AN INTERESTING 1:192 SCALE MODEL OF THE 'DANAE'-CLASS CRUISER H.M.S. DRAGON WITH GUNNERY PRACTICE TARGET BARGE, CIRCA 1925

the 28½in. hull carved from the solid with brass bilge keels, propellers and rudder, varnished decks with carved wood and metal fittings and armament, screen bridge with concentration dial/range clock over, white-painted topmasts with radio aerials and rigging, loosely mounted on cradle display stand and contained in a polished wooden carry case with 32in. target barge carved from the solid and inset with brass rollers underneath, fifteen masts supporting latticework target, the case -- 11½ x 33in. (29 x 84cm.); together with associated ephemera including a contemporary negative of a similar target being repaired; a cap tally from Dragon, several photographs of the ship and her Captain; typed gunnery reports; press cuttings etc.

(A lot)

Captain Bernard W.M. Fairbairn, CBE, RN (1880-1960) of H.M.S. Dragon, and thence by descent.

The purpose of this interesting model are obscure. Well made, it seems to depict Dragon at a time she was probably part of a Special Squadron. The hull is fitted with brass rollers suggesting it has a practical demonstrative use, the bridge is also very distinctive and might be a seaplane hanger that was removed in the 1928 refit, the purpose of the two large dials attached to the foremast is not yet clear. Dragon was one of the fastest ships of her day, capable of 29kts, she carried the Prince of Wales (briefly Edward VIII) to Canada for a tour in 1919, and supported the White Army in the Russian civil war and was part of the Special Service Squadron World Cruise, escorting Hood and Repulse 1923-4 with Fairburn as Captain. During World War II after sorties in the North Sea and Mediterranean, she was given to the Polish who ran her as a convoy escort and deployed her at the Normandy Landings where she was badly damaged by a manned torpedo and towed to the Mulberry harbour and sunk as a breakwater.