Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a fireship (circa 1770), built plank on frame in the Georgian style. The model is decked, parts of which are removable, equipped and the hull is mounted within a launching cradle on a slipway. It has not been possible to associate this model with a particular ship, but at this scale, it represents a ship 103 feet in length along the gun deck by 27 feet in the beam and weighing approximately 360 tons burden.

Many of the navy’s fireships were adapted and converted from sloops and, in some cases, merchantmen. The fire deck included a light timber structure on which was placed brushwood and other combustible material with barrels of tar and oil. Flues extended to the upper deck to ensure an adequate draught. In order that the flames would not reach a vital area too soon, protective bulkheads were built round the masts and also the holds containing barrels of gunpowder. Grappling irons lashed to the ends of the yards were intended to entangle with the enemy ship’s rigging and hold it so that the fire and the gunpowder would have the greatest effect. The fireships were sent downwind, and usually with the tide, with a skeleton crew aboard who would take to the boats at the last possible minute.