Scale: 1:24. A fine model of a Lowestoft steam drifter (1906). It is complete with all standing and running rigging, and the mizzen sail is shown furled. The model is largely unpainted and allows us to see the modelmaker’s skills in miniature joinery, like the hull’s planking. At this large scale the model looks robust and sturdy but it is a fine piece of work, too. The number that appears on its port and starboard bows, and on its accompanying plaque, ‘LT2539’, appears to be fictitious as the registration number is higher than those in use in the early 1900s.

The drifters of this period were approximately 82 feet in length, 19 feet in the beam, with a draught of 8 feet. Tonnages were around 90 gross and 45 net. In 1906 a fishing vessel of this type would have cost about £3500 and its gear in the region of £700-800.

At the turn of the 20th century the sailing drifter began to be replaced by coal-burning steam-powered craft which could make the passage to and from the fishing grounds on a more regular time schedule, and have greater manoeuvrability in the congested harbours and waters of the east coast. Wooden hulls were retained at first, but later on steel was used. Large fleets of driftnet vessels fished the grounds of the North Sea. With their nets spread out like a wall for a mile or more, they could sometimes be a nerve-racking obstacle to steamships on passage in the vicinity.