Mercury — 19th-Century Royal Navy Brig Model, Medium Painted, Fully Assembled (32.7 in / 83 cm, Cedar, Mahogany & Teak)
Mercury — 19th-Century Royal Navy Brig Model, Medium Painted, Fully Assembled (32.7 in / 83 cm, Cedar, Mahogany & Teak)
How big is it?
Length about 83 cm / 32.7 in. Drawn to scale; the model outline is a simplified shape.
Model details
- Size
- 32.7 in / 83 cm
- Materials
- Mahogany, Western red cedar, Teak, Brass, Linen sails
- 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.
- T371
A 19th-century naval brig at 32.7 inches, hand-painted in black with a white gun-port strake, in cedar, mahogany and teak.
The painted finish changes what the model shows. Bare wood emphasises how it was built; paint emphasises the ship as she looked in service — the crisp band of white running the length of a black hull, broken by gun ports.
Specification
- 32.7 in / 83 cm
- Plank-on-frame hull in western red cedar, mahogany and teak, hand-painted
- Two masts, brig-rigged, complete hand-knotted standing and running rigging
- Hand-stitched linen sails on every yard
- Gun ports with cast cannon, ship's boat, wheel, capstan, gratings and rails
- Metal anchors and wooden rudder
- Solid wood base with engraved brass nameplate
- Fully assembled
About the type
Brigs were the workhorses of every 19th-century navy — small, fast, cheap to man, and used for dispatch carrying, patrol, anti-slavery interception and inshore work that a frigate was too valuable to risk. Two masts and a shallow draught let them operate where larger ships could not follow, which is also why they occasionally found themselves in fights they had no business surviving.