Object Details
- Description
- The Swift was originally built as a two-masted schooner in North America in 1778, during the American Revolution. Lightly built and with very little cargo capacity, the fast little 75½ foot vessel may have been a coastal packet ship, carrying mail and government dispatches.
- Captured in 1779, the Swift was taken into the British Royal Navy until 1783. Shortly before sale out of the Navy in 1783, the shipmaster exercised his prerogative and had the vessel re-rigged as an armed brigantine, with square sails on the foremast, fore and aft sails on the mainmast, and ten 3-pounder deck guns. Around the same time, the hull shape was recorded at the Deptford Royal Dockyard, London. This model of the Swift was made from those British Admiralty design drawings.
- 1963
- ID Number
- TR.322261
- catalog number
- 322261
- accession number
- 247845
- Object Name
- Brig
- brig, rigged model
- Other Terms
- Brig, Swift; Brig; Maritime
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- iron (overall material)
- textile (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 23 in x 33 in x 11 in; 58.42 cm x 83.82 cm x 27.94 cm
- Related Publication
- On the Water online exhibition
- Related Web Publication
- http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Maritime
- Transportation
- Exhibition
- On the Water
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Fishing
- related event
- Revolution and the New Nation
- Record ID
- nmah_844175
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-8dc2-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
