Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the sixth- rate turret ship HMS ‘Active’ (1866). It is complete with its original decorated wooden base and is fully rigged with tripod masts and spars. This model illustrates one of a series of eight men-of-war as proposed by Vice-Admiral E. P. Halsted, which carried guns, and turrets as designed by Captain Cowper Coles.

Measuring 367 feet in length by 52 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 4926 (builder’s old measurement), the ‘Active’ was to be a heavily armed corvette for service as a cruiser in the protection of merchant shipping. She would have had two turrets with four 9-inch guns on the upper deck, and a full broadside armament fitted on the deck below.

The model has both working turrets as well as a mechanism for operating the screw and the maker’s name would suggest it was associated with the engine makers, Humphrey & Tennant.