The National Collections

The Imperial War Museum and National Maritime Museums' collections of maritime models are extensive and internationally pre-eminent. These will be supported by art and other objects from their wider collections.

Dating from the 17th Century to the present day, the collections cover all aspects of British shipping, both mercantile and naval, marine engineering and ethnographic material from around the world. They include examples of 17th Century Navy Board models, bone models made by French prisoners during the Napoleonic Wars, 19th and 20th Century shipyard models from the heyday of the British shipbuilding industry as well as more modern models made for museum display. Examples include:

Model of HMS Ormonde (1918) - Imperial War Museum Collection, London

Model of HMS Ormonde (1918) HMS Ormonde is a full hull model of a "24 Class" fleet sweeping vessel, depicted in full dazzle camouflage. Named after race horses, these British First World War sloops were built under the Emergency War Programme and twenty of them had been launched before 1918. Norman Wilkinson, a traditional marine artist, devised a new scheme of sea-camouflage, known as "dazzle-painting". It was based on the principle that if the accepted form of a vessel bould be so completely broken up by the use of strongly contrasted colours and shapes, the enemy submarine would be misled as to the course, speed and distance of the ship.

Model of Smeaton's Tower - National Maritime Museum Collection, London

Model of Smeaton's Tower Smeaton's Tower was built between 1756-1759 by John Smeaton and was the third of four towers built on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, nine miles off the coast of Cornwall. Its design was influential on the construction of lighthouses and on the development of concrete as a building material. It survived for 118 years before being dismantled and reassembled on Plymouth Hoe.