They Sailed The Seven Seas
May Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Water”
Never to see the sea again
You will notice there is no water in my photograph. But at one time, all these ships’ figureheads were surrounded by water: the open sea. The open sea was also their downfall. They are all that remain of once proud sailing vessels which plied their trade along the English Channel and across the Atlantic Ocean.
Over centuries many ships and lives have been lost around the treacherous coast of the Scilly Isles.
The ‘Lord Proprietor’ of the islands, Augustus Smith of Tresco Abbey, started the collection around 1840. They are mostly from merchant vessels which sank in stormy seas, having been dashed onto the rocks during violent storms.
When I visited Tresco Abbey Gardens, it was hard to imagine such destruction when viewing the figureheads in the Valhalla collection. All thirty seemed at peace in such beautiful surroundings.
From the earliest times, ships’ bows have carried wooden carvings of human or animal forms as part of the overall decoration of the vessels. It is a tradition dating back over 3,000 years.
In later years, carved figureheads depicting women were known as “Neptune’s wooden angels”. A female may have been popular…
