Object Description
A shipyard model of the wooden steam ship ‘S.S. F.W.Harris’, 1877, the hull painted rust-red with black top sides and a black funnel, finely detailed with nickel-plated deck fittings, all on a satinwood backboard and protected by a curved glass cover. English.
Ship brokers James Dixon and Francis William Harris began to build up a fleet of steam colliers from 1863 to run coal from the North East coast to the Thames. Larger tramp ships such as the ‘Joseph Pease’, (1876) and the ‘F. W. Harris’ (1877) were completed to the order of Dixon & Harris at Stockton-on-Tees. The partners’ names were reversed to Harris & Dixon a couple of year later and their first new steel tramp ship, Shagbrook, was completed by William Gray at Hartlepool in October 1884.