Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the Japanese screw sloop ‘Seiki’ (1875) fully rigged with sails and mounted on a modern wooden baseboard. This highly detailed model is complete with numerous fittings including companion ladders and lifebuoys rigged on the hull, a full set of armament and anchor gear, and a set of five boats rigged from davits. The full suit of sails is stitched from individual cloths and includes reef points, cringles and boltropes. A majority of the metals fittings have been silvered, in the style of European builders’ models.

The ‘Seiki’, meaning ‘clear light’, was designed and built with the assistance of the French at the Imperial Dockyard, Yokosuka, and launched in 1875. Its wooden hull measured 200 feet in length by 30 feet in the beam and a displacement tonnage of 897. It was powered by a three cylinder reciprocating steam engine with a top speed of 9½ knots. The German company Krupp produced her main armament of breech loading guns, whilst the single 6-pounder gun was a British Armstrong. The ‘Seiki’ was the first Japanese warship to visit the British Isles in 1878, but later in December 1888, she went aground in the Fuji river and became a total constructive loss.

This model is one of a set of six Japanese warship models that were presented in 1910 to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, by the Japanese Government ‘as a token of their sincere gratitude for the kindness and courtesy which the Japanese Constructors and Engineers have experienced at the hands of the authorities of the Royal Naval College on the occasion of their studies here’. (see also models ‘Aki’ SLR1377, ‘Kurama’ SLR1378, ‘Takao’ SLR1182, ‘Niitaka’ SLR1334, ‘Mogami’ SLR1384)