terrible gale from the N.E. Other heads here given are from the Canopus, a ship taken from the French, and considered in her day the fastest sailer in the squadron; and the Britannia, now the training-ship for Naval cadets.
Figure-head of the "Grimaldi."
The sketches of the Grimaldi and Eliza Jane are examples of the figureheads met with in small coasting vessels.
Figure-head of the "Caledonia."
The Eliza Jane is, I believe, still afloat. She is a schooner of about 150 tons, and, judging from the costume, was built in the year 1855. It was amusing to watch, as I did in a West country harbour, the artist of the ship painting Eliza Jane with the brightest colours which his palette could furnish. The bouquet of flowers took him about a day to work up, and the amount of vermilion exhausted on the lips was prodigious.
Figure-head of the "Eliza Jane."
Figure-head of the "Great Harry."
In the same West country harbour I came across the old Grimaldi, a collier brig, a "Geordie," in fact—see Mr. Clark Russell for a description of this kind of craft. The local seamen told me the Grimaldi was ninety years old, and as sound as a bell, and as Grimaldi was born in 1779, the age of the brig was, perhaps, not exaggerated. The figure was very comical, and there were distinct traces of a goose hanging out of the clown's starboard pocket. I heard with sorrow that the poor old Grimaldi was lost with all hands a few months after I had sketched her.
