Midland Shipyard

  HMS Argyll was an armoured cruiser of the Devonshire class, launched in 1904. Obsolescent before the start of the First World War, the British armoured cruisers that are now most remembered - Monmouth and Good Hope; Hogue, Aboukir and Cressy; Black Prince, Warrior and Defence - are infamous for the heavy loss of life associated with their sinking by the Imperial German Navy. HMS Argyll similarly ended the war at the bottom of the sea, but from being accidentally run aground and, happily, all her crew survived. Despite their tragic record in the war, I think there is something magnificent about the lines of these late Victorian and Edwardian ships and, having recently bought " Before the Battlecruiser:  The Big Cruiser in the World's Navies 1865-1910" by Aidan Dodson and "British Cruisers of the Victorian Era" by Norman Friedman, I was keen to add some examples to my collection. My first opportunity came with a slightly battered old Navis model of HMS Argyll. O