Painstaking restoration finally completed

The figurehead of HMS Warrior 1860 has been painstakingly restored back to its former glory. The Warrior was the biggest, fastest and most heavily armoured warship afloat at the time it was built and, as the only surviving member of Queen Victoria’s Black Battle Fleet, is a star attraction at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. It was one of the last battleships to carry a masthead; however, the one we see today is sadly not the original, but the third one it has carried (all to the same design). The first masthead was lost in 1868 when the Warrior accidently collided with HMS Royal Oak, causing it to break off.

The present version was carved by Jack Whitehead and Norman Goaches in the early 1980s using original sketches and photographs. It took a week just to erect the scaffolding for the restoration and a further week to repaint it. Fez Parker, who regilded the figurehead, said that he was pleased that he can now “retire looking at the ship with pride”.