Modellers Shipyard New Model Kit - Mermaid

Modeller’s Shipyard is proud to present another wooden model ship in our Australian colonial vessel series. We are the only manufacturer of wooden model ships in Australia.

Our model of the HM Cutter Mermaid was designed and built by Leon Griffiths, Master Period Ship Modeller. It is based on a typical English cutter of the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century. Additional information was gathered from “King of the Australian Coast: The Voyages of Phillip Parker King in the Mermaid and Bathurst” by Marsden Hordern, “The Mermaid Tree” by Robert Tiley, “Rigging Period Fore–and-Aft Craft” by Lennarth Petersson and Anatomy of the Ship “Naval Cutter Alert 1777” by Peter Goodwin.

Our kit of the HM Cutter Mermaid is double planked on bulkhead construction with laser cut plywood. The kit comes complete with all timber, rigging cord and fittings. All parts and fittings are of the highest quality.

The HM Cutter Mermaid was very small, being only 56ft (17m) from stem to stern, with a beam of 18ft 6inches (5.6m) and a draft of 9ft (2.7m). Weighing 84 tons and having been built of teak in Calcutta, she was less than a year old when commissioned on 16 October 1817. For the next 3 years Lieutenant Phillip Parker King, RN, used her for her designated task of “Exploring and Surveying the Coast of Australia”. Mermaid survived three voyages of discovery under King’s command but it was the third voyage involving a complete circumnavigation of the Australian mainland which draws closest scrutiny.

On 8 May 1819 Mermaid sailed north, for the Torres Strait, conducting the first reliable survey of the Great Barrier Reef Inner Route, opening it to commercial traffic. Next she sailed due west for Arnhem Land, sighting the Wessel Islands in July 1819. From then onwards King ran running surveys along the entire coastline until, on reaching Prince Frederic’s Harbour with Mermaid leaking badly, he knew this survey was over. Inspection required her to be inspected beneath her copper plating clear of the water, or careened. Therefore it was a gently shelving beach, at the location King named Careening Bay, the hull was patched up for 3 weeks until 9 October. During this time King carved “HMC Mermaid 1820” on the single Boab tree at the rear of the bay. This example of historic graffiti remains to this day.

Mermaid sailed and entered the calm waters of Sydney Cove on 9 December 1820, some 25 weeks and 3 days since sailing, having circumnavigated the continent. Unfortunately, after hard years in Government service Mermaid’s fate was sealed when, ironically, she ran aground in the very route she had opened to shipping off the present site of Cairns, in 1829, and was lost. In January 2009 the wreck of the Mermaid was found by a team of marine archaeologists from the Australian National Maritime Museum. The site of the wreck has now been declared a maritime heritage site.

Lieutenant Phillip Parker King, RN, one of Australia’s foremost hydrographers commanded the Mermaid from 1817 to 1820. He was born on Norfolk Island 13 December 1791, his father being Phillip Gidley King a future governor of New South Wales. King entered the Royal Navy at age 15 and served continuously at sea for eight years, including operational service in the Napoleonic war. He served under offices with notable survey credentials such as Admirals Otway and Pellew, and was acquainted with Matthew Flinders who encouraged him in his career choice.

Phillip Parker King is perhaps one of Australia’s greatest yet largely unsung early maritime surveyors. He charted most of the north-west coast of Australia from the eastern tip of Arnhem Land all the way to Cape Leeuwin and King George Sound on the southern shore of West Australia. He surveyed Macquarie Harbour in Van Diemen’s Land and the treacherous waters inside the Great Barrier Reef, filling in the work of his famous predecessors. King may have been overshadowed by Cook and Flinders but his legacy has been enduring—more than a century later his charts, still in use, have guided countless ships through dangerous waters to safety. In 1855 he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral of the Blue, the first Australian born officer to achieve Flag rank. King died 25 February 1856 and is buried in the grounds of the Anglican Church at St Marys, western Sydney, NSW, Australia.

With a skill level 2 grading, scale 1:48, length 590mm, height 450mm and width 265mm. The cost of this wonderful new kit is only $299.

If building a kit of this model is not what you are after, we also have plans and instructions available for $45.

If you would like to purchase this new kit of the Mermaid you can purchase it online at our website or call our office on 02 47393899.

We also have available a 2 DVD set on How to Build the Mermaid. This DVD set takes the modeller through planking the hull and deck, building the deck furniture and completing the rigging. Many tips and techniques of building a period wooden model ships are presented. The cost for this 2 DVD set is $46.20.