Scale: 1:32. This was one of seven models of British coastal craft commissioned from Launcelot Foster by Mr B. K. Hope of Heswall, Cheshire, who died in 1943. They were all acquired in 1952 by the donor of this model. The National Maritime Museum also acquired models from Mr Hope, in July 1942, so he must have been a serious collector.

Rigged with set sails, it is very distinctive with its prominent markings on its mainsail. It is highly detailed as we can glean in a letter from Foster to Mr Frank Carr, a previous Director of the NMM: ‘The hull is solid below the LWL [waterline], hollowed out for the accommodation, topsides planked, also the deck. Reefing gear and windlass are workable fittings: the punt is properly timbered and planked. The companion sides are unshipped and all visible arrangements below fitted’.

The gaff-rigged pilot cutters of the Bristol Channel were required to have exceptional sea-keeping qualities to work in all weathers. The ‘Cariad’, built by Rowles, of Pill, in 1904, joined the Cardiff fleet of pilot boats and when, in December 1922, she handed over her station to a new steam cutter, she was the last sailing pilot cutter to be working in the Bristol Channel. Subsequently she was owned by Frank Carr and latterly underwent extensive restoration at the Exeter Maritime Museum, where she was on display to the public for many years.