Description :: |
Handcrafted, scratch built and ready
made. Absolutely nothing to do, except to remove from their boxes!
Clients
of our model of the Beagle so far includes the BBC (TV programme "Our
ancestors), Oxford University Museum of Natural History, American
Museum of Natural History, Cambridge University, Addison Gallery of
Art, Philips Academy (Gelb Science Center), Eton College Natural
History Museum and MDM Props / English Heritage.
Many thanks indeed. Needless to say, I am looking
forward very much to seeing it to judge from the most recent photos, it
looks very fine indeed! I have already had one person asking how she might be
able to obtain a similar model for her own purposes (as we approach
Darwin's bicentenary in 2009), so I hope that your craftsmen will be able to
put their experience to good use!
When confronted with two projects for the BBC 'Ancestors' both requiring detailed model ships, and both with a tight budget and limited timescale, I was initially at a loss. Fortunately a quick search on the web introduced the BBC to Premier Ship Models.
Having met with Rashid to discuss my requirements, objectives and timescales, I was sincerely astonished with both his enthusiasm and the detailed quality of his company's ship models.
Despite an almost impossible schedule, his extraordinary team of craftsfolk managed to deliver ‘2 x 8 feet' ship models of the HMS Beagle and HMS Bellona -on time and more importantly on budget!!
I greatly look forward to working with the team of true professionals on another project very shortly.
Mike Tucker - Miniature Effects Supervisor
BBC, January 05
Originally produced for BBC television in the UK as a a 2 meter model, and featured in BBC1 TV documentary "Our ancestors".
History of the HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle was originally launched as one of 115 Cherokee-class
10-gun brigs built by the Royal Navy between 1807 and 1830 and used in
a variety of roles including surveying and antislaver patrols.
By the time of her first voyage Beagle had been converted to a bark
rig. Her first major voyage was from May 1826 to October 1830 with HMS
Adventure, to chart the straits and passages of the southern tip of
South America; it was during this voyage that the Beagle Channel,
skirting the southern edge of Tierra del Fuego, was explored and named.
Under the stress of arduous conditions in the waters around Tierra del
Fuego, Captain Pringle Stokes killed himself in August 1828. Short of
provisions and with many of the crew ill, Beagle returned to Buenos
Aires where Lieutenant Robert FitzRoy took command for the homeward
voyage. Six months after her return, Beagle was off to Australia under the
command of Captain John Lord Stokes, a veteran of the FitzRoy-Darwin
voyage. After surveying the western coast between the Swan River
(Perth) and Fitzroy River (named for his former commander), she sailed
around to the southeast corner of the continent. There, Beagle
conducted surveys along both shores of the Bass Strait, and then in May
of 1839 sailed northabout to the shores of the Arafura Sea opposite
Timor.
Her crew named a number of geographical features, including Port Darwin
(for their former shipmate) and the Flinders River, after the
indomitable surveyor of HMS Investigator. In so honoring his
predecessor, Stokes reflected that "monuments may crumble, but a name
endures as long as the world."
Her work in Australia done, Beagle returned to England in 1843, after
18 years' hard service to her nation and the world. Transferred out of
the Royal Navy in 1845, Beagle ended her days as the Preventive
Service's stationary Beagle Watch Vessel (renamed W.V.7 in 1863) moored
at Pagelsham Pool on the coast of Essex. She was sold and probably
broken up in 1870.
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