St Michael (1669); Warship; 98 guns; 1st rate
Scale: 1:48. A contemporary model of 'St Michael' (1669), a 90-98 gun three-decker ship of the line, built in the Navy Board style. The hull shape is tall, slender with much sheer on the profile; considerable tumblehome, and with a round tucked stern. The model is three-masted, rigged partially decked and equipped. This represents the earliest English ship whose model can be identified with any certainty and is depicted as re-classified to a first rate 98-gun ship circa 1672, after her first building.
There are several drawings by the Dutch artist Willem van de Velde of the stern and figurehead decoration which corroborate the detail depicted on the model.
Length of gundeck: 3 feet 2 ¾ inches
Breadth: 10 and 3⁄16 inches
The hull framing is the standard Navy Board construction but the floor heads are cut off horizontally instead of square. The futtock heads mostly finish at the level of the chainwales, but many are longer or shorter. The hull framing is maybe made of walnut or mahogany. The topsides are planked and strakes are fastened with treenails, but the lower hull is left unplanked.
Internally there is a keelson; two footwales each side; pillars under every other gun deck beam and fore and aft knees are fitted at the wing transom. The masts rest straight onto the keelson with no mast steps.
The mainwales are painted black and are ⅜ inch broad, and 1/5 inch thick and spaced 1/25 inch apart. There are no upper wales, just a gilt moulded rail above which the top of the sides is painted black.
The fore and main channels are ¾ inch broad, the mizzen channel is narrower, but all are braced above by spurs. Amidships there is an entry port with gilt railing on the port side.
The beakhead bulkhead is two decks deep, and contains chase ports on both the middle and upper decks. The belfry at the forecastle bulkhead has a highly elaborate structure with ornate carvings. The quarter deck bulkhead has large central pair of doors opening to an enclosed flight of stairs leading down to the middle deck. There are no side gangways and or stairs leading up to the quarterdeck and forecastle from the waist.
The decks have typical beams and carlings; they are left unplanked except for where the guns stand. Guns are fitted to carriages and are held in place by pins through the barrels into the port cills. Two long carlings are rebated into the beams on upper deck forming the sides of the central hatches which have coaming and gratings.
There is a fore jeer capstan fitted just forward of amidships. The capstan has five whelps and the head is pierced for 3 or 4 through bars. The single main capstan with a barrel of around ¾ inch in diameter is abaft the main mast on the lower deck.
The figurehead is of seated figure in a chariot drawn by the double-headed eagle. The figure is possibly Ganymede who was, at the order of Zeus, taken to Mount Olympus to live with the gods.
The taffrail is decorated with a cherub holding a pair of cornucpias, and more cherubs sitting astride seahorses.
In the centre panel is the crowned monogram of Charles II. Above this is the Royal Coat of Arms of the Stuarts, carved by Robert Spence 1931-32, together with the carved initials ‘CR’.
The lower counter features painted Trophies of Arms and the rudder head is decorated with a lion’s head. Greco-Roman male figures with spears adorn the quarter pieces on plinths, below which cloven hooved figures crouch.
This model, which was re-rigged in 1930 represents the earliest English ship whose model can be identified with any certainty and is depicted as re-classified to a first rate 98-gun ship circa 1672, after her first building.
There are several drawings by the Dutch artist Willem van de Velde of the stern and figurehead decoration which corroborate the detail depicted on the model. The ‘St Michael’ took part in the battles of Solebay in 1672 and Barfleur in 1692 before being rebuilt in 1706 and renamed ‘Marlborough’.
Date made: circa 1672.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.
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