SHIPS' FIGUREHEADS. The primitive ship was double ended, with both stems, that is the stem and stern-post, rising above the planking of the hull; and nearly all types occurring from the earliest times till late in the middle ages are recognizable as variants of this original. The high stems were commonly so con spicuous as to be naturally the first parts chosen for decoration; and if only one of the two was decorated, that one was in most cases the stem. These stem-head carvings represent the earliest figureheads. When, as in the oared war-galleys of ancient Greece and Rome, the stem-head ceased to be conspicuous, a wood carv ing or bronze casting was fixed as near to the traditional position as was convenient, so resembling the modern figureheads in northern Europe. The few Roman figureheads which have sur vived from the period of the early empire are, save for their greater artistic merit, curiously similar to those which were applied to English men-of-war in the Napoleonic era.
Figureheads might be religious emblems, they might indicate the nationality of the ship, or might symbolize her name. Also as, with few exceptions, they represented living creatures, and as they are rarely if ever, in early times, found in conjunction with the oculus, it would seem that the mariner must have held, if only as a secondary consideration, that they helped the ship to find her way. The Phoenicians placed a horse's head on the fore stem, just as the English and the Dutch of the 17th and i8th centuries employed their national lions as figureheads; the Egyp tians used various religious emblems, which probably served also to designate individual ships, as did the figures of the holy family and of saints in the Spanish navy in the i8th century; the Romans of the empire would seem to have named at least some of their ships after distinguished warriors, whose busts were em ployed as figureheads, in this anticipating the practice which began in England in the i7th century and became increasingly common from the middle of the 18th century onwards.
When, about the 13th century, the temporary fighting stages developed into integral parts of the hull, figureheads almost van ished for a long period ; for the forecastle overlapped the stem head, and left no very obvious position in which a figure could be carried. A very small carving on the foremost part of the rail of the forecastle itself, or a device placed under it across the stem, were the available alternatives, but both were quite ineffective. They served, however, to keep the tradition of the figurehead alive while this old type of forecastle, often nowadays spoken of as the "carrack forecastle," was universal in great ships. But in Henry VIII.'s reign the important change began which substituted the galleon type of ship for the carrack type. The galleon, as one of her most conspicuous differences from the old type, had the forecastle cut back so that it ended abaft the stem. The figure
might therefore have resumed its old place on the stem-head, had not the introduction of the beak-head afforded a still better posi tion for it. By the end of the 16th century the galleon type was universal, and the foremost end of the beak-head bore the figure. The beak-head altered its shape continually, but as the "head" it I outlived the galleon and is found in the sailing man-of-war right down to the days of steam ; it always bore the figure at its fore end in men-of-war and in all merchantmen of similar build, the figure varying in size and general form to match with the changes of the head itself.
It will be enough to indicate what were the fashions in the figure itself in England from Elizabeth's reign onwards, for in no other country was the figure developed to a greater extent. At first a simple "beast" sufficed, being most commonly the lion or the dragon, the supporters of the royal arms. When the dragon was discontinued as a supporter, he ceased also to be used as a figure, and the lion during the i 7th century was by far the most common figure. For great ships more elaborate figures were used, small groups, especially St. George and the dragon, which, though given always to ships bearing the name of St. George, was con sidered also as a national emblem. So too was a figure of Neptune. From Charles I.'s time also equestrian figures began to be used in the largest ships, and these in the i8th century developed to a portentous extent into the so-called "double" heads. From 1703 to 1727 the lion was established by order as the universal figure foi men-of-war, but a dispensing order was nearly always forth coming for the greatest ships. After 1727 any figure was allowed to be used which did not exceed the lion in cost ; but in 1796 an attempt was made to abolish figureheads as an unnecessary ex travagance. This order at once became a dead letter, and instead of it another was issued which cut down the cost to so low a figure that no more than "devices" could be given to the great ships, and busts to the smaller. One of these "devices" survives as the existing figurehead of the Victory. After 1815 busts con tinued, but grew greatly in size and about 1840 developed into half length figures of vast dimensions.
When, with the coming of steam, the old form of head fell out of use, the figure also became obsolete ; but an attempt was made for several years to provide some sort of a substitute which usually took the form of a badge or scutcheon on each side of the stem. The last ships in the Navy to have figureheads were the sloops of the Odin class, which, indeed, served with them in the World War of 1914.
See L. G. Carr Laughton, Old Ship Figureheads and Sterns, illustrated by Cecil King, RI. (L. G. C. L.)