The Flying Fish was designed by Jeremiah Burnham, the famous shipbuilder, and was launched in Essex, Massachusetts, in 1860. For more than 20 years the Flying Fish was the most representative ship of the market schooner class and was taken as a model by shipbuilders of the time.

Because of its unusual construction features and huge sail area, the Flying Fish was one of the fastest schooners in the Gloucester fishing fleet and these unique characteristics made it capable of carrying the catch of fish from the famous Grand Banks to the ports where it was sold with the obvious advantages of reaching the market first. These schooner races were immortalized in the film ‘Captains Courageous’ based on Rudyard Kipling’s celebrated novel.

Even though the desire to reach the markets first caused ship owners to ask for ever faster schooners the general arrangement of deck equipment was strictly standardized as were the colour used in observance of a well defined tradition such as black hull, white wale and rail, olive-green bulwarks, red transom with white or gold lettering and the same for the bow stem.

Corel ship model plans are historically accurate and contain detail instructions on building the ship model.