A LARGE ENGINEER'S MODEL OF H.M. SUBMARINE TUNA, CIRCA 1940

cast in solid brass with fittings including keel, torpedo tubes, planes, twin propeller shafts with feathers, rudder, conning tower with quick firing guns, periscope, snorkel, radio wires etc., mounted on a tapering wooden base, with name plate -- 6 x 20½in. (15 x 52cm.)

Tuna was a 1090 ton T class submarine built by Scotts of Greenock, laid down in 1938 she was launched in 1940 with German-built engines. A successful submarine, she sank several U-Boats, but is perhaps most famously associated with the transport of the 'Cockleshell Heroes' to the Gironde estuary where she disembarked a dozen men and canoes in a daring but successful operation against German shipping. Sadly only two survived the operation, but their fame was such that they were immortalised in the eponymous 1955 film. Tuna was broken up in 1946.