figurehead

The "Macedonian" was a British ship captured by Stephen Decatur during the War of 1812. militaryhistory.about.com/od/naval/p/sdecatur.htm

NYT of March 15, 1891 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9807EFD81239E033A... describes the figurehead of the Macedonian, a bust of Minerva, as being at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Macedonian_(1810)

Apparently, a bust of Alexander the Great, not Minerva as reported in 1891:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonian_Monument
siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=G1I98...


see also (and also at the Naval Academy) but possibly mislabeled as being from the Macedonian?

www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28833238

Though perhaps BBC has it wrong, as the 1891 NYT article also describes the lion statue:
query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9807EFD81239E0...

artbypudewa.com/Nautical Figureheads.html This article by Pam Pudewa, "Nautical Figureheads as Art", mentions a figurehead of Benjamin Franklin by William Rush. Page 180 of A Walk in the Yard: A Self-guided Tour of the U.S. Naval Academy books.google.com/books?id=fcOHjVRueZAC&pg=PA180&l... suggests that the statue is at the Naval Academy.

Built in 1815 under the supervision of Samuel Humphreys and Charles Penrose, she was the first vessel to be laid down at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Franklin sailed on her first cruise on 14 October 1817, when under the command of Master Commandant H. E. Ballard she proceeded from Philadelphia to the Mediterranean. She carried the Hon. Richard Rush, U.S. Minister to England, to his post. Subsequently she was designated flagship of the Mediterranean Squadron, cruising on that station until March 1820. She returned to New York City on 24 April 1820. From 11 October 1821 until 29 August 1824 she served as flagship on the Pacific Squadron. Franklin was laid up in ordinary until the summer of 1843 when she was ordered to Boston as a receiving ship. She continued in this capacity until 1852 at which time she was taken to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, razed and broken up. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Franklin_(1815)

Looks like it's still at the Naval Academy Museum:

From wikipedia: SS Imperator was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line (German: Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft or HAPAG) launched in 1912. She was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg America ships that included SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck built by the line for transatlantic passenger service. At the time of her launch in May 1912, she was the largest passenger ship in the world superseding the RMS Olympic. During World War I, the ship remained in port in Hamburg. After the war she was briefly commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Imperator (ID-4080) and employed for returning American troops from Europe. Following her U.S. Navy service, Imperator was handed over to Britain's Cunard Line as part of war reparations, and she sailed as the flagship RMS Berengaria for the final decade of her career. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Imperator

The slogan on the globe reads: "Mein Feld ist die Welt" (My Domain is the World), the well-known motto of HAPAG founder Albert Ballin.

Here's a color postcard of the ship: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/15283643@N04/4101365085/]

I believe she lost that eagle in a storm.