Scale: 1:36. A Georgian full hull model of the ‘Wolverine’ (1798), a 12-gun sixth-rate sloop. The model is decked. This vessel was used to demonstrate a system devised by Captain John Schank by which the carriages of her lower deck guns ran in grooves in the deck. The model shows the hull with some external detail, and part of the deck planking aft is left off to show how the guns are fitted.

Built as the merchant ship ‘Rattler’ of London, the ‘Wolverine’ was purchased by Captain John Schanck and converted to a small warship. Schanck fitted powerful carronades along the centre line, fitted in grooves so that they could be swung from one side to the other and thus double her armament for a given weight. This proved unsuccessful in practice, as the weight on one side caused it to heel so much that the gunports could not be opened except in calm weather. The ‘Wolverine’ had some success despite its faults, until a French privateer captured then sank it in 1804.