Scale: 1:48. A block model of the ‘Britannia’ (1719), a 100-gun three-decker, first-rate ship of the line. Scale: 1:48. A block model of the first rate 100-gun ship Britannia (1719) made entirely in wood and painted in realistic colours. The hull is painted white below the waterline, pale ochre above, with double wales and three further small wales above, all painted black. The stern and quarter galleries, together with other embellished areas, are painted black with fittings and decoration finely painted in dark ochre. The large beakhead-like decoration at the bow has on it on either side a painted representation of Britannia’s figurehead. The decks are flush with no fittings or details and painted a uniform cream. Fittings include a scaling ladder on the port side, entry ports on both sides at main gundeck level, two officers’ heads and two open galleries at the stern. The model is mounted on a pair of rectangular plinth supports and displayed on a rectangular wooden baseboard.

The ship ‘Britannia’ was launched in October 1719 at Woolwich. It was 175 feet long in the gun deck with a beam of 50 feet, and weighed 1895 tons burden. It would have carried twenty-eight 32-pound guns on its gun deck, twenty-eight 24-pounders on its middle deck, twenty-eight 12-pounders on its upper deck, along with twelve 6-pounders on its quarterdeck and four on its forecastle. Its complement was 800 men.

In 1734, it was prepared for sea as the flagship of Sir John Norris, and served on the Tagus station in 1735 and 1736. By 1745, it had returned to Sheerness as a hospital ship, and was broken up at Chatham in 1749. See also SLR0223.