A cased shipyard model of S.S. Burbridge/S.S. Burcombe, 1912

A cased shipyard model of S.S. Burbridge/S.S. Burcombe, 1912. This single model depicts two sister ships. It has black painted topsides, pink hull and dark grey decks. There is a black funnel between two white painted cabin blocks with lifeboats on davits. The deck fittings include two cranes, capstans, windlasses, a boarding ladder, etc meticulously rendered in brass. It has twin specification plaques and is raised on four brass supports. It is presented in a glazed mahogany case with turned and fluted pillars on a later stand. 

Provenance: The Estate of the late John Rollo Somerset-Paddon, formerly of Chalk Newton House, Maiden Newton, Dorset, thence by descent.

Neither of these sister ships survived for long. Both weighed 3505 tons gross and were built by Richardson, Duck & Co for Burdick & Cook, managers of the Burcombe Steam Navigation Company. SS Burbridge (no. 614) was launched in 1912 and wrecked on the Almadi Reef on a voyage from Beira to London two years later. SS Burcombe (no. 631) was launched in 1913 and torpedoed in 1916.