On the vessel's davits and in the adjacent water are scale models of the vessels ten lifeboats.The model took Lewis Garnaut twenty years to build a task begun in Hobart in 1845 and completed in Auckland in 1865. His skilful workmanship is evident in the detail of the model, from its intricate rigging, and carefully laid deck planking to the figurehead carved in whalebone and the capstan and wheel fashioned by hand out of brass.

Mr Lewis Garnaut began construction of the model of this three-masted frigate in 1845 while working in Hobart as a ship chandler and repairer. The model was virtually complete when he left Hobart to take up residence in Auckland in 1865. While working in Hobart he was often employed in the Curacoa and had the opportunity to study her construction in detail. The accuracy of the model was of considerable pride to Mr Garnaut and while in Auckland he offered the model to anyone who could find a defect in its construction. One challenge was recorded - the model lacked a ship's bell - was countered by Mr Garnaut who replied that an examination between decks would reveal the missing bell. (NZ Herald, 9.12.1937)

HMS Curacoa was a three-masted frigate attached to the Australian Station. In 1863 the vessel brought 500 reinforcements to New Zealand which became a factor in General Cameron's plan to outflank Meremere. In November 1863 HMS Curacoa was anchored off Fort Britomart and the NZ Herald recorded that her armaments were sixteen plain-based 8 inch guns on her main deck, six 10-pounder Armstrong guns on her quarter deck and one 110-pounder Armstrong pivot gun on her forecastle (NZ Herald 13.11.1863, p3 1st edition).