SHIPS' figureheads, once-upon-a-time, were a common sight on land for, it was said, a ship in olden times without a figurehead was inconceivable.

In towns and villages by the sea they could be seen atop fishermen's and boatmen's huts, mounted in front gardens overlooking beaches and wharfs, and standing forlornly among the bric-a-brac of ship-breaking yards.

Now they are, if in good condition, most valuable nautical exhibits, but it is feared that very many have been lost to posterity over the past 50 years due to neglect. Has there, one wonders, been a recent count of the surviving figureheads in the British Isles ? From the earliest times ships carried figureheads, usually in the form of ferocious-looking beasts, and the drawing above shows a Viking ship with just such a design. On English naval ships the lion was a most popular animal and, in fact, was used as a figurehead on British ships from the time of Henry VIII until George II's reign. Sometimes naval vessels were adorned with wooden effigies of kings, queens, dukes and admirals.

Vessels of commerce, however, liked the effigy of a woman. She often took the form of a Venus, a nymph, or an Amazon. Captains sometimes had their wives sculptured in wood.

Thus the plump little bodies in early Victorian dress, which often cannot be identified, are very likely captain's wives from the bluff bows of colliers and the like of long ago. At Southwold, Suffolk, a local figurehead of a woman was acquired in an odd way. Apparently she was seen bobbing about in the sea and at a distance was mistaken for the real thing. Only when a boat came alongside, and she was hauled aboard, did the boatmen find that she was made of wood! The figureheads I know at Southwold, for example, have been kindly treated over the years and in the 1950s I was able to examine and photograph half a dozen well-kept specimens, including two of the three examples shown at the foot of page 44.

My same Southwold informant once told me with a wink: 'You'll never believe this, but some figureheads, which were real works of art and portrayed the most marvellous effigies, could be quickly unshipped when danger threatened.

Arms, legs and even heads were unscrewed and stowed in a safe place.'Incidentally, the figureheads of deep-water ships were invariably painted a pure white. It was only the coasters which had their figureheads painted in many colours'.

Long ago carpenters were employed in shipyards as sculptors in wood. They chipped and carved gigantic figureheads which, when complete, had to be lifted with tackle into position.

Grinling Gibbons, the English wood carver, who was born in 1648, put some of his finest efforts into the figureheads of men-of-war of his time.

The rare set of cigarette cards depicting ships' figureheads issued by John Player & Son in 1912—there are 25 cards—gives a good idea of the variety of designs which adorned ships of the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of the cards are reproduced on the adjoining page.

Among two of the most interesting figure- heads shown on that page are (top left) the example of H.M.S. Colossus, Among all the ships under Nelson's command at Trafalgar, none fought more brilliantly than the 74-gun Colossus.

Having been under fire in the very hottest part of the engagement, the Colossus was the hardest hit of all Nelson's ships. She captured a French seventy-four, and silenced a Spanish ship of eighty guns. One man in every three of her gallant crew was killed or wounded.

Turning to the ladies, the figurehead from H.M.S. Eurydice (top right) has an unusual history. Apparently the unfortunate Eurydice— she was built at Portsmouth in 1843 as a 26-gun frigate of 921 tons—was commissioned in 1877 as a training ship for boys and seamen and capsized in a squall off the Isle of Wight. When she was raised, and towed into Portsmouth, thetelescope as depicted was 'found lying across the figurehead'.

The August 2, 1880, edition of THE LIFE-BOAT published a poem by Augusta A. L. Magra, of Ventnor—it was dated 24th March, 1878— entitled Wreck of the Training-Ship 'Eurydice'. The first two lines of the last verse ran: How many eyes will soon be wildly weeping For those beneath the billows calmly sleeping.

The Viking ships of long ago with their ferocious-looking figureheads must have scattered many an enemy as they bore down on them. Did these heads give crews Dutch courage when voyaging into unknown waters? Carved wood stern ornament from the Indian Chief which was wrecked on the Long Sands on 5th January, 1881, survivors being taken off by the Ramsgate, Kent, life-boat next day. The ornament—it commemorates a famous rescue—is preserved at the R.N.L.I, headquarters in London.

Today, however, ships' figureheads are no longer a feature of vessels but there seems no reason, apart from expense, why they should not be reintroduced—if only in fibreglass or concrete.

Which brings me to wonder if R.N.L.I, life-boats might be allowed to display ferociouslooking figureheads whenever they come against the casualty who keeps getting into trouble!.