“They were looking at me!” Helen insisted. “And I don’t like that ship! I want to go home to Boston.”
Mr. Seymour looked at her in astonishment. “Come, come, my dear child, you mustn’t let a thing like that frighten you. It is strange and grotesque but that only makes it more interesting. I’ll tell you about figureheads. The sailors think of the ship’s figurehead as a sort of guardian spirit that watches over the boat and protects it during storms. Even if it were alive it wouldn’t hurt you because it was created only to protect. But it isn’t alive, Helen, it is made out of wood. I’ll go with all of you to-morrow and let you touch it and then you will never be afraid of it again.”
“Do they always put figureheads on big boats, father?” asked Ann. She would not have been willing to admit that she, too, had those eyes upon her and had thought they seemed very much alive.
“No, not always,” Mr. Seymour explained. “Sometimes the portion over the cutwater of a ship is finished off with scrollwork, gilded and painted. Modern steamers don’t have them now, very often, but the deep-sea men who are on a sailing vessel months at a time like to feel that they have a figurehead to watch and care for them while they are asleep. The owners decide what it will be, and give directions to the builders. That is, if they name a boat after a man they will carve a statue of him for the bow, or else they will choose a saint or an old-time god, like Neptune, who was once supposed to rule over the sea. Sometimes they will have a mermaid, because mermaids are gay and dancing and will make the ship travel more swiftly; no sea could drown a mermaid. When a sailing ship makes a safe passage through storm and peril and brings the sailors home happy and well, they are very likely to believe that the figurehead has had as much to do with it as the captain with his real knowledge of navigation and charts.”
“It is a mascot, then?” said Ben.
“Yes, a sort of mascot,” his father assented. “And some of the old figureheads are beautifully made, real works of art. When he retired, many a sea captain took the figurehead from his ship and nailed it over the door of his home, for he felt a real affection for it. Perhaps he thought that since Neptune had taken such good care of the ship at sea he was entitled to the same enjoyment and rest ashore that the captain had earned.”
Mr. Seymour seemed to feel that everything was clear now, but Ann was not satisfied.
“This ship did not get home safely,” she said in a half whisper.
“No, it didn’t,” her father assented. He was perfectly frank in admitting that even the best of figureheads failed when storms were too heavy or when sailors made mistakes in calculating the force of wind and currents. “But that would not be the fault of the figurehead. I am sure we shall learn that the captain lost track of where he was and came in too close to shore.”
Ann’s doubts showed in her face. “But the crew and cargo have disappeared.”