English School circa 1700

plank on frame construction, the fruitwood frame with exposed planking to the hull, the exposed plank deck with red japanned and ebonized rims, operational gunports, some with foliate carved surrounds, the well carved boxwood stern, with terraced admiral, and captains deck carved with putti, complete with taffrail lanterns, the stern flanks with carved mythological figures over other decks, hung with swags, the lower with columns, all with mica windows, the waist deck with anchor wheel, the boxwood bow with elaborately carved beakhead incorporating putti holding aloft a crown centering the coat of arms of the house of Stuart and Lord High Admiral, the model supported by stands of carved sea monsters and held in a copper lined case of anti-reflective glass.

The Institute of Chicago
Sale, Sotheby's New York, 19th October 1991, lot 42
purchased by the present owner

Until the introduction of iron and the advent of the steam engine, an ocean-going ship of wood with her masts, rigging and sails was undoubtedly the most elaborate structure with the most complicated mechanisms yet conceived by the mind of man.

There is numerical information in manuscript from the reign of Queen Elizabeth on the dimensions of men-of-war, but it was following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 that the history of ships underwent a complete change.  This is largely due to the King’s keen interest in all things maritime, and also to his brother, the Duke of York, who took over the administration  of the Navy, and even more so to the appointment of Samuel Pepys to the Navy Board: his instincts as a collector (a series of scale plans by a shipwright are in the Pepysian Library at Magdelene College, Cambridge) have resulted in the invaluable recording of the structure and material conditions of most later Stuart men-of-war.  The Restoration also witnessed the introduction of the practice of making a scale-model of each important man-of-war, at the same time as the ship was laid down.  As such models were constructed under the superintendence of the Master Shipwright who was charged not only with the building of the ship but also the running of the dockyard, they can be accepted as conclusive evidence on even the smallest points of construction.  This source helps provide the date for this model as the unplanked hull below the wales was standard until the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century.  However the profusion of carving and gilding suggests that this model was made prior to the Admiralty order of 1803 restricting the use of carving:
‘…the carved works be reduced to only a lion and a trail board for the head…that the stern have only a tafferel [the upper part of the flat section of a ship’s stern above the transom] and two quarter pieces and in lieu of brackets…to have mouldings fixed against the timbers…’  Ships built after the Establishment of 1719 reveal a Georgian style of decoration that was a distinct break away from the last of the Stuart conventions, when wreath-ports disappeared and the sterns took on the distinctive form which they retained through the eighteenth century.

In the period the main structural deck was divided longitudinally into three sections - bow, waist, and stern - and each section was decked at such a height or level for the purpose it had to serve without reference to the deck level of the other sections.  The level of the waist deck might be determined by convenience of stowing cargo or to house cannons with a projection over the wales, while in the stern the primary concern was reasonable headroom for the cabin below the summer-castle.  As a result, as in this model, the main deck breaks downwards under the summer-castle.  The introduction of cannon produced further changes to the structure of warships, distinguishing them from merchantmen.  As the size and weight of cannons increased the need arose to house them on the lower decks with gunports in the hull.  After and fore castles also grew in size and were strengthened thus becoming more integral to the structure of the ship.  This development was matched by elaborately carved and gilded decoration to the bow and stern of royal badges and emblems in the later Stuart style.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century all English ships were built with the square tuck or transom stern.  By the end of the Commonwealth the rounded stern was replaced by the square tuck for larger English vessels where the planking had curved quarters carrying directly into the rabbet of the stern post.   For some years this provided an obvious distinction between English Ships and their Continental counterparts.  At the forward end of the keel the maximum beam is at the waterline, previously it was considerably above this point.  This design produced more bluff in the bow which would have provided much needed stability under the increased weight of later Stuart armament.

Progress in shipbuilding at the turn of the century can be judged by the increasing size of vessels, some two deckers and some three deckers, but also by the number of guns they carried.  They were ranked thus;  First-Rate carried at least 100 guns, Second-Rate at least 90 guns, Third Rate at least 70 guns, Fourth Rate at least 60 guns, Fifth-Rate 30 guns and Sixth-Rate at least 20 guns.  The present model carries ports for ninety broadside guns and six stern guns, defining it as a Second-rate.  There are a number of similar models in public collections; A Rigged Model of 80-gun ship on the Establishment of 1719, catalogue number 63 in the Science Museum and a Ship of 96 guns about 1703 in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.  Both examples are built to a ratio of 1:60, with this scale in mind one can estimate the length of the finished vessel for the present work as 165 feet in the gun deck.

The Royal Navy into which the vessel would have been commissioned had grown in size and influence following the War of the Grand Alliance which was fought between 1688-1697.  William III of England had formed an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, in an attempt to keep France within the borders defined in the Treaty of Westphalia which had brought about the end of the Thirty Years War.  The fragile peace was broken following the death of Charles II of Spain prompting The War of the Spanish Succession.  One of the most important naval engagements of this conflict was the Battle of Vigo Bay on 23^rd October 1702.  An Anglo-Dutch fleet under the command of Admiral Sir George Rooke, had been charged with the capture of Cadiz, a mission which ended in failure and defeat on 29^th September.  Despite this setback Rooke’s fleet was intact and he soon received intelligence that the Spanish Treasure Fleet, one of the richest ever assembled, had arrived in Vigo Bay from Havana.  He set sail and found the fleet protected by an Franco-Spanish fleet of thirty ships under the command of Admirals Rousselet de Chateau-Renault and de Velasco.  The ensuing battle was a resounding victory for Rooke with the entire enemy fleet burned, run aground or captured.  British guineas of the year 1703 were engraved with the word VIGO to commemorate the action. 

This surviving model is a remarkable testament to the Naval History of England.  Although it is not known whether the vessel was ever actually conceived, if it had been built it would have been a majestic battleship with a crew of around 600 men and a highly significant addition to His Majesty’s fleet. 

The model’s journey has become even more remarkable in the possession of the present owner, circumnavigating the globe on board the yacht Andromeda la Dea (Fig. 1).  The flagship of the owner's fleet is undoubtedly the world’s largest privately-owned sailing yacht, Maltese Falcon (Fig. 2).  She took five years to build, is 289.1 feet in length and sports fifteen sails from three carbon fibre masts which can be set with the touch of a button.  Following a sea trial from the Marmara to the Bosphorus Maltese Falcon set sail on her maiden voyage in July 2006 from Turkey to Italy via Malta.

Sources:
Anderson, R.C. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich: Catalogue of Ship-Models (London, Her Majesty's Staionery Office, 1952).
Avery, Frederick, Catalogue of the Henry Huddleston Rogers Collection of Ship Models, United States Naval Academy Museum (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1954)
Clowes, G.S. Laird, Sailing Ships, Their History & Development As Illustrated by The Collection of Ship-Models in the Science Museum, Part I, Historical Notes; Part II, Catalogue of Exhibits, with Descriptive Notes (London, His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1932)