Scale: 1:48. A block design model of a 24-gun sixth-rate sloop (circa 1740). The model probably represents the design for the 1741 Establishment ships like the ‘Sheerness’, launched at Rotherhithe in 1743. They were 112 feet in length and 32 feet in breadth and weighed 498 tons burden. They carried two 9-pounders on their lower decks, twenty 9-pounders on their upper decks, and two 3-pounders on their quarterdecks.

These relatively small ships could see a great deal of service. The ‘Sheerness’ served in the Channel, off the Shetlands, the Flemish coast (where she helped capture three Dunkirkers) and the Scottish coast. She was posted to Jamaica in 1748 and returned to the Western Squadron at the beginning of the Seven Years War, during which she helped to capture another two ships. Then the ‘Sheerness’ was stationed in the Mediterranean until 1763, before being sold in 1768.