Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a flat-bottomed troopboat (circa 1758), built in the Georgian style. The model is decked and equipped, with 16 oars, a boom, mainmast, foremast and a boathook.

This is one of a series of contemporary models showing how troops were transported for landing. It shows the fore and aft benches to accommodate the soldiers and the short thwartship benches for the oarsmen. The oars were rowed against the thole pins placed in the gunwales. A swivel gun was usually mounted on the stem-piece and sometimes a small cannon was placed in the slide, aft. All the interior fittings were detachable so that the boats could be carried in the transport. This troopboat has a square transom as opposed to those with a round stern (see SLR0499).

These clinker-built 18th-century troopboats were carried in specially adapted transports chartered by the Admiralty, and were used in landing operations on enemy shores. Landing was by means of a portable ramp carried in the bows. Many were used in raids on the French coast in 1758 and also at the capture of Havana and St Lucia. Thirty were employed for the spearhead of Wolfe’s attack on the Heights of Abraham, 1759.