Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the HMS 'Rattler' (1886), a composite steam gunboat. Constructed in the builder’s style, the model is decked, fully equipped and rigged with the name ‘Rattler’ inscribed on the stern. Built by Armstrong, Mitchell and Company, Newcastle upon Tyne, she measured 165 feet in length by 29 feet in the beam and displaced 715 tons. She was powered by a reciprocating steam engine of 1200 initial horsepower producing a service speed of 13.5 knots.

Armed with six 4-inch guns, ‘Rattler’ was a composite vessel with wooden planks secured to iron frames, a system that was eventually superseded by the all steel hulls. She was used as an experimental vessel in 1900-07, during which time the steam engines were replaced by a five-cylinder gas engine, which reduced the operational speed down to 9 knots. In 1914 she was converted to a salvage vessel serving at Scapa Flow, renamed ‘Dryad’ in 1919, and eventually sold for scrap in 1924.