the Hiawatha figurehead in the C utty Sark Collection does not show his feet, in the story Hiawatha is blessed with magic moccasins that enable him to stride a mile at a time and by thought alone to direct and power a canoe (a skill a shipowner might especially appreciate) . In Longfellow's work, Hiawatha's marriage to Minnehaha leads to a golden age of happiness and peace, and the figurehead bears a peace pipe at its side. Minnehaha is herself the subj ect of a figurehead. Longfellow describes her as having feet as rapid as the river and tresses flowing like water. Her name, in fact, means "laughing water," and she was on the bow of the 1856 Donald M cKay vessel Minnehaha, the launch of which was attended by Longfellow and the actress Julia Bennett Barrow, who at the time was celebrated fo r her recitations of Longfellow's wo rk in Boston; Barrow's on-stage costume was that of an Indian maiden. The carving is now in the collection of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum in Virginia. Similarly, a figurehead from the 1827 ship Ta/ma at the Peabody Museum in Salem, M assachusetts, is said to portray the l 9thcentury actor F rarn;:ois Joseph Talma in his role as Roman emperor Nero.
But perhaps the motherlode of literary sources is from the pen of Sir Wal ter Scott, whose w ritings include the novel Ivanhoe, the poem Lady ofthe Lake, and many other works which lent their names to l 9thcentu ry ships. A few decades later, poet laureate Lord Alfred T ennyso n presented Idylls ofthe King, drawn, like Scott's wo rk, from Sir Thom as Malory's Le Morte D 'Arthur of the 1400s. The well-received chivalric themes resulted in what were, fo r the times, blockbuster book sales, and, perhaps not coincidentally, the heroes of those books became figurehead subj ects. A few include the carving said to be Sir Galahad at the Seamen's C hurch Institute in N ew York C ity and a tentatively identifi ed Sir Lancelot in the C utty Sark Collection. At the Museo N avale in La Spezia, there is a M erlin the Magician from the 1846 ship Cambria, and the Friar T uck figurehead at Valhalla Maritime M useum survives an 1857 Aberdeen clipper. While these examples clearly have literary connections, I suspect that others are less apparent. For example, a fi gurehead in the Cutty Sark Collection said to be Benjamin Disraeli might be a nod to his role as Britain's prime minister. H owever, two decades before Disraeli held that pos t, he had begun writing novels to express his poThe lovely Lalla Rookh (at the Cutty Sark Col- litical views. Sybil or The Two Nations, lection), an Indian princess, guided a British tea from 1845, for example, examines the enormous divide between England 's rich clipper in exotic eastern waters. and poor. W e might consider whether a shipowner chose Disraeli for a figurehead in sympath y to his published views. It might also be wo rthwhile to rethink figureheads that look rock solid in their attribution. For example, Mystic Seaport has a handso mely des igned and powerfully executed St. Geo rge fi gurehead . W hile this may srricdy be rhe patron saint of England, perhaps the representation is meant to be broader. M ight it be the Red C ross Knight in Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, who only later becomes St. Geo rge? Early in the sto ry, the Red Cross Knight is a very flawed human being-a man who abandons the virtuous lady U na to enj oy the companionship of seducti ve Duessa, later shown to be a scabby, filthy witch. Once reunited with U na, the Red C ross Knight visits th e house ofH oliness, and instructions from res idents Faith, Hope, Patience, Penance, Remorse, and ReSEA HISTORY 101 , SUMMER 2002
Heroes of chivalric tales, such as this character identified as Sir Galahad at the Seamen s Church Institute, New York, were enormously popular in the 1800s. pentance underscore the moral allegory of this Elizabethan poem. From a mountai n where he stands with Contemplation, the Red Cross Knight sees himself in a distant vision as St. George, the patron saint of England. At las t, ready to show his strength against a "Dragon horrible and Stearne," as the Queen had earlier directed him to do, he fights for two-and-a-half days until the drago n gushes black blood in death . U na's fa mil y is now free from th e beas t, and although the Red C ross Knight loves Una, whom he soon weds, he returns to the Queen fo r six more yea rs of pro mised service: "V nto his Faerie Queene backe to return, T he which he shortly did, and Vna lefr to mourne." In Faerie Queene the Red C ross Knight's arduous path toward sainthood is splendidly stocked with heroi c challenges, which might make for a fa r more interesting figurehead. Perhaps a 19th-centu ry shipowner thought so too. T he increasing populari ty of li terary figures ornamenting ships stemmed fro m practical co nsideratio ns as well as the growing availabili ty of literary wo rks. While a contemporary portrait of a lady in an 1876 dress may be elegant, it is also soo n our of dare. On the other hand, there is a timeless
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