The figurehead is of the bust of Vice Admiral John Benbow, the commander-in-chief during the War of Spanish Succession in the West Indies where he subsequently died from his wounds in 1702. He wears a wig and cravat as shown in contemporary portraits. The figure wears armour and the lower part is draped in red cloth.
The ship, a 3rd rate, 72 gun vessel, was built at John Brent of Rotherhithe’s private yard and was launched from the same location in 1813. HMS ‘Benbow’ took part in the Syria Campaign in 1840 as part of an Anglo-Austrian-Turkish fleet. In 1848 the ship became a marine barrack vessel, then later in 1854 accommodation for Russian war prisoners and finally in 1859 a coal hulk at Sheerness. She was broken up by the Castles of Woolwich in 1895.
Thankfully the road looks wide. You would not like to collide with that on a dark and stormy night. You would get a right wigging.
Your comment reminds me of a much narrower road on a dark and stormy night…
March 2008:
I seem to be having a week of incidents…
On my return journey from dropping my Dad off at hospital I forgot that one of the junctions had changed into a roundabout and merrily took the wrong turning. I realised immediately but the SatNav had already recalculated. So rather than turn around I decided to go with the new route. This turned out to be the narrowest country lanes you could imagine with hardly any houses and no signposts!!!
Did I say it was night time and I had to dodge the gales and rain??
All of a sudden the road changed from a winding country lane to a straight bit of road and a train was hurtling towards me on the other side of the road!!! EEEK!!! When I recovered from the shock I realised there was actually a fence between me and the train. Then the SatNav asked me to do a right turn across the path of the train… Thankfully although steep and narrow it was actually a bridge over the train track.
The moral of the story is: when travelling on the only main road do not do a diversion – turn back! But then again hindsight is a wonderful thing
When I asked my brother if he wanted to relive the adventure with me he declined. I can’t imagine why
I am going to Portsmouth Dockyard early in February, and hope to see all this, and more, Cherie
I have just written a post about what I saw on my visit, hopefully I will get it posted tomorrow
Oh I’ve been there before.
Have you been to the one in Chatham?
I think their dockyard is more impressive.
I have been to Chatham. I enjoyed Portsmouth more
Really?
But there’s a submarine in Chatham, you know.
And it’s really cool.
I have been on the submarine at Chatham
There is also one attached to the Portsmouth museum (HMS Alliance), there is a taxi boat that takes you to Gosport. As I mentioned in my post I didn’t have and it is on my list for my next visit
Wow, don’t think I’ve ever seen a figurehead mounted on a plinth in the street before, they are normally consigned to Maritime Museum walls.
This one is placed in a rather prominent position as you walk towards the dockyard.