Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the 16-gun brig ‘Pilot’ (1838), complete with stump masts and bowsprit, the whole mounted on turned wooden pillars secured inside an original display case. The hull is copper-sheathed (painted) below the waterline and has Greek or Roman male figurehead mounted on the bow. The channels, together with chains and deadeyes, are fitted to the upper bulwarks externally, whilst on deck are a variety of fittings such as the wheel, capstan, skylights and hatches.

The ‘Pilot’ was designed by Sir William Symonds, Chief Surveyor of the Navy and built at Plymouth in 1838. Measuring 105 feet in length by 33 in the beam this vessel and other of its class were classed as ‘sloops rigged as brigs’ but others were simply ‘brigs’ and had 12 guns instead of 16. The armament consisted of two 18-pounders and fourteen 32-pounders and carried a compliment of 130 crew. Other ships built on the same lines included ‘Acorn’, ‘Albatross’, ‘Arab’, ‘Bittern’, ‘Despatch’, ‘Elk’, ‘Fantome’, ‘Greacian’, ‘Heron’, ‘Kangaroo’, ‘Mauner’, ‘Martin’, and ‘Persian’. After a fairly uneventful career, the ‘Pilot’ was broken up in 1862.