Bust-length figurehead representing a classical warrior in a plumed helmet, from HMS 'Canopus'. The ship was an 80-gun third-rate, formerly the French 'Franklin', which was built in 1796 and captured by Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, after losing half her crew and being left with only one gun capable fo returning fire. She served under Nelson in the Mediterranean, 1803–05, but was not at Trafalgar, being one of the ships he sent down to Gibraltar for stores just before the battle. In 1807 she was at San Domingo. 'Canopus' was a fast sailer and when 50 years old, in 1847, took part in sailing trials against seven other ships of the line and four frigates. She overcame all opposition, beatiing HMS 'Superb' by a hundred yards and the rest of the field by two to six miles. She was placed on harbour service in 1863 as a receiving ship at Devonport and sold for breaking-up in 1887. The French named the ship after the American statesman Benjamin Franklin, a hero of America's struggle for republican independence from Britainin the 1770s and later American ambassador in Paris. Her later name, Canopus, is that of an ancient Egyptian city near Aboukir Bay, site of the Battle of the Nile. The figurehead was presented by the Admiralty from the Rigging Loft at Devonport Dockyard in 1936. It is one of the few 18th-century heads that survive, the warrior figure being much favoured by French figurehead designers.