Figure Box Set - Maritime Explorers

These historically accurate miniatures have been cast in Fine English Lead Free Pewter from meticulously hand-carved originals. The superb detail is unsurpassed in figures of this scale (45mm - 1 3/4 inches approx) which will appeal to children as well as model collectors alike. The figures are all antiqued (with exception of Egyptian and Ocean Life sets) and polished to give an aged effect to enhance the detail. A number of the box sets contain a small game board to play a version of Tic-Tack-Toe whilst other sets have panoramas or historical notes. All items are designed and hand cast by us in Folkestone as a truly British hand made product.

This set contains:

Lord Horatio Nelson (1758- 1805)
200 years after his death, Horatio Nelson is still Britain's most popular naval hero. During a siege on the island of Corsica, Nelson lost the sight in his right eye, however the eye remained intact and it is a myth that he ever wore an eye patch! His famous flagship HMS Victory is preserved at Portsmouth where it is visited by nearly half a million people every year. On 21 October, Trafalgar Day, the Royal Navy holds a service on board to pay tribute to Nelson and to the men who fought and died with him.

Sir Francis Drake (1540 - 1596)
A navigator and privateer, Drake is one of the greatest English sea Captains of all time. Revered as a hero when he helped defeat the Spanish Armada off the southern coast of England in 1588, he is also remembered as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. His attack on Cadiz and his devastating raids on the Spanish Main earned him the fear and the grudging respect of the Spaniards, who call him El Draque, "The Dragon". Drake made several plundering trips to the New World, including a large assault on Cartagena in 1586, which he sacked and plundered. Drake, however, was known as a humane privateer and did not subject the populace to the brutality and devastation that was to become the calling card of
future buccaneers.

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
The enigmatic and controversial Italian Spanish navigator who sailed west across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a route to Asia but achieved fame by making landfall in the Americas on October 12, 1492. The explorations had a profound impact on the world. The widely published report of his voyage of 1492, made Columbus famous throughout Europe. It secured for him the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and further royal patronage. In four separate voyages to the Caribbean from 1492 to 1504, Columbus remained convinced that he had found the lands that Marco Polo reached in his overland travels to China at the end of the 13th century.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 - 1618)
Born in Devonshire in 1552, Raleigh was an English adventurer, intellectual and writer, prominent at the court of Queen Elizabeth I. 1585 Raleigh sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. Later, Raleigh came to Queen Elizabeth's attention through his work in Ireland.
Brought to London as an expert on Irish affairs, he became the queen's favourite, famously offering his cloak for the Queen to walk upon. He was soon knighted, and became one of the most powerful figures in England. Raleigh's fortunes changed after the Queen's death. He was accused of plotting against the king and was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and after 13 years in the Tower of London, Raleigh offered James I a fortune in gold if the king would allow him to return to Guiana. James agreed on the condition that no offence was committed against the Spanish. The expedition went disastrously wrong when Raleigh's son attacked a Spanish settlement. Raleigh was ordered to return to England, where King James invoked the death sentence of 1603. Raleigh was beheaded on October 29, 1618.

Captain James Cook (1728 -1779)
British explorer and navigator, famous for his three voyages of exploration in the South Pacific Ocean and the coastal waters of North America. Although Cook is best known as the discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands, 1768 saw the beginning of his search for the fabled Terra Australis and had striking success. He circumnavigated the North and South islands of New Zealand. He also sailed the entire length of Australia's eastern coast (never before seen by a European), which he claimed for Britain and named New South Wales. In 1772 Cook set out with two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure, and another strong scientific team, making the first recorded crossing of the Antarctic Circle in January 1773. Cook's forward thinking changed many previous ideas and he was the first sea captain to realise how to combat scurvy by a simple change of diet! Cook's third voyage was to tackle the great, geographical mystery of the supposed Northwest Passage across North America. It was fraught with problems with the natives and it was there that Cook was attacked and lost his life.