Margit' Figurehead
1891-01-01/1891-12-31
South Australian Maritime Museum
Port Adelaide, Australia
Figurehead from the Norwegian barque ‘Margit’ which was formerly ‘Craiglands’ of Liverpool. Painted white, the figurehead depicts a woman clad in typical Victrorian era dress with her right arm crossing her breast. She has flowers in her hair.
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. They date from the age of sail, which dominated the 18th and 19th centuries. 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. The figurehead from Margit references the last days of sail when windjammers took advantage of the direct route through the blustery southern latitudes to transport vast cargos of grain from South Australia to Europe. Retrieved from the ship wreck on the Coorong, the figurehead references the dangers of sea voyages and the perils of the south's shipwreck coast.
- Title: Margit' Figurehead
- Date Created: 1891-01-01/1891-12-31
- Location: Port Adelaide, South Australia
- Provenance: Margit' (originally named 'Craiglands') was a 1241 ton, steel-constructed, three-masted barque built by C.J. Bigger at Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1891. In 1903 the vessel was sold to Norwegian owners Chr. Nielsen and Co., and renamed 'Margit'. In 1911, several days before Margit was scheduled to sail from Victor Harbor, South Australia to Falmouth in the United Kingdom with a large shipment of wheat, its captain, Mr. Petersen, mysteriously disappeared in a boat to secure a pilot. His lifeboat and cap washed ashore but the body was never located. On Friday 10 November 1911, with a new master, Margit finally departed. At 11pm that night, the vessel struck the shallows and became stranded on the Coorong near Kingston, South Australia. By the time assistance arrived two days later, the lifeboats had already been deployed and the entire crew had reached shore unharmed. Stranded in the shallows fifty metres from shore, Margit was subjected to pounding surf, which obstructed attempts to salvage the ship and cargo. The only item that was salvaged was the figurehead. The Marine Board later concluded that the loss of Margit was due to careless navigation. The crew of the wrecked barque spent Monday night at John Gall's station at Cantara. The figurehead was donated to the Port Adelaide Nautical Museum by Mr Joseph Gall of Cantara Station on 13 February 1934.
- Rights: History Trust of South Australia, CC-0, photographer: Kylie Macey
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