Scale: 1:48. A block design model of the ‘Ruby’ (1725), a 50-gun, small two-decker. The model was believed to be of the ‘Ruby’, which was launched as a 50-gunner in 1708, but reclassified as a fifth-rate 44-gunner, the ‘Mermaid’ in 1744.

There are, however, serious difficulties in attributing the name ‘Ruby’ to this model. That ship was smaller than that represented by the model. The dimensions are roughly those of 50-gun ships on the Establishment of 1719 (see SLR0415) and the wales suggest much the same date. It is possible there was a proposal to rebuild the ‘Ruby’ about 1725 that was not carried out.

The ‘Ruby’ served mainly in home waters, in the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea, with one tour off the African coast in winter 1742–43.