Scale: 1:40. A full hull model of the Royal Yacht ‘Mary’ circa 1660, built in ‘bread and butter’ fashion. The model is decked, equipped and fully rigged with the sails set. It has been constructed using two known drawings of the ‘Mary’ and contemporary plans of a similar vessel.

The ‘Mary’ was originally built for the Dutch East India Company and then bought by the City of Amsterdam for presentation to King Charles II at his restoration in 1660. Measuring 66 feet in length by 18 feet in the beam, it was 100 tons burden and carried an armament of six three-pounder guns. The hull is of a typical Dutch form with a flat and shallow draught using adjustable leeboards to act as a keel when under sail. In the yachts subsequently built in England, the leeboards were abandoned and the hulls made deeper and finer (see SLR0375). The ‘Mary’ was the first official royal yacht and used by the King for pleasure and visits to the fleet. It was wrecked in the Irish Sea in 1675.