The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-03
THEY POINT TO VICTORY.
Figureheads Have Always Been
Prominent Feature on WnrshIps.

From the Philadelphia Record.
Sad to relate, our modern mariners give
very little thought to hgureheads. A
warship feels any number Of times securer
with a few torpedoes up her sleeve than
she possibly could with the most aesthetic
or Formidable figurehead on her stem. In
fact, look about any harbor and note how
few ships boast anything in the shape OF
this sort of a mascot. Yet, time was
when a vessel would as soon have thought
about starting out with a leak as without
a flgureheod. and the farther back we 50
the more was this a fact The earliest dis
covered model of a fgurehead belonged to
a pleasure boat of one of ancient Egypts
dark-eyed queens, being in the form of a
lotus, and so very much to her mind and
heart that she had it buried with her but
warships with animals carved upon the
prows are known 10 have existed in Egypt
before tho day of this queen, in fact, as
early a s 1000 B. c. The subject usually
corrosponded to the name OF the ship. This
was before the introduction of rams. \
few figureheads, as well as anchors and
rams, found in the ruins of the locks at
Athens serve TO give a notion OF the di-
mansions Of ancient Cirecian warships. The
niche occupied on the Flying Dutchman by
the middle ages was occupied by a saint
and this in turn was an outcome of way
they had in the days of the Roman con-
suls of taking their lares or tutelary gods
to sea in the after part of the ship.
Apparently each particular nation had a
faVorite emblem The owl was as con-
spicuous on the Athenian ships as was the
cock, that emblem Of vigilance, on the
prows of the Phoenicans. The shining
blade of st. Theodore, the patron saint OF
the Neneians, was their favored figure
head while the British lion became so uni
versally the hguerehad of English ships
that other nations who followed closely
the naval architecture of this first nation
on the sea" adopted also the lion, as much
TO conceal their identity as because they
were built after English models. So COM
mon was this that in France the curve
of the bow was. known as the sweep OF
the lion
OF the few fgureheads preserved at our
naval academy that of the Delaware,
which was launched at Norfolk in 1920, at
tracts the most attention This image,
called by some Tecumseh, by others Pow
hatan, or even King Philip, is not believed
to be a portrait but rather to represent
great sachem or a powhatan, title having
among the Indians 4 significance quite like
that Of pharoah among the Egyptians. At
any rate, here he is, with his tomahawk,
his arrows and his stern brow, as much a
part of the scheme as the cadets them
selves.
After the civil war the figurehead of the
Columbus, which Commodore Macauley
burned and sunk at Norfolk In 1861 in order
that the Confederates might not gain pos
session, was fished up and brought TO the
academy The figurehead of the Mace
DOMAIN, which was for four years used as
practice cruiser, IS there. too. The Mace
DOMAIN, originally a French ship was cap
tured from the French by the English In
1872, after a short fierce fight, she became
an American ship A wooden figurehead in
the shape OF a lion ala duty as a mascot
on her quarter deck at the time of her cap
ture. Other of our historic fgureheads are
the bust Of Washington from the line-of-
battle ship by that name, the figure OF ST.
Louis on a receiving ship and the gilded
eagle which once belonged to the Niagara.
Though the origin OF the fgurehead be
lost In obscurity. let us hope and believe
that the hgureheads of our warships will
lead them to a thrilling victory. This is
surely presaged by the fgurohead on the
Massachusetts of Commodore Schley's
feet, which surely stands for Samothrace
The Winged Victory.