Figurehead

A three-quarter length bust figurehead of the Roman general Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, who was reputedly a war hero turned traitor when he joined forces with an enemy of Rome in around 490 BC. This is a replacement, carved in 1902, after the original full-length figurehead was lost when the three-masted steel merchant ship Coriolanus (1876) ran aground during a hurricane in Algoa Bay, South Africa.

Coriolanus is better known as the tragic central character in Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus and it is likely that this fictionalised version is the inspiration for the vessel's name. The figurehead shows him in stylised Roman chain mail armour and a helmet with cheek guards.

Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London