Figure-head of H.M.S. "Ajax."
Mr. Robert C. Leslie, in his interesting book "Old Sea Wings, Ways, and Words in the Days of Oak and Hemp," tells us that, "owing to neglect, and still more, perhaps, to the material—mostly English elm—used by ship carvers, very old figureheads are not common;" and from my own investigation of the subject, I should say they are practically extinct. There is also great difficulty in locating those that have survived, and this arises partly from the fashion of continuing the names of ships after the original owners of the names have passed away, and also from some of the old ships having several figureheads, which were changed according to the fancy of the captain or first lieutenant. Nelson's Victory had, in fact, four figure-heads at different periods of her glorious career, and it is believed that it was the third, a shield with a crown over and supported by a sailor on the starboard and a marine on the port side, which she carried at the Battle of Trafalgar. At the present day the old ship still has the shield and crown, but the supporters are two gigantic cherubs, and these Turner, with characteristic contempt for accuracy, has represented in his picture of the battle which belongs to Greenwich Hospital, but is now to be seen at the Naval Exhibition.
Figure-head of the "Canopus."
Figure-head of the "Britannia."
There is a good collection of figure-heads in Devonport Dockyard, of which the sketches here given are typical examples. The Black Prince belonged to the ship of that name, which is now in commission; the Ajax recalls the fate of her commander, Captain Boyd, R.N., who was drowned at Kingstown on the 9th February, 1861, while gallantly striving to save life when fourteen vessels were lost in the harbour in a
