Hello,
Like Doctor John I am interested in pre WW1 torpedo boats which this is most likely a model of. Elements of the boat look familiar. particularly the round conning tower. I have included a picture of USS Cushing built by the Herreshoff brothers. Note the double round armoured conning towers and the rectangular air vents. Most boats had round air cowls. I think this boat is a development of this type of American boat or someone's idea of what a TBD should look like. Just sticking my oar in. (Pun perhaps intended).
best wishes to all Tim
😀

I am going with German S class WW 1. Although that middle stack seems unusual. Cool Boat, very streamlined. Also, the simplicity of a single shaft is refreshing. I could be wrong though, I do not have too many reference materials on WW1 craft. WW2, or Victorian Navies, even anything built in England WW1 on I have much more info on.

Kevin

That's a really difficult one!!

I have long held an interest in Edwardian and WW1 destroyers - as I love the first very fast steam turbine ships ( even still coal burning!) and very slender hulls.

I even bought a quite excellent book on the subject - The First Destroyers by Lyon. Many shipmates will have heard of the Great Powers' Naval shipbuilding race of this time - which also coincided with massive improvements in related technologies, submarines and aircraft.

This led to many classes of the new destroyers all designed to counter the real threat to Battle Fleets of new and very fast Torpedo Boats.

Even within each of the new classes of ships, contracts were let to different shipbuilding companies who then built different ships to the same specification.

When one sees similar competitions within the Navies of UK, Germany, France and the US; one begins to see the sheer number of different designs among many hundreds of small ships over a single 25 year period! ((( Please compare with time needed to develop, build and launch even a single new ship for the tiny RN of today, then one wonders about true progress!!)))

Anyway, after spending a couple of hours going through my books and plans without success, I still cannot answer your question!!

It may be just a self-designed or poorly-built model -- but I for one will watch the ongoing debate with interest!

Dr John F. Leeds and Bradford. BBC. 🤔🤔🤔

Bearing in mind the OP is based in the USA, I would say possibly a Thruxton class TBD or a first incarnation of the Bainbridge class... 1st picture is the USS Thruxton second the Bainbridge..

Hi Lew, I'm fairly sure it's a German torpedo boat built circa 1890 but I haven't been able to find any pictures of one. Various classes were built in the latter part of the 19th century -some having as many as 48 built others more experimental and 6 or less. This is a rare find!

It does look like a iron clad the smoke stacks bit odd at Portsmouth there is a model of a like ship she has armoires guns each ends and three stacks but they are more armored just the tops stick out with guns in the middle as well perhaps some one was
Making that

Morning.
Although dissimilar in many ways(especially the funnel configuration)the hull lines are very reminiscent of the first steam turbine powered ship Turbinia.
It maybe an inaccurate attempt at this ship.
Just a thought!

Looks like an early Torpedo Boat Destroyer, pre WW1 possibly...