Model Boats, Yachts & Ships

In the early hours of the morning of 21 May 2007, the majestic Clipper Ship was engulfed by fire in her dry dock home in Greenwich, London. Until then, she was the world's last intact clipper sailing ship, preserved in the 1920s and in the process of undergoing substantial restoration work. She was built in 1869, intended for the tea trade but made redundant by the completion of the Suez Canal, which made steam ships more economic on this route. Instead she earned her living, and incredible reputation for speed and beauty, in the wool trade from Australia - where the huge distances involved made sail the only practical option. Amazing detail for the price, with wooden decks and spars, authentic rigging and cotton sails.

Chasseur, a Baltimore clipper, was one of the fastest ships of her time. In 1814, under the command of Captain Thomas Boyle, she was sent east to harass the British fleet. Capturing or sinking 17 vessels. Boyle famously declared that the whole of the British Isles was under blockade by Chasseur alone, causing enough panic for the Admiralty to call vessels home from the American war to protect merchant convoys.

Sovereign of the Seas the 17th Century Navy's finest ship. Commissioned by King Charles I, she was the first ever warship to have three full gun decks, carrying 102 high-tech bronze cannon. Her size and costs were unprecedented - the gilding cost the same as the whole hull of a two-deck ship! - and she later proved herself unbeatable in battle.