The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-06-27
FIGURE HEADS.
AN OLD TIME CUSTOM THAT HAS
GONE BY.


GONE BY.
'Figureheads? No, they don't put
any money into such jigamarees now, !"
said the captain of the Boxer. 'If
they did, l suppose this one ought to
have picture Of Jeffries on her; but
she amt got nothin' and never had.
"Figgerheads has their uses, though
and its me that knows it. You take
and put carvin' onto a vessel and it
kind of gives her reputation that,
more or less, she alters lives up to.
There was the old Arrer that used to
60 in. Well, she had an arrer, a big
yaller one, p'inted straight out under
her bowsprit. That vessel alters went
straight to the pint and minded her
! own biZness.
Then there was the Mary Wiley,
when she had lions head on the end
of her bowsprit. She alters got the
was going in the course of a season on
this river. They took the lions head
off, so Capt. Williams told me, cause
some wimmen that was aboard one day
said it was an ugly looking thing, with
its yaller eyes and its red tongue, and
they put on star in place Of it; Mary
Willey's gone now-lost her near Port
land year or two ago.
81 member the brig Golden Age, as
had for her fggerhead big horn with
gold dollars a-spilling out of it and she
was maker + ever there was
one. Oh, yes, fggerheads they mean
something"
1t is as the captain of the Boxer says.
Figureheads, once to be found ON nearly
all vessels, are now rarely seen, except
on old timers. Some were illustrative
of the vessels uame, others whims of
the owners or captains, still others
symbolic of events occurring at the
time the vessels were built. There
was the schooner War Eagle built in
war time.
She had for her figurehead fierce
looking eagle, perched upon two can
non balls and with arrows clasped in
his claws. The War Eagle fought the
elements for more than twenty years,
aud then came to an exciting end, being
destroyed by the explosion of her cargo
of naphtha.
The schooner American Eagle was
decorated with gorgeous bird of free
dom and the brig American Union was
covered, stern and bows, with symbols
of this nation.
The old steamer Expounder had a
figure of John Marshall holding in his
hands the constitution outSpread, and
the Daniel Webster carried, on either
paddle box, medallion head of the
great orator, while in her saloon was
hung life-size portrait of him. The
lost steamer Cambridge of the Boston
and Bangor line, carried on either pad
die box the coat of arms of Massachu-
sets, with the motto "Ense petit placi-
dam, sub libertatem quietem." by
the sword she seeks a quiet peace with
liberty
The famous old steamer Katahdin of
carved outlines of the mountain for
which she was named, with deer
nimbly gliding over foothills in the
foreground, while the Penobscot had,
when new, carved head of an Indian
chief on either paddle box, with the
rising sun in the background and in
the foreground. an Indian padding in a
canoe across a silver lake. Some years
ago they made Improvements on the
PenobScot, and in the course of the
changes the Indian chief and other
adornments diSappeared-much to the
regret of sentimental people.
When the handsome ship Belle of
Bath went to Bangor along in the
seventies, to take her first cargo of
deals for Liverpool, the thing most ad-
mired about her was her tigure-head,
the figure of young woman goWned in
the height of style of that period, in
Guiding the pull back dress.
This young woman, created from a
block of pine wood by the skill of the
carver, was all in white and gold and
she wore, besides all her fnery, most
engaging smile, which captivated the
hearts of the sailors
1t was pity, for the handsome young
woman under the bowsprit went to
smash on a foreign shore before the
gilt had faded from the folds of the
pull back dress.
The schooner Carrier Dove and the
Ring Dove of Rockland had white
doves as fgureheades, and the schoon-
er Empress was decorated with white
queen with navy blue crown tipped
with yellow jewels The schooner Ma
poleon carried what was supposed to be
a good likeness, carved from wood, of
the great Corsican, but it looked like
George Washington.
The Italians are famous for the deco
rations OF their vessels, bow and stern,
and the intricacies of the designs are
no less wonderful than the com bina-
lions of colors displayed, white, blue,
yellow and green being the favorites
In the matter of symbols everything
from rosebud to seven-story castle
! is shown, and the more they can crowd
into given space the better pleased
are the men of Italy.-Bath Enter
DriSn