HISTORY
IN LOVE WITH
the Peruvian In times past figureheads personified the spirit of vessels and offered protection to the crew during their arduous maritime journeys; and one such figurehead has spent more than a century in Seaford writes Richard Hunter from the Hunter Figurehead Archives website
The Peruvian, beached at Seaford, February 1899
S
hips figureheads have always held a particular fascination with the public, seen as exotic and mysterious, survivors of a once beautiful sailing ship. Sometimes the figurehead may be the only surviving fragment salvaged from a tragic wreck site, or more benign removed from a vessel after a full working life at the breakers yard, to be bought as a souvenir or memento. Either way we see and imagine within their painted eyes, a life of travel and adventure, storms and doldrums with no two voyages being the same. The coast of Sussex has had its fair share of tragedies, with numerous fine sailing ships washed up ashore, dashed to pieces, while onlookers from shore scrambled to save the crew. Once the drama was over and as many of the crew saved as possible, the following days and weeks would see the debris washed ashore to be salvaged and
re-used in a variety of ways, an early form of recycling long before it became fashionable. An important, but purely decorative part of a ship’s fabric, the ship’s figurehead would also be salvaged whenever possible, although with little if any monetary value. This was seen as the spirit and character of the lost vessel,
Onlookers standing on the shore spellbound at the unfurling tragedy placed on shore it would serve as a reminder of a tragic event. If not protected from the harsh weather conditions on the coast, many of these wooden sentinels would unfortunately rot and decay away, and with them a link to an event in history lost forever. February 2022 | SUSSEX LIVING 31
Feb22 History-The Peruvian.indd 31
25/01/2022 14:34
