This short history is meant to offer an overall account on the development of miniature ship models, and to show how they evolved from the realm of toys to become the specialized collector items we know today. Ship modelling, particularly in the miniature scales, represents a well established segment of the modelling hobby, albeit not so important in terms of number of collectors or turnover of business as is, for instance, the auto models, or the toy collecting field, which has attracted a much wider interest and audience. The relative marginality of the ship "segment" of the modelling world has meant that little historical documentation exists on the models produced, their manufacturers or trademarks, nor on the history of their development. Information available is generally focussed on toy companies and trademarks, some of which have also made ava ilable a small range of toy ships to cater for that relatively small niche of the toy market ma de up by ship enthusiasts1. It is therefore inevitable that a history of ship models needs to account also for the toy model field, and not just for the proper models made in the standard scales of today.