FIGUREHEADS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 15, 19 January 1932, Page 6

FIGUREHEADS.

There is a proposal that figureheads should be revived, in the British Navy. This does not refer to the Lords of the Admiralty, but to the warships, which have long discarded the bow adornments that wcra the pride of the old-time Navy. It is argued on behalf of the idea that a figurehead which expresses the individuality of the ship is of value as an encouragement to esprit de corps in the service. The new figureheads would be small metal castings suitable to the type of ship.

The modern ship of war is so strictly businesslike that this touch of olden sentiment may seem out of place. Yet the linc-of-battlc ships and the smart frigates of Nelson's day which fought the French for many a year went into action splendidly panoplied with carving and golden leaf. The noble figureheads of that era must have helped to give the human touch to those towering wooden castles marching into battle.Figurelieads did not remain so long in the Navy as. in the merchant service, in which the bow decorations are not yet quite a thing of the past. But some of us can remember the work of the carver's art which the bows of the old square-rigged clipper-bowed Government ships carried on the Pacific station. Further back, in the days of the Maori wars, every Navy vessel had her figurehead, and much originality was exhibited in some of these adornments. There was IJ.M.s. Driver, the first steam vessel to visit the Waitemata, a paddle-steamer rigged as a brig. She was in these waters in 184(5. Her bow cfligy was a carving depicting an okl-time English mailcoacli driver, with many-caped overcoat and whip. A more curious figurehead of which one lias heard was that of H.M.s. Elk, a small brig-of-war which was . here in 1859. Her captain was exceedingly proud of his bow-piece, which was a real elk's head from North America, skin and horns and ail. An old Wellington .man who served in the brig on a South Sea cruise from Auckland, 1559-60, told me that the figurehead was always unshipped when the vessel went to sea, and the captain carried it in his cabin, replacing it with a fiddlehead until he was back in port again. It was purely for harbour show, that deer's head. The proposal to revive figureheads is to be welcomed from the artistic viewpoint. The true sailor man, too, will always welcome anything that gives something like distinction to his ship. Bound up with this matter of figureheads is that of ships' names. H.M.s. Neptune would be none the less efficient as a lighting ship for a touch of artistry about her bows descriptive of her name. In our own little division of the Empire's Navy there would be scope for distinctive decoration if we were to adopt names typically New Zealand. Many years ago we had a cruiser named the Tauranga on this station; since then there has been none with a New Zealand name. Why not H.M.s. Maori or H.M.s. Hinemoa? The figurehead artist tlion would have a subject .to please him. We have H.M.s. Dunedin; she could, of course, carry a kilted piper at her bows. We may yet see our H.M.s. Auckland, with a beautiful girl in the very latest lack of bathing costume leading her into action. The possibilities of the figurehead are endless. —TANGIWAI.