AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING SAILOR'S MODEL FOR H.M. AUSTRAL...

Estimate

£600 - £800

AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING SAILOR'S MODEL FOR H.M. AUSTRALIAN STATION SURVEY VESSEL DART, CIRCA 1904 MODELLED BY W.G. HOLBROW, R.N.

15in. hull carved from solid and painted below the water line, propeller and rudder, and glass portholes, scored deck with wood and metal fittings including capstan winch, deckhouse, open bridge, brass rudder and ventilators, companionway, binnacle and helm, and white ensign, rigged masts with standing and rigging mounted on cradle stand within ebonised, glazed case with provenance label pasted to back, overall -- 23½ x 26½ x 9in. (59.7 x 67.3 x 23cm.)

Launched by Barrow SB in 1877 as the 226-ton schooner-rigged yacht Cruiser for the Earl of Eglinton, he sold her in 1881 to the Governor of Fiji who added engines and lengthened her, increasing her displacement to 353 tons. In 1882 she was sold to the Royal Navy and renamed Dart. Originally intended to as the official yacht for the Admiral in charge of the Australia Station, instead, she was fitted out as a survey ship working with several other smaller craft to survey large areas of the Australia Station including the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. In 1904 Dart was loaned to the NSW government for use as a seagoing tender for the government's boys school ship Sobraon and, when that ship was absorbed into the nascent Royal Australian Navy, Dart was also sold on as a training ship. In 1921 she seems to have been sold to French owners based in Noumea (New Caledonia) and was deleted from the list in 1937.