Scale: not calculated. The hull of this model has been made entirely from wood and constructed ‘bread and butter’ fashion using horizontally alternating light- and dark-stained and heavily varnished woods to produce a striped effect. The copper rivets are clearly shown. Some planks have been omitted from the inner hull, so that we can see the frames. We are informed by the donor that the model was made before 1914 for surveys and legal cases and we also have, acquired from the same source, a half hull model , stylistically similar, depicting an identical vessel (SLR1413).

Lighters were – and still are – the workhorses of Britain’s rivers, with their flat, shallow bottoms, vertical sides for coming alongside quays and jetties, shallow-angled bows for beaching, strong resilient framing, and capacious holds.