A three-quarter length polychrome figurehead of Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), possibly from a schooner. She is wearing a cream blouse and skirt with a blue-trimmed lilac jacket. Her right hand is placed on her hip. The figurehead has been painted withy brown hair, carved in a bun at back with a light brown hair clip.

Florence Nightingale came to prominence during the Crimean War (1853–56). She arrived with 38 nurses in 1854 to assist with improving conditions in the military hospitals, where deaths from disease were greater than those in battle. Her reputation spread far and wide as a result of newspaper reports on her lifesaving war work. Afterwards, she continued to pioneer sanitation and the professional training of nurses. When doing night rounds in the field hospital, Nightingale became popularly known as ‘the lady with the lamp’. The figurehead’s left arm is missing, but it may have held the famous lamp.