Anne Lisle' Figurehead
1865-01-01/1865-12-31
South Australian Maritime Museum
Port Adelaide, Australia
The white painted figurehead of Annie Lisle depicts a woman with her left hand at her side and her right hand folded across her chest. She wears a gown that looks like it is being buffeted in the wind and a necklace of beads high on her neck. A wreath of flowers rests on her head. 'Annie Lisle' is the title of an 1857 ballad recounting the death of a young maiden by Boston, Massachusetts song writer HS Thompson.
Figureheads, carved wooden sculptures which ornamented the bow of a sailing ship, embodied the 'soul' of the vessel and were believed to offer the crew protection and safe passage on the seas.They were also used to identify a ship, reflecting its function or paying tribute to a person connected with the vessel. The South Australian Maritime Museum has a collection of seventeen ship’s figureheads - the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. The figureheads were sourced and acquired by Vernon Smith, the Honorary Curator of the Port Adelaide Nautical Museum ( from which the current museum evolved) over a period of fifty years. He thoroughly documented his search and as result, most of the figureheads are well provenanced with a recorded chain of ownership. Annie Lisle links to a vessel with a strong history of trading in Australian waters. The plight of the figurehead after the wreck also demonstrates how these objects were coveted and acquired by those outside the maritime trade.
- Title: Anne Lisle' Figurehead
- Date Created: 1865-01-01/1865-12-31
- Location: Port Adelaide, South Australia
- Provenance: The barque Annie Lisle was built in 1865 at Quebec, Canada by Labbie for Anderson & Co. This vessel with a gross tonnage of 347 tons, entered Australian waters in the early 1870s. By 1876, Annie Lisle was trading out of Port Adelaide under Captain William Hayes who was part owner. For the next decade, the vessel was a regular trader to Western Australia shipping flour and general cargo to the west and importing valuable jarrah timber to South Australia. On 20 May 1887, Annie Lisle was run down and badly damaged by the S.S. Australind at Gage Roads, near Fremantle Harbour, Western Australia. Annie Lisle was subsequently converted to a general purpose hulk and used on the Western Australian coast. The figurehead was discovered installed on the front lawn of the home of Miss L.M. Jacka at Henley Beach, holding a bouquet of flowers. She remained there for many years before being ‘loaned' (it seems on a permanent basis) to the Port Adelaide Nautical Museum on 23/6/1936. The original base the figurehead was mounted to broke off with her foot still attached and is kept in storage This break dates to before the South Australian Maritime Museum acquired the figurehead.
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