As you may know, one of the most romantic and imagination-inspiring images for me is a ship’s figurehead.Perhaps now I know why: yesterday I visited a museum that had material on display about my great, great uncle, who was a ship’s captain until he died of yellow fever in 1892. He sailed several vessels up and down the Atlantic Ocean: to New York to pick up a cargo of cocoa beans; to Newfoundland to deliver bales of needed hay and other produce to “the Rock.”
One of his ships was called the Camellia.
I can imagine a lovely figurehead draped in a Grecian column, perhaps with a camellia in her hair, representing fragrant beauty.
Or maybe she’d be depicted in the style of one of Barbara Cooney’s fanciful illustrations, gracing the prow.
Wouldn’t it be lovely to be a carver of figureheads?
2 comments:
I'd rather pose for the figurehead -- carving it seems to be too much work :-)
How wonderful! I love figureheads too. The one on the Cutty Sark has always fascinated me. LLGxx
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