The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-24
FIGUREHEADS OF SHIPS
CUSTOM AN ANCIENT ONE
Interesting History of One on the Frigate Con-
 stitution.

The figurehead of a ship is piece of ornamental wood-carving, often in for ner times bust Or flll-length figure, placed over the cutwater of a ship and just under the bowsprit. The custom Of placing some such figure at the head of a vessel is a very ancient one. Herodotus says that the Phoenicians used to fix the figures of deities on the bows of their galeys. The Alexandrian ship in which Paul sailed from Malta to Italy bore the sign of Castor and Pollux, which seems to mean that she had hte twin brothers for a fgurehead. In modern times vessel named for a person or object that can be represent ed directly or automatically by a f1g- ure often had such figure placed at her head. Tn our large seaports we used to have skilled wood-carvers who could fit a fine efi1gy of the Egyptian queen to the stem of your ship Cleopatra, or an image of the king of birds to your good ship Eagle, or an emblematie female figure to your ship Columbia,
 Shipping illustrated tells us that the saucy little Sirius, pioneer in ocean steam traffic, had for figurehead a dog holding a star between his paws and so symboliZing the dog-star Sir ius Tn cases where no figure Is used, the stem is often finished off as scroll-head, f1ddle-head or billet-head. But with the advent of pig steamships with a plumb stem and no bowsprit, the 1gurehead and even the scroll-head hast mostly disaplpeared. A few ocean liners, like the New York, the Paris and the Berlin of the Red Star line, have still the bowsprit and the figure head. Still this feature is so much thing of the past that 1t is getting to be a genuine curiosity
 A type of f1gurehead, in which there fs some attempt at portraiture. is that of the old British ltne-of-batle ship Duke of Wellington It Is said that the Iron Duke had a great aversion to having his portrait made in profile, but the wooden efflgy on the warship can- not help itself. This type of f1gurehead was quite common in old ships of the British and other navies Many of the big warsh1ps carried effigies of dukes, heroes, and denigods under their bow spirits One of these big ships of the line, the Brunswick, took a conspicuous part in the famous First of June bat tie, 1792, in which a British and a French fleet met at sea and separated after stiff fight, the French getting tho worst of 1t. After the Brunswick had been for some time engaged with a Trenoh ship at close quarters, a can-' non ball knocked into smithereens the cooked hat upon her figurehead, which was none other than. full-length stat ue of the Duke of Brunswick. The sailors after hurried consultation de- cided that 1t was not decent for the duke to continue the fight in such plight. A committee went aft, begged the loan of the captains cooked hat, spiked 1t on the poor dukes head, then with cheer went back to their guns again.
 The British frigate President, built as successor of the American frigate of that name, captured by British fleet in the war of 1872, has for f1gurehead bust of President Adams. We are in doubt whether the British woodcarver was unaware that the Adamses are a bald-headed race, or knowing that fact, benevolently provided a wig. The fig- urehead of our famous frigate constitu- ton or Old Ironsides has had an inter- esting history. First there was a stat ue of Hercules. This was smashed by 8 shot in action before Tripoli, and was replaced by a figure of Neptune, and this later by a billet-head, When the ship was docked in Charlestown hayward for complete renovation in 1888, Capt. Jesse. D, Elliott, command ant of the yard, secured permission of the navy department to set up the fg~ ure of President Andrew Jackson in place of the billet-head Such storm of opposition followed that Beecher, the woodcarver, and the half-fnished statue were brought under guard to the navyyard where work was securely completed and placed on the stem of the ship, and the ship was moored be- tween two men of war for safety, and & sentry placed ir full view of the bow.
 After few weeks, July 8, 1884, the head of the statue was missing. Sam uel W. Dewey, an adventurous ship master, taking advantage of thunder storm, had pulled alongside in a small boat, had gained the deck, evaded the sentry in the pitch dark, and once un- der the bowsprit the work was soon done. A gimlet screwed into each side of the head and a line passed over the bowsprit and made fast to both of them held the head when severed from tho body, The saw was used while the thunder and the roaring storm filled the sentry's ear. Slowing the head in a coffee sack, Dewey made his way to his boat and found her half full of wa ter from the ships scuppers. But he