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PS Britannia ship model

Details of model

• Exhibition model, rigged, wood
• Scale 1:96 (1/8 inch to 1 foot)
• Made by Bassett-Lowke Limited, Northampton in 1933
• Based on a contemporary model by a shipwright who worked on the vessel
• Model size (overall): 80 cm (l) x 18 (w) x 40 (h)
• Commissioned 1933

The first purpose-built transatlantic mail and passenger steamer

PS Britannia, 1840, was the first ship built for Samuel Cunard's British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, later known as the Cunard Line. She was also the first steamer to carry the mail between England and North America. She made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Boston, USA, in July 1840. She completed the passage to Halifax in 14 days 8 hours, at an average speed of 8.5 knots. She and her three sisters, 'Acadia', 'Caledonia' and 'Columbia', were built of wood at Greenock by Robert Duncan. Their side-lever engines were provided by Robert Napier of Glasgow. Although very well built, much of their success was due to the government mail subsidy won by Samuel Cunard. They also benefited from the fact that they were not directly competing with the larger and faster 'Great Western' on the New York route.

In 1849 'Britannia' was sold to become the flagship of the Navy of the North German Confederation, which renamed her 'Barbarossa'. She later saw service in the Prussian Navy and the Imperial German Navy, before eventually being broken up at Kiel in about 1880.

If you like this model why not decorate your desktop with a wallpaper design. Several items from the Merseyside Maritime Museum's collections are now available.