Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of HMS 'Merlin' (1838), a mail packet vessel, built in ‘bread and butter’ fashion in the builder’s style. Model is decked and equipped including two stump masts.

Built in Pembroke Dockyard the ‘Merlin’ measured 175 feet in length by 33 feet in the beam it had a tonnage 889 builder’s old measurement. Designed by Sir William Symonds and launched on 18 September 1838, it was first employed as a mail packet from Liverpool to Holyhead. By 1849, the Royal Navy was gradually relinquishing responsibility for the carriage of mails, so the ‘Merlin’ was converted to a survey ship. It was commissioned as a 6-gun steam sloop in the Crimean War, 1854–55, and was later sold for breaking up in 1863.