Bosphorus'

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Figurehead of the 'Bosphorus', which was built and owned in the Isles of Scilly and known locally as the 'Old Turk'. It shows a presumably Turkish bearded figure in a jewelled turb an round a red cap and wearing a cloak over a blue tunic with gilded tassel fastenings. Originally trading to the Mediterranean in the 1840s, the ship could well have been carrying salted pilchards from fish cellars then recently established. She was then owned jointly by William Tremenheere Johns and her master. According to her registration records her figurehead was removed in 1861, presumably at the time of her sale, and at some point came to the figurehead 'Valhalla' on Tresco. Her new owners registered her at Maldon, Essex, from 1865. She then worked on the British east coast, eventually going ashore without loss of life in the small hours of an October night in 1880, a mile south of Scarborough. Show more