Scale: 1:24(?). A contemporary full hull model of barge or raft designed for the transportation of horses or cattle (1856), mounted on its original wooden baseboard. According to earlier catalogues and the inscription on the model, it was proposed by Commander McDonald and was ‘Received at the Royal Naval Museum from the Admiralty, Feb. 27th 1856’.

The model is finished in a grey colour and depicts a vessel probably made from wood, with a flat bottom and sides. The two angled ends are hinged at the base and half way up and resemble an early type of landing barge, similar to the landing craft type used during the Second World War. The interior is fitted with movable wooden beams that fit athwart ships to create stalls and would indicate a flexible method of securing animals of different shapes and sizes when underway. The four tall vertical posts were probably used for securing ropes for towing or lashing other rafts together, when being used to transport livestock from ship to shore and vice versa. At this suggested scale, the dimensions would be 44 feet in length by 10 feet in the beam.