figurehead

figurehead, an ornamental carved and painted figure, the successor of the acrostolium. Figureheads were originally erected on the beakhead of a vessel, but later on the continuation of the stem below the bowsprit as a decorative emblem generally expressed some aspect of the ship's name or function.

An Emblem for Protection.

In the early days of seagoing it was probably a mixture of religious symbolism and a sign of treating a ship as a living entity. On the one hand, some propitiatory emblem was carried on board to claim the protection of a sea deity like Poseidon or Tethys while the vessel was at sea; on the other hand, there was a widely felt belief that a ship needed to find its own way across the waters, and could only do so if it had eyes. The ancient Egyptians drew on their extensive pantheon to provide both protection and eyes by mounting figures of the holy birds on the prows of their ships; Greek ships had a boar's head for both its quick sight and ferocious reaction; Roman ships often carried a carving of a centurion to indicate their prime fighting quality. William the Conqueror's ship pictured in the Bayeux Tapestry had a lion's head carved on the top of its stem; by the 13th century one of the favourite figureheads for ships was the head and neck of a swan, possibly in the hope that the ship would thereby possess the same mobility and stability as that bird upon the water.

In northern Europe the favourite decoration for the high stem of the longship was a serpent, though there were variations. Some Danish ships of the period had dolphins or bulls as figureheads; one longship in ad 1004 was decorated in the form of a dragon, its head forming the figurehead and its tail the sternpost. All these figureheads were carved onto, or mounted on, the beakhead.

Change of Design.

The figurehead as we know it today was an effect of the change in the design of the ship which came about in the 14th–16th centuries. The examples mentioned above were mounted on, or carved directly onto, the beakhead or stem of the ship, but with the development of the carrack, and its successor the galleon, forecastles were built above and beyond the ship's stem, so that the position of the figurehead had to be moved. In the early stages of these designs there was no place for the figurehead, and although Henry VIII's ship Holigost of 1514 is recorded as being fitted with carvings of a swan and an antelope at a cost of £4 13s. 4d. (about £4.67), they were probably placed on the quarterdeck or stern galley. In these early designs the beakhead was nearly horizontal, and figures of some sort could be placed on top of it; the earliest ships known to carry them, the Salamander and Unicorn of 1546, had carving representing their names.

In the century between about 1540 and 1640, the long beakhead developed into the rounded bow by the addition of cheeks, and the position and stance of the figurehead consequently changed. At the beginning of the period the figurehead, nearly always an animal such as a lion or leopard, was virtually horizontal, but as the beakhead gradually disappeared into the bow it became more upright, finally reaching the perpendicular by about 1700 and then leaning further and further backwards, puffing out its chest, through most of the 18th century. In smaller ships, with little space available for a rounded figure, some form of heraldic carving frequently took its place. Of the larger ships which formed the navy of Elizabeth I, five had a figurehead of a lion (Charles, Defiance, Repulse, Rainbow, Garland), five had a dragon (Bonaventure, Adventure, Dreadnought, Nonpareil, Hope), the Mary Rose a unicorn, the Swiftsure a tiger, and the White Bear a figure of Jupiter sitting on an eagle. Most Dutch ships of the period also had a lion as their figurehead, as did many Spanish ships. Generally, French ships carried more elaborate figureheads, such as Neptune driving a pair of seahorses or, a favourite, Jupiter sitting on his eagle.

Popular Figureheads.

The lion remained the favourite figurehead for warships of most nations throughout the 17th century, though some of the larger and more important ships had more elaborate designs. The English Prince Royal of 1610 had a representation of St George slaying the dragon, and the Sovereign of the Seas of 1637 had as her figurehead King Edgar on horseback trampling upon seven kings. The Naseby, one of the great ships of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth Navy of 1649–60, had, according to the diarist John Evelyn, ‘Oliver on horseback trampling six nations under foot: a Scot, Irishman, Dutchman, Frenchman, Spaniard, and English, as was easily made out by their several habits’.

The lion finally went out of fashion as a figurehead for warships in the second half of the 18th century, being replaced by carvings usually indicating the ship's name. For example, the Edgar of 1774 had a carving of King Edgar for her figurehead; the Egmont of 1768 and the Bedford of 1775 had figures of statesmen, presumably the First Lords of the Admiralty after whom they were named. The Brunswick, which fought in the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794, had a figure of the duke of that name wearing a cocked hat and a kilt. The cocked hat was shot away during the battle while the Brunswick was engaging the Vengeur, an accident which so concerned her crew that the captain gave them his own cocked hat and the carpenter nailed it onto the Duke of Brunswick's head.

Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty 1771–82, introduced many classical names into the British Navy, a great opportunity for the carvers to let their imaginations loose. In the early 19th century a new system of training for shipwright apprentices was initiated at Portsmouth, and the well-known marine artist J. C. Schetky (1778–1874) was appointed as drawing master to train them in the carving of figureheads. He had a considerable talent for marine painting and for a few years the carving of figureheads flourished under his tuition, although his designs were so elaborate that they were almost invariably vetoed by the Admiralty as being too costly, and its restriction on what could be spent resulted in British naval figureheads becoming generally uninteresting.

Figureheads in the 19th–20th Centuries.

Up to about 1800 merchant ships followed naval practice fairly closely, and most vessels of the various East India companies used lions as figureheads. With the advent of the clipper ship, with its graceful lines, the figurehead blossomed, usually into a single figure, either full length or half-length. Women were, if anything, rather more popular than men, and very often reflected the superstitions of sailors by having one or both breasts bared.

The 19th-century technological changes from sail to steam propulsion spelled out the gradual end of the naval figurehead. The first two ironclad warships built in Britain, the Warrior and Black Prince, did indeed have figureheads; later ships with their straight iron stem had no more than a medallion or shield, with supporters on either side. Figureheads for the larger warships were finally abolished in Britain in 1894 but some smaller ones kept them until the First World War (1914–18).

In merchant ships, too, the figurehead began to disappear when steam replaced sail, the loss of the bowsprit, under which the figurehead was traditionally placed, being the main reason for its disappearance. In some modern shipping lines a form of figurehead has been revived for decorative purposes.

Bibliography

Frere-Cook, G. (ed.), The Decorative Arts of the Mariner (1966).
Laughton, J. Carr , Old Ship Figure-Heads & Sterns (1925).