In the WAke of the MAsters

Since the completion of his model of hMS Minerva, Malcolm Darch’s work has been compared with the famous navy Board models made for the British admiralty in the 18th century. These were frequently left partially unplanked to display the internal hull construction and are acknowledged as a pinnacle of quality in the model shipwright world, fetching vast sums on the rare occasions when they come up for auction. The world-record price for a ship model is about $1,023,000, achieved at Christie’s in london for a navy Board model of a 44-gun fifth rate, in exceptionally original condition, dating from the time of Queen anne.

Darch uses many of the same tools, materials and techniques as his illustrious yet anonymous forebears, but unlike the old lords of the admiralty, his clients for both Minerva and Agamemnon requested their models to be fully rigged and fitted out, down to the last quoin, train tackle and clew garnet. —A.H. Agamemnon he might take things a little easier and scale back to a four-day week. His next commission is already in the diary. Ceres was a famous Salcombe smack that used to ferry supplies out to the Duke of Wellington’s armies in the Peninsular War and come back laden with Spanish fruit and nuts.

The contrast could hardly be greater between this unassuming little trading vessel and Nelson’s mighty ship of the line, but it befits Darch’s portfolio. To thumb through its pages was like finding myself in one of those old museum galleries, enchanted by the imaginative possibilities of perfect, miniature worlds.