Ship Model, Brig <I>Swift</I>
date: label: Date made
content: 1963
notes: label: Description
content: The <I>Swift</I> 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.
label: Description
content: Captured in 1779, the <I>Swift</I> 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 <I>Swift</I> was made from those British Admiralty design drawings.
topic: label: Subject
content: Fishing
label: related event
content: Revolution and the New Nation
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.322261
label: catalog number
content: 322261
label: accession number
content: 247845
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Brig
label: Object Name
content: brig, rigged model
label: Other Terms
content: Brig, Swift; Brig; Maritime
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: textile (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 23 in x 33 in x 11 in; 58.42 cm x 83.82 cm x 27.94 cm