Video description of the Mariner's Mirror Podcast: "In this video, using artificial intelligence and digital artistry we have brought to life the 'real' people depicted in these remarkable carvings.
This has never been done before and inevitably has been a bit of a hit and miss process! We have experienced a number of failures (some hideous, some hilarious) as the computer program has struggled to identify certain facial features or clothing (especially hats), but we have had success with 11 – and they are fabulous.
When the surviving figureheads are studied one of the immediately striking factors is the diversity of humanity depicted in these carvings. Although the societies that made them were dominated by white men, the figureheads show a huge range of people – both men and women and from a huge variety of indigenous populations.
This serves as a powerful reminder of the colonial activities that many of these ships would have taken part in – including of course, the buying and selling of humans in the slave trade and the appropriation of vast tracts of land occupied by indigenous peoples."
Listen
to Rear Admiral David Pulvertaft, an expert on figureheads, discuss with Dr.
Sam Willis the 300-year long custom practised by shipbuilders in placing
carvings of humans and animals on the bows of their ships.
© Mariner’s Mirror Podcast (2021).
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