This 1: 72 scale model shows a typical 12th century Cog, the ubiquitous merchant ship seen from the Baltic to the Mediterranean. Hundreds of ships sailed to England, Belgium, France and Portugal selling wine, wool, salt, oil, cloth, sub-tropical fruits, beer and silver. The Cog was of such great importance to the merchants that it became the symbol for the Hanseatic League. Plying between Novgorod, Bruges, Bergen and London, the Cog effectively helped to establish many towns on the North Sea and the Baltic coasts. Cog’s typically had straight, slanting stem and stern posts, a single mast with square sail, a forecastle and stern gallery and a rudder fixed to the stern post. With a capacity of 100 to 200 tonnes, they were used both as merchant ships and warships. From the middle of the 14th century the first guns were used on ships.