2010 RARE FULL-LENGTH SHIP’S FIGUREHEAD FROM THE SIDEWHEELER SS “FRANKLIN”, WRECKED OFF LONG ISLAND, NY IN 1854 Magnificent Overscaled Full Body Standing Figure of Benjamin Franklin in carved and painted oak, salvaged from the 1854 wreck of the SS Franklin. Roughly 82” x 36” x 30”. Some surface losses, generational layers of early overpainting, tin patches, other repairs, feet replaced due to significant weathering from being displayed outdoors. Steamships of this era were the first to display full length figureheads, a development made possible by the change to a more vertical stem on steam driven hulls. $25,000 - $50,000 In the early morning hours of July 17, 1854, the 264-foot sidewheel steamer SS Franklin ran aground in the fog near Moriches on Long Island’s south shore. The ship was returning from Harve, France with a load of cargo and passengers. Once all passengers were safely taken ashore, operations began to recover what cargo and ship parts were salvageable. A local diver, Thomas Conklin, was one of the men who took part in the recovery efforts. It was he who claimed the ship’s seven foot tall figurehead of Benjamin Franklin. The statue stood in front of Conklin’s Bellport home for nearly 40 years. In the 1890s, when Conklin’s niece Grace Howell and family moved to a new house in Bellport, they brought Ben with them. He stood in that yard until shortly before World War I when the family moved to Philadelphia — with Ben in tow. Sometime in the 1920s, after the senior Howells had died, their son Alonzo moved the figurehead to his home in a small Pennsylvania village. There is no record of when, but the figurehead next resurfaced in the collection of the Sewall family of Bath, Maine, where for many years it had a prominent place in the family’s summer cottage in Small Point. In 1994 the figurehead was moved to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. In 2005, then-curator Nathan Lipfert, with help from the BellportBrookhaven Historical Society, was able to piece together, through book references, newspaper accounts and personal recollections, the figurehead’s journey to Maine that began on that fateful day in 1854. His account was published in the Museum’s membership publication The Rhumb Line in March 2006. See more at www.thomastonauction.com.
The steamer Franklin figurehead on display in Bellport, New York. COURTESY BELLPORT-BROOKHAVEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2010
In the Sewall family cottage in Small Point, Maine. COURTESY MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM
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