Hand-built wooden constructed model with running rigging, pinned, planked hull and painted hull, fine detailing including capstan, belfry, bound masts, carved figurehead and decorated stern with quarter window detailing. Length ± 80 cm. ± 60 cm Height The Swan Class was a group of 25 ship-sloops designed by John Williams, Surveyor of the Navy, of which 11 were built in Kent shipyards. HMS Fly was the second of three ships of the class to be built at Sheerness. The Swan Class were noted for the lavish scale of their decorations and were the last sloops built for the Royal Navy with decorations on such a scale. Orders were made by the Admiralty that decorations on smaller vessels be far less lavish and future vessels were almost puritan by comparison. A ship-sloop was like a miniature frigate, with her gun-deck partially enclosed by a quarterdeck aft and a forecastle forward. Sloop was a term used to describe an ocean-going warship which carried less than the minimum 20 guns required for the vessel to be rated under the Royal Navy's rating system. Sloops tended to have a 'Master and Commander' appointed to command them rather than an officer with the rank of captain. On completion, HMS Fly was a ship of 302 tons. She was 96ft 7in long on her gundeck and 78ft 11in long at her keel. She was 26ft 10in wide across her beams. Her hold, the space between her lowest deck and her bottom was 12ft 10in deep. The ship was armed with 14 6 pounder long guns on her gun-deck with 8 half-pound swivel-guns on her quarterdeck with four more such guns on her forecastle. She was manned by a crew of 125 officers, men and boys. On 17th September, HMS Fly departed Portsmouth bound for Newfoundland with a convoy. In January 1802, off Cape Flattery, she foundered in a storm and was lost with all hands. The Swan Class of ship-sloops were and still are regarded as exceptionally attractive looking ships Source: http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=18279.0