HMY ''Fairy'' was a small

royal yacht A royal yacht is a ship used by a monarch or a royal family. If the monarch is an emperor the proper term is imperial yacht. Most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head. The royal yacht is most often c ...

and tender to the .

History

Built in 1844 by Ditchburn and Mare at

Leamouth Leamouth is a locality in the Blackwall area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area takes its name from the former ''Leamouth Wharf'' and lies on the west side of the confluence of the Bow Creek stretch of the Lea, at it ...

, she was commissioned in 1845. She was 146 feet long with a beam of 21 feet and was 312 tons burden, and was able to cruise in shallow waters and as well as her duties as a tender, she sailed from London to Scotland, transported Queen Victoria up and back down the Rhine between Cologne and Bingen during her visit to Germany in 1845, and conveyed the royal family to the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. She was replaced by the in 1863.

Figurehead

Rather than being carved in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

as would have perhaps been expected, given that HMY ''Fairy'' was built on the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

, the

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...

was in fact carved in Portsmouth. No original design survives, but there is record of the

Admiral-superintendent The admiral-superintendent was the Royal Navy officer in command of a larger Naval Dockyard. Portsmouth, Devonport and Chatham all had admiral-superintendents, as did some other dockyards in the United Kingdom and abroad at certain times. The a ...

at Portsmouth forwarding an estimate in July 1846 for carved work on the ''Fairy'' at £4.15.0 (approximately £422 today). It is likely to have been carved by J. E. Hellyer of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

as a late addition. ''Fairy'' is a simple, small three-quarter-length female bust that would have fitted beneath the yacht's

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar (sailing), spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay that counteracts the forces from the forestay, forestays. The bowsprit’s purpose is to create ...

. After the yacht was broken up, the figurehead was preserved at Portsmouth dockyard, appearing in the Dockyard Museum's 1911 catalogue. The figurehead is now part of the collection at the

National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth The National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, formerly known as the Royal Naval Museum, is a museum of the history of the Royal Navy, history of the Royal Navy located in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard section of HMNB Portsmouth, Portsmo ...

References

External links

Royal yachts of the United Kingdom Ships built in Leamouth 1845 ships {{UK-mil-ship-stub