Nemesis — 1839 East India Company Iron Warship Model (55.1 in / 140 cm, Plank-on-Frame Wood)
Nemesis — 1839 East India Company Iron Warship Model (55.1 in / 140 cm, Plank-on-Frame Wood)
How big is it?
Length about 140 cm / 55.1 in. Drawn to scale; the model outline is a simplified shape.
Model details
- Size
- 55.1 in / 140 cm
- Materials
- Brass
- Construction
- Plank-on-frame, built by hand
- Condition
- Fully assembled, ready to display
- Display
- Wooden base with brass nameplate
- Collection
- Tall Ship Models - Admiral Line
- Item no.
- T363
The ship that ended the age of sail as a military proposition — built here in wood at 55 inches, plank on frame.
Nemesis is an unusual subject: an iron paddle steamer rendered in hardwood. The model carries her low, flat-bottomed hull, twin paddle boxes, funnel and auxiliary sailing rig, which together explain why she could go where no warship had gone before.
Specification
- 55.1 in / 140 cm
- Plank-on-frame hull in hardwood
- Paddle boxes, funnel and deck machinery
- Auxiliary masts with hand-knotted rigging and hand-stitched sails
- Deck detail: guns, boats, wheel, rails and fittings
- Metal anchors and rudder
- Solid wood base with engraved brass nameplate
- Fully assembled — arrives crated
History
Built on the Mersey in 1839 for the East India Company, Nemesis was the first British ocean-going iron warship. She drew only five feet loaded, carried two pivot-mounted 32-pounders, and could steam directly into wind and current up rivers that sailing warships could not enter at all. In the First Opium War she went up the Pearl River and destroyed a Chinese war-junk fleet in a single afternoon at Chuenpi in January 1841. The engagement is usually cited as the moment iron and steam settled the argument with wood and sail.
She is worth owning as a hinge point rather than a hero. What she demonstrated changed naval warfare permanently, and what she was used for is a harder history.