Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a 24-gun, sixth-rate sloop (circa 1745), built in the Georgian style. The model is decked and features a carved figurehead and ornately decorated stern. Taken from the model, the vessel measures 114 feet along the gun deck by 32 feet in the beam, displacing approximately 570 tons burden. Oar ports do not appear to have been fitted and only two of the lower deck gunports were armed (two 9-pounders). The smaller ports are for ballast and stores. The quarterdeck was armed with two 3-pounders and the upper deck with twenty 9-pounders.

This is likely to be an experimental model made during the period of the Establishments. In appearance it agrees with the 24-gun ships of the 1745 Establishment but it is slightly too long and narrow. It does show some of the main differences between the Establishments of 1733 and 1745. The later ships, for instance, had the longer quarterdeck and forecastle as shown here.

Prior to entering the Museum’s collection, the model belonged to the Bazeley family of Dover. Correspondence in the NMM files suggests that the model might represent the ‘Harpy’, commanded by Henry Bazeley about 1797. This is doubtful however, since it would make this vessel over 50 years old at that time and it is unlikely that a ship built in 1745 of this class would have been in service in 1797.

Sloops were the largest fighting vessel commanded by an officer of lower rank then a captain. Early 18th-century vessels of this type were two-masted and carried fewer than 20 guns. They were replaced by a larger three-masted (ship-rigged) vessels, such as that depicted by this model, by the mid-18th century.