A sternboard is the board at the rear of the ship which often, in the days of sail, would display the ship’s name and be highly decorative. There are two rare examples on the wall here which belonged to the White Adder and the Lauderdale.
The Greenwich Maritime Museum believes the boards may be the only two remaining examples of sternboards in Europe.
White Adder
According to the Shipping News in the Liverpool Post, the White Adder was anchored in The Downs on October 5th 1867 before making for London.
LAUDERDALE
The Lauderdale was a China Tea Clipper built in nearby Rotherhithe in 1858. It was owned by John ‘White Hat’ Willis the owner of the shipping line John Willis & Sons, who also owned the more famous Cutty Sark.
Both sternboards ended up in the garden of Willis’ descendants who donated both of them to the Museum (including the Zenobia figurehead below) in the 1970s.