The following is a story from Doug McLean describing the restoration process and fabrication of the figurehead of the 1877 tall ship Elissa. Doug McLean was part of the original crew that began restoring the Elissa when it arrived in Galveston from Greece in 1979. Doug is a fantastic storyteller with a passion for Galveston history. Enjoy this quick story on the figurehead of the 1877 tall ship Elisa. 

"When I was working on the restoration of the Elissa, we had to have a figurehead carved. This was real critical. The figurehead on a, on a historic ship, 1800s, was usually the daughter of the ship builder or some very prominent person in the, in the family of the ship builder, the ship owner. 

We don't have any images of the original ship. We do have some originals, but they don't show the figurehead. So we had to come up with a model of some kind. Well, well, how are we gonna do this? Well, we had a young girl who was A&M student, Texas A&M Maritime. She was on the volunteer crew, the Chief Rigger, who was the six foot six bearded guy from San Francisco thought that she would be the perfect figurehead model. 

So they hired this sculptor named Eli Kaslinski from, from New York. And Eli had been a part of, uh, south Street Seaport in New York and was a sculptor and carved in wood and everything, and he was a perfect guy to do it. So Eli came down here. And he said, well, you know, I can't just see her. We're gonna have to work this out and so that I get this composition right. So what they did is, of course, Steve, who's the chief,  rigger, said, okay, let me handle this. He figured out how to take this young 19 or 20 year old girl and literally strap her to the front of the ship with ropes tying her arms back behind her. And I'm not kidding, round the bow of the ship. Not only did he convince the powers that be that were paying for all this, that this was a legitimate request, also convinced this young girl that she was gonna allow herself to be strapped on the front of the ship. And Eli took a whole series of photographs of it and sketches and everything else, and took those back to a studio on the Strand and carved the figurehead. It is absolutely beautiful. So it was, it was a great story, great event to be, be there for with a great outcome. 

So that's a figurehead we see today?

That's the figurehead. I love it."

Be sure to check out the full interview with Doug McLean on his new statue, Hope. We cover Galveston history, Pompeo Coppini, and his lost sculpture, life on the island, and much, much more. 

Galveston, Texas, History, Island, Beach, cruise, cruise ship, vacation, Henry Rosenberg, Fountains, East End Historic District, Strand, Seawall, Bolivar, Houston, Audio Tour, Audio Guide, Free Tour, Free in Galveston, Pier 21, Port of Galveston, Pelican Island, Elissa, State Tall Ship of Texas, Figurehead, sailing, sailboat, historical. Guide, Free Tour, Free in Galveston, Galveston Guide, Port of Galveston, Emancipation, Juneteenth, Spanish, Bernardo De Galvez, sandbar, capitol of Texas, Texas Podcast, Texas History Podcast