Scale: 1:48. A contemporary carvel built, plank on frame Navy Board full hull model of a 50-gun, small two-decker (circa 1747). The model is decked. Accompanying notes indicate that the model was formerly called ‘Raisonnable’, a 60-gun ship. There is no planking on the lower half of the hull, revealing the frames. Dr R. C. Anderson of the NMM repaired the model in 1944.

Taken from the model, the vessel measured 144 feet along the gun deck by 41 feet in the beam and had a depth of hold of 17 feet. The workmanship suggests that it may represent a contract-built ship – it is not up to the standard of the usual Navy Board dockyard models – and in fact the draught for four such ships, launched 1747–48 (the ‘Assistance’, ‘Greenwich’, ‘Severn’ and ‘Tavistock’) corresponds closely with the model.

By the middle of the 18th century the 50-gun ship had become something of an anachronism: not powerful enough to take its place in the line nor handy enough to out-manoeuvre the frigates that it out-gunned.