Backboard measures: 78 inches long x 7 3/4 inches high.

A spectacular full dockyard model of the British ocean-going tug boat EMPRESS OF INDIA, built in 1898 in Greenock, Scotland. The Steel Single Screw Tug was constructed in exacting style directly after the style of American tugs of New York with their long working deck space and elevated cockpits above the steadily raised hull. Working tugs are extremely rare as dockyard models, and this is a premier example of such a large Tug Boat model.

Steeply rising, the wood bridge helm and cabin is accompanied by the Red and Black company funnel, a solitary lifeboat suspended over the skylights on internal davits. Polished silver fittings run throughout the model’s deck, and her paint has been polished to a glossy sheen. Her skylight and cabin windows are painted on, the planking is inked, while the porthole windows and lined with an opaque green film. The quality glazed hardwood case completes the model in protective fashion.

Built for Jeremy Constant of London, he used her in multiple endeavors until selling the tug in 1903 to Sir John Jackson Ltd., who put her into service in the expansion of the Devonport Dockyard. She sold again to Florence Tugboat and Salvage Co. in 1907, to the Tees Tug Co. Ltd in 1909, in 1913 to the Anglo Persian Oil Company who renamed the tug SIRDAR-I_NAPHTE. She returned to British owners in 1915, and was retired soon after.

A fine quality contemporary scratch-built clipper ship model, in 1:96 scale, of the Clipper Ship COMET. She was built by William Webb of New York, launched in July 1851, to serve in the height of the California Gold Rush Trade, primarily for the passenger and cargo. On a return voyage to New York, she set a 76 day sailing record that still stands for a sailing ship.

Build in the Kennebunk yards at the birth of America’s grandest commercial sailing age, the 444-ton EXCELSIOR exemplified the first priorities of merchant shipping: full-bodied lines with heavy, dependable construction, allowing for secure massive cargoes. This would soon make way for the concept of speed, both in the already competitive tea trade with the Orient, and the California gold trade.

Her authentic builder’s half-block model shows the pride of craftsmanship the ship rightly deserved. Smartly painted in black with the dual waterline yellow-red combination, her level keel in the oxide-inspired red, the original paint is a highly desirable attribute for a model of this age. The bow trailboard has gilt decoration and the ships name is smartly at the port rail. The model fills the simple heavy wood backboard with presence.

Her history of service is varied and interesting. While far from completely recorded or discovered, she is listed as a ship under the command of Captain Charles Williams of Kennebunk at her launching. The Williams were merchant ship pioneers, in that they both captained and owned ships in both the merchant and whaling trades. His brother, William H. Williams is recorded as her captain the next year. She hits another role in 1848, listed under the Benjamin Bruce’s line of Boston as a coastal passenger and cargo carrier. She registers on the New York port survey in 1853, as a member the Old Line of American ships sailing to foreign ports. A verbal provenance suggested she did some whaling in the era as well, but substantiation of this service has yet to be found. A versatile ship remembered through a quality builders model.