one of the world’s first container ships, ‘Container Venturer’ (1958), chugging along on calm blue water, red duster flying in the breeze. The ship is fully laden with 16 containers that look more like railway carriages without their bogies, because that is exactly what they are.

This model represents the very beginning of containerized transport. Compared with the current generation of container ships with a capacity in excess of 7500 40-foot TEUs, 'Container Venturer' is a mere minnow. The model seems to have been made to a budget and is showing signs of its age, but it’s a valuable record of an important development in cargo shipping.

The actual vessel was built by the Ailsa Shipbuilding Company, on the Clyde, for British Transport Commission London Midland Region, for its service between Heysham and Belfast. It wasn’t for another 20 years that the owners became a part of Sealink UK Ltd., in whose livery the model is depicted. In later life 'Container Venturer' had a number of changes in ownership and names, the most recent being ‘Sunshine One’. At the time of writing, it is still operating as a cargo ship.