Scale: 1:48. HMS ‘Envoy’ was the first of a class of six tugs built for the Admiralty by Cochrane & Sons of Selby for war-time general rescue and salvage work at sea. More specifically they were intended for use on D-Day. Some of their more interesting tows included a 7000 ton cruiser, an Admiralty floating dock, and two fully loaded 10,000 ton merchantmen. One of their heaviest tows consisted of three linked timber rafts, which required full power from the tug to maintain three or four knots.

These ‘Envoy class’ tugs were 160 feet in length and 762 gross registered tons. They were powered by a 1625 IHP triple expansion steam engine which gave them a service speed of thirteen knots. After the War several of them were sold to private tug operators and they continued to undertake many long and difficult voyages to and from various parts of the world. We can see on the model how these vessels were armed – a single three inch anti-aircraft gun, two 20mm anti-aircraft guns, and two machine guns.