Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the ‘Centurion’ (1774), a 50-gun small two-decker. The model is decked and rests on a slipway. It has the name ‘Centurion’ painted on the stern. The figurehead depicts a centurion wearing a helmet.

The ‘Centurion’ was built at Woolwich by Barnard & Co. and designed by Sir T. Slade. It measured 146 feet along the gun deck by 40 feet in the beam. Between 1775 and 1780, it served in the Caribbean taking part in the Battle of Martinique (1780). It then returned home and had its hull coppered – a relatively new technique employed to protect the underwater hull from the attack of marine boring worms, molluscs and weed growth. Between 1795 and 1805 the ‘Centurion’ served in the East Indies taking part in the Capture of Ceylon (1795) and was involved in Red Sea operations around Suez (1799–1800). It was broken up at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1825 having been a receiving ship there since 1809.