HM Brig Sloop Flirt 1782 – Vanguard Models

The set includes:

• Laser-cut parts made from MDF, clear acetate, and birch plywood. All visible parts are cut from pear wood sheets.

• Laser-cut wooden ladders and pearwood grilles, included as standard.

• Laser-cut and engraved main deck made of linden wood, with nail details.

• 3 photo-etched brass sheets.

• Cast black resin barrels for 4-pounder and half-pounder cannons, together with black acrylic cannonballs.

• Double-planked deck, using limewood for the first deck layer and pearwood for the second layer.

• Walnut wooden peg for masts and side masts.

• Multiple sizes of black and natural rigging thread, along with all the necessary blocks and eyelets.

• 64-page, full-color building instructions, along with 10 full-size plan sheets.

Dimensions:

Scale – 1:64
Total length – 656 mm
Overall height – 492 mm
Overall width – 230 mm

Story:

Flirt was ordered together with Speedy in 1781, and both ships were built by Thomas King, owner of a private shipyard in Dover. Flirt was launched on 4 March 1782, three months before Speedy.

Klasa Flirt/Speedy to druga klasa zbudowana według nowego projektu briggów-sloopów z pokładem flush, a pierwszą była klasa Childers z 1779 roku (statki tej klasy brały udział w pierwszej akcji, która doprowadziła do długiej wojny z Francją w latach 1793-1815, po tym, jak 2 stycznia 1793 roku zostały ostrzelane przez francuski battery w Breście, a kula armatnia została przetransportowana do Admiralicji w Londynie). Klasy Childers oraz Flirt/Speedy były prawie identyczne, a różnice między nimi były trudne do dostrzeżenia. They had similar dimensions, mast plans, armament, and crew composition. Both classes also had very elegant lines, more reminiscent of a cutter than a brig. These early flush-deck brig-sloops had a beautiful shape and a steeply raked stern, unlike the later “mass-produced” Cruiser and Cherokee classes.

The term “Brig-Sloop” meant that it was a two-masted ship, and on the navy list a sloop denoted a vessel commanded by an officer holding the rank of master and commander. Flirt weighed 207 tons, her upper deck measured just over 78 feet in length, and her beam was 25 feet 8 inches. Its crew consisted of 84 sailors and 6 officers, of whom only two held military rank—the captain and his lieutenant.

Flirt’s armament consisted of 14 4-pounder guns on carriages and 12 half-pounder swivel guns, but they were mounted in 20 positions, as the swivel guns could be removed from their mounts and moved to other positions.

Flirt and Speedy were completed too late to take part in any significant operations during the American War of Independence. They spent most of their time in British waters. In 1791, Flirt sailed to Jamaica, but was laid up at Deptford in November 1792 and did not return to service before being sold in 1795. Daniel Bennett bought it, almost rebuilt it, and then used it as a whaling ship in the Southern Whale Fishery. In 1803, a French privateer captured Flirt as she was returning to Great Britain from a whaling voyage.