Scale: 1:180. The first battle-cruisers were launched in 1907 and their successors increased in size and power in the same way as battleships. HMS ‘Queen Mary’ (1912) was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Co. Ltd., Jarrow-on-Tyne. At 700 feet in length and 89 feet in the beam, she was a colossus. She had a complement of 1274, and particular attention was paid to the crew’s amenities including, remarkable at that period, a cinema projector for the entertainment of the ship’s company.

In the battle-cruiser force at Jutland, on 31 May 1916, she suddenly blew up with the loss of 1266 men. The explosion was probably due to cordite flash.

This model is one of a group of six that were made by the marine artist Alma Claude Burlton Cull. Cull is today well known for his brooding seascapes and canvases of regimented lines of ironclads from the period around the First World War and the NMM has three of his paintings. It is an excellent model, and made to a scale that does not prohibit intricate detail, yet is not unwieldy like the shipbuilder’s model of the same vessel (see SLR1408).