Scale: 1:12. A contemporary full hull model of a 28-foot naval cutter lifeboat (1864), mounted on its original wooden baseboard on which is inscribed ‘as designed and adopted in the Royal Navy in 1863’. The double-ended hull has been carved from a solid block of wood and is complete with rowing thwarts and lifting rings at bow and stern for use with the davits, nine oars, boathook and a metal tiller.

The model was made to show how the standard navy ship’s lifeboat could be improved by the addition of sealed air-cases in the bow and stern. The principal was that should the boat overturn, the large cases would raise the hull making it unstable, and it would then right itself. This was following the design adopted by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) five years earlier. Because of the success with its use by the RNLI, it was widely used throughout the Royal Navy well into the 20th century.