Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the 120-gun three-decked ship HMS ‘Howe’ (1860) mounted on its original wooden baseboard. It is complete with stump masts and bowsprit, two shortened funnels, a full set of guns mounted through their ports and a half bust gold-painted figurehead on the bow. The hull is finished in the traditional black and white striped colour scheme, with a coppered bottom, and a single screw mounted at the stern.

Measuring 260 feet in length by 60 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 4116, the ‘Howe’ and her sisters represented the ultimate development of the traditional ‘wooden wall’ battleship. The introduction of longer range guns, able to disperse their fire over a wide area, made it unnecessary to have three tiers of guns and the inability of the three-decker to fight in shallow water had countered against it during the Crimean War. The introduction of the ironclad finally made it obsolete.

The ‘Howe’ was built at Pembroke Dockyard and launched in 1860. Originally she carried 120 guns, but this number was later reduced to 102. She was renamed ‘Bulwark’ in 1885 and ‘Impregnable’ in 1886 when she became a training ship for boys at Devonport. The ‘Howe’ was finally sold for breaking in 1920.