A bottle containing a very inaccurate model of a ship-rigged vessel. It is mounted on a black wooden base. The sea is made of plaster and this has also been inserted into the base of the bottle to give a shore scene with five houses, a church and a lighthouse. The trees are made of shaved wooden pegs with the shavings painted green. The model ship is made of wood, with sewing cotton rigging. Her hull is painted black with a white stripe.

The maker, Frederick Sheppard was born in London on 12 September 1852 and started training in 1867 in HMS 'Ganges'. He travelled to China in the troop ship HMS 'Adventure' in 1869 and contracted smallpox while HMS 'Elk' was in Japan. The remainder of his naval career was mostly spent stationed in the United Kingdom until he was discharged with a naval disability pension in March 1881. For the next ten years he was employed in the merchant service, latterly in vessels belonging to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and Shaw Savill Line carrying passengers to Australia and New Zealand. In 1891 he was resident in Toulmin Street, Southwark.