Figurehead from the German raider 'Seeadler'

Heavily painted carved wooden ship's figurehead depicting the head and bust of a woman in Scottish highland dress. The woman has long black flowing hair and wears a gold painted coronet bearing a black four pointed star and four round black 'jewels'. She wears a short sleeved jacket with a collar over a front laced dress. A cloak or plaid is draped under her right arm and over her left shoulder, and is held in place on the left shoulder by a large round brooch with a central boss. The woman's right arm is bent with the hand resting on her breast. The left arm is not visible. The figure is painted with thick cream coloured paint, with the exception of black hair and eyebrows, red lips and accents to the nostrils, and the gold coronet. Parts of the eyes, hair and coronet appear to have been over painted and 'restored' at a later date. The left neck bears carved initials 'HL' which have been over painted in a lighter cream colour to the original.

The German Raider 'Seeadler', a 1,571 ton steel-hulled commercial sailing vessel some 75 metres in length, was built by the Robert Duncan Company, Glasgow in 1888, and named the 'Pass of Balmaha'. In June 1915, en route to Murmansk from New York with a cargo of cotton, she was boarded and captured by a crew from the German submarine U-36 and sent to Cuxhaven, Germany. A decision was then made to convert her to an armed raider, and the ship was re-equipped with machine guns, two concealed 105 mm guns, a radio transmitter and a pair of auxiliary engines and was re-named the 'Walter'. By the time of sailing on 21 December 1916, the ship had been re-named the 'Seeadler', ('Sea Eagle'), and Lieutenant Commander Felix Graf von Luckner took over command. Disguised as a Norwegian ship, 'Seeadler' successfully passed through the British blockade and into the Atlantic, down the east coast of South America and into the Pacific Ocean. Von Luckner and his ship proved to be highly successful and over the following eight months succeeded in seizing and scuttling 16 ships. On 1 August 1917 von Luckner decided to anchor the 'Seeadler' at Mopelia Island in the French Society Islands (now Polynesia), a small atoll eight kilometres in diameter, in order to clean the fouled bottom of the boat and stock up on fruit to counter the onset of scurvey amongst the crew. Because of the dangerously narrow coral passe from open sea into the island's lagoon, it proved impossible to enter the lagoon and the crew were forced to anchor outside the coral reef. Accounts vary as to what happened the next morning - some American prisoners still held captive on the ship said the crew was picnicking on the island when the ship grounded on the reef, while von Luckner maintained the sudden appearance of a tidal wave drove the ship onto the reef. The result was the same - by mid afternoon, the ship was holed and wrecked. The crew salvaged all they could, including two lifeboats. Taking one of the these, von Luckner and five men sailed for Fiji where he intended to capture a ship and return to rescue his remaining crew. After a 3,500 kilometre journey, he reached the Fijian island of Wakaya where, despite attempting to bluff authorities, he was captured and sent to a POW camp on Motuihe Island, off Auckland, New Zealand. The remaining German crew boarded and captured a French trading schooner, the 'Lutece' at gunpoint on 5 September, left the French crew on Mopelia and sailed for Chile. They ran aground off Easter Island and were impounded for the remainder of the war. Four of the American prisoners on Mopelia, meanwhile, sailed the remaining Seeadler lifeboat to Pago Pago, arriving on 4 October and alerted authorities to the remaining forty four men they thought were still on the atoll. Only the French remained, and one of the the Help! signs they made to attract passing ships is also held in the Memorial's collection (see REL28925).
The 'Seeadler' was not completely destroyed and HMAS Encounter was sent to investigate and if necessary, destroy the vessel. They arrived in September 1917 and boarded the wreck (see images A00994, A00995, A03014, A03015 and A00990), salvaging what they could. Amongst the material recovered by the crew of HMAS Encounter was this figurehead, as well as one of the ship's brass shell cases (see RELAWM15157). This wooden figurehead depicts a woman in Scottish highland dress, reflecting the ship's Glasgow origins. The initials, 'H L', carved into the figure's neck, are thought to be those of Harold William Ockender Leadbeatter, born 14 June 1896 in England. Leadbeatter arrived in Australia with his family in 1907. He enlisted with the Royal Australian Navy on 25 February 1916 and served as a stoker aboard HMAS Encounter from 24 August 1916 until September 1920. While he was present at Mopelia in September 1917, he was not a member of the original boarding party.