Nelson & His World

I recall reading, but can't recall where, that at some time in the 18th century what we (I!) think of as traditional ships's figureheads - usually a rather splendid female form - on Royal navy ships were replaced by other ornamental devices. Does anyone know more? Why was this distinctive and powerful form of embellishment discontinued?

I had a look at the NMM site, www.nmm.ac.uk using 'figurehead' as a search term. There is much interesting information there but nothing about the abandonment of figureheads.

One interesting piece of information was that the lion was the most common subject for both naval and commercial figureheads across Europe during the 17th & 18th centuries - very fitting for a Royal Navy ship, the lion being a natural predator at the top of the 'food chain', as well as a national symbol and a part of the royal arms.

Tycho,

Figureheads didn't actually disappear during the 18th Cent, but they did get smaller.

Up until 1795, heads appeared full length and I believe were often supplied to ships unpainted or white. Often some artist could be found amongst the crew who would embellish it depending on the captain's pocket. Since the figurehead was treated with a form of reverence by the crew, not to mention a little superstition, the deeper the captain's pocket the better they liked it!

After that date, the Admiralty issued an order for ships to be fitted with half figures or busts, together with the restrictions on other decoration on board. As you might imagine, this was partly done for reasons of economy, but may also have been done out of practicality, e.g. to save weight, since some of the heads were of enormous proportions, and perhaps also to prevent the headsail sheets etc. from getting caught around the various appendiges of heads, arms etc. when the ship was under sail! An example is Victory's original figurehead, which was I believe removed in 1801 to be replaced with the one we see today, and which had the bust of George lll and four figures representing the (then) four continents, Europe, America, asia and Africa.

There was also another consideration, which was that the shape of ships bows changed, with the appearance of the rounded bow in 1811. This enabled guns to be sited to fire more on the bow.

I think the last RN warship to have a figurehead was about 1923, although I can't remember offhand her name.

Kester

Kester,

thank you for that really interesting post. How fascinating to know that the figureheads were often painted by someone aboard. When you see them in museums, they are so impressive - the garish colours adding to the powerful, totemic effect. One could imagine superstitions arising around the figurehead - as a protective goddess, almost. Do you know more?

The NMM site mentions several books on the subject - another one for the bookshelf, maybe.

Anna

Tycho,

Although ships and figureheads were usually thought of as female, there were of course just as many that were male or were named after places. I can think here for example of the 'Windsor Castle' and the 'London', the latter of course being the flagship of Sir Hyde Parker at Copenhagen. I believe in the latter case, if I remember correctly, it was in the form of a female bust, with a castle or fort on her head (!) perhaps representing the Tower.

Most of the navies of the day used the lion as a figurehead, as you mentioned, the British, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, French and Spanish and these navies also used ship names taken from classical antiquity with figureheads to match. This tends to cause some confusion to historians when ships of opposing navies appear in the same battle with the same names, although slightly perhaps differently spelt.

Yes, there were a few superstitions around figureheads, but sailors felt very protective of them too - after all they did represent the name of their ship in which they took some pride. I seem to remember a story from I think the early the years of the Revolutionary War - perhaps during the Battle of the First June 1794 - when one ship's figurehead (I can't remember the ship) had its hat blown off and the crew refused further duty until it was put to rights. The story goes that the captain had to give up his own hat, which was then nailed on to the figurehead, and the crew then went back to their guns!

As regards figurehead collections there are of course those at the NMM, the RNM at Portsmouth, and there is so called the Long John Silver Collection of merchant ship figureheads on the Cutty Sark, which are probably now in storage at Chatham awaiting to be returned to the ship when she has been reconstructed.

Kester

Kester, you are right it was the Glorious 1st of June when the Duke of Brunswick had his hat shot off:


Another anecdote relates to the figurehead of the Royal George being blindfolded when Admiral Sir Charles Hardy in 1778? had been ordered by the Admiralty not to engage the enemy:

Tony,

Thanks for the reference. The name of the ship and the battle I couldn't quite recall from memory, and I am without many of my books at the moment to which I could refer.

Kester

Tycho,

You may be interested in this site, belonging to Richard Hunter figurehead restorer:

http://www.figureheads.co.uk/index.htm

Read especially the 'poems of the sea' section under 'archive' where there is a poem about the figurehead of the 'Orion.'

Kester:

many thanks for that most interesting link.

The article on the Jenny Lind carving was most intriguing - and isn't it the most exquisite figure? Much more refined and elegant than any figurehead I have seen.

My favourite poem in the archive was the first one, 'Figurehead' - though I liked the one on Orion too.

Isn't it amazing - you ask a question out of idle curiosity and an unknown world of research, knowledge, enthusiasm, dedication and love is revealed.

I am reminded too that the Naval Museum in Venice has an interesting collection of figureheads. They are in the process of rebuilding a replica of the Doge's barge 'Bucentore'. There is a scale model of the last doge's barge, with the figurehead of Justice (at the base of the bowsprit). There were many doge's barges throughout the ages, but the last one was burned to a ruin by Napoleon when he conquered Venice in 1797. It was one of many acts of barbarism he perpetrated on the city in a demonstration of raw power and domination.

The link to Richard Hunter's website, listed above, is no longer available, but I am grateful to Susan of 'Sailing Navies' for a new link to his wonderful archive:

http://www.figureheads.co.uk/

Anna,

Thanks for the link. There are some other interesting things – including one of the Victory's knees. You'd need a big 'shopping basket' for that!

Nice shot of the figurehead from HMS Nelson now at the NMM - received from Google alert:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55369298@N00/4750959219/