Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the iron-hulled floating battery ‘HMS Thunderbolt’ (1856), mounted in its original glazed wooden display case. It is complete with stump masts and bowsprit and a number of deck fittings such as hatches, capstans for handling the anchors when moored for firing, a wheel and a telescopic funnel. It has 15 smooth-bore muzzle-loading guns mounted on either side of the hull, of which only one side would be rigged for firing during a bombardment of another vessel or targets ashore.

The ‘Thunderbolt’ measured 186 feet in length by 48 feet in the beam, with a tonnage of 1954 and was built by Samuda Brothers, Millwall, London. She was initially built to defend the mouth of the Thames but in 1873 was used as a floating pier head at Chatham. In 1916, she was renamed ‘Daedalus’ and in 1948, was rammed and sunk by a tug. She was eventually raised and broken a year later.