Jenny Lind Figurehead-- Part 3: You Determine If It's the Real Thing

In his research, Svardskog found that the Nightingale had actually been in the vicinity atone time.  In 1874,  workers had a refit on the ship in Norway nearby.   The bow of the ship had been damaged  on a reef off the coast of Kargero.

Svardskog theorizes that the figurehead was removed when the work was done and never put back so it didn't go down with the ship.  As a matter of fact, the original boathouse of the Nightingale was also removed at the time and you can still see it at the repair yard in Norway.

At this point, you have to wonder if this is the real thing or not.

Well, now it is essentially up to the reader to determine if Mr. Svardskog's Jenny Lind figurehead is the real thing or not.  I like to think it is, but I always like finding buried or lost treasures.

--Old B-Runner

The Jenny Lind Figurehead-- Part 2: Looking for Origins

The next we hear about the Jenny Lind figurehead from the Nightingale clipper ship was 1994.  Swedish maritime antique dealer Karl-Eric  Svardskog heard about a large  wooden carving shaped like a woman that a Swedish family had which had once been used as a scarecrow and went to se it.  he found it  in a hayloft with one arm sticking out  where it had apparently been for a century.

Svardskog determined to find out about its origins and spent six years looking for clues.  He was able to trace the carving to Boston artist John Mason and then matched the figurehead to publicity pictures of Jenny Lind back in her 1850s tour of the United States. 

Of the four ships named after Jenny Lind, only the clipper ship  built in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire (Eliot, Maine is in it) matched the timeline he was using.

But, a problem was that the Nightingale had sunk in the North Atlantic off the coast of Norway in 1894.  Then, why would its figurehead still be around and not at the bottom of the ocean?

--Old B-Runner