Scale: 1:24. A contemporary builder’s full hull model of the single-screw steam tug ‘Ajax’ (1877). The hull is mounted on its original wooden baseboard and is complete with a number of fittings including fore hatch, skylight, ventilation cowlings, a stump mast and a single funnel on the engine room and bridge casing. The funnel is hinged and fitted with a counterbalance weight, to enable it to go under the bridges and work up river.

Measuring 60 feet in length by 13 feet in the beam, the ‘Ajax’ had a Thames tonnage of 46. She was built by the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, Blackwall, and represents a typical working tug that could be seen operating along the length of the tidal Thames carrying out a variety of tows from dumb barges to sailing and steaming vessels in and around the London Docks.