00439 HMS Flotsam

Commissioned in 1936, HMS flotsam sailed the inshore bays of the Channel Islands providing air support for small children who had grown bored with throwing sand and digging. She was decommissioned after a collision with a six-year-old which left her listing heavily to port.

In her heyday the flight deck would be a hive of activity with mostly (sometimes entirely) imaginary crews prepping the aircraft for inland reconnaissance missions. Shortly before take-off, pilots would brace themselves for the force of "the hand" and subsequently "the throw", which would launch them to their almost certain doom.

Details of the original vessel are captured lovingly in this scale model: