The Peregrine Gally
Written By John Luberti
P.01
Some years ago after I logged onto an online kit dealership with some money I had been saving for one of the HMS Endeavour kits I noticed a model that really caught my eye. As many times as I had looked over the kits on this sight, somehow I missed this one. It was the Peregrine Galley, a British ship built in 1700 made by Sergal. I had never seen or heard the name of this ship before but there was something about how this ship looked that made the model more appealing to me then the HMS Endeavour. I was rather lucky I made the decision to buy the kit right then and there. If I had I not I would likely never have had another chance, at least for a new kit. Just as I finished the model I saw one on ebay. Today I regret not having tried to win the second kit. It seems that I had purchased the last commercially available Sergal Peregrine Galley in the USA. If I had passed the kit up I would never have known about this great ship and her place in the lesser known but every bit as important as the better known ships in the History books.
Six months after I bought the kit and while it was still a project in the works the kit dealer phoned me wanting to buy the Peregrine Galley back from me as he was no longer able to get the kit from the distributor anymore. I am pretty certain I would not have parted with the kit even if I had not started it. As with every kit I've bought the first thing you do is carefully inspect the kit's contents and read a good bit of the manual. What I read about the History of the Peregrine Galley was something I felt was fairly unusual and unique. The Peregrine played a major role in the future of ship building with ground breaking innovation while also playing a role in the political fortunes of both Russia and the UK.
The Peregrine Galley was among the first ships that would come to be commonly be known as a Frigate in the 18th century. Her lines were new with a sleeker hull and a less rounded bow. The first steps towards the more familiar Frigates at the end of the century are seen in the Peregrine Galley. Yet never before owning this kit had I ever heard of the Peregrine Galley and I do watch allot of the History Channel and it's 'The Great Ships' series. The Peregrine Galley was a lesser known ship that made history on many different levels, yet until I bought the kit I had never heard of it and I suspect not to many of us have, save those who have read or own The Anatomy of the Ship's 'The Royal Yacht Caroline 1749' where a more detailed and somewhat different account of the Peregrine's History can be found compared to what Sergal had stated.