Dutch tall ship causes acute embarrassment to school-children.

During a visit to South Street Seaport Museum in New York, the
Dutch-built tall ship "Stad Amsterdam" caused much embarrassment to
the young folk of the city with its figurehead. In an episode very
reminiscent of "boobgate" (
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ent&q=Boobgate ) school
children had to be diverted away from the front end of the ship lest
they should catch sight of it's traditional figurehead – a young woman
with flowing hair and BARE breasts.

As reported: "The painted figure on the bow of the ship, a woman with
long red hair in a green dress with one breast bared, caused a stir
when the ship docked in, where the ship's publicity staff had to
divert a group of schoolchildren so they would not pass by it."

This is what the fuss was all about:

http://www.stadamsterdam.com/en/partners/partners.asp

Such figureheads are of course entirely traditional for tall ships –
amounting to a harmless pagan offering to ensure calm seas and
following winds, and indeed have always been so for hundreds of years.
And in the Netherlands a naked female figurehead would have caused no
concern whatsoever.

Unfortunately in a country where the moral right reigns supreme such a
sight was certainly not acceptable and as widely reported the school
children had to be directed away from such a scandalous sight.

But this does beggar the imagination as to what the sailors of old,
who used to dock their ships at US ports and ports around the world,
would have made of all this. Their prime concern after a voyage would
have been to visit the local brothels where they would have seen much
more than the bare breasts of the local women!!

More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/22/nyregion/22ship.html

Additional web sites at:

http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me... =figureheads

http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me...de=figureheads

http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me...de=figureheads
http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me...de=figureheads
http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me...de=figureheads
http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me...de=figureheads
http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me...de=figureheads
http://www.nauticalsupplyshop.com/Me...de=figureheads

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/site/request/se.../contentId/219

http://www.seascout.net/pa/pa-25/figureheads.html

http://www.figureheads.co.uk/

CJB