Scale: 1:24. Full hull design model of a ship's launch (circa 1838), built plank on frame in double diagonal fashion in the Georgian style. One of a set of ten boat designs (SLR0768-SLR0777) proposed by Sir William Symonds, Surveyor of the Navy, to be carried by a first-rate man-of-war. The hull is mounted on turned wooden pillars above a beaded wooden baseboard on which is the number ‘1’on a paper label. A loose plaque is inscribed ‘Launch 41 feet’. The hull is complete with ten thwarts, bottom boards, seating in the stern sheets and a rudder fitted with a tiller.

The launch was introduced in the early 19th century and only carried by the largest warships. They were mainly used for transporting large numbers of the crew, towing the ship if becalmed and general heavy-duty work such as moving with the anchors and cables or carrying water barrels to and from the shore. This series of models includes some of the earliest contemporary references to the double diagonal planking construction, the main principal of which is to produce a thin but very strong lightweight hull.