| Brief Description |
This solid oak arm chair was carved from the oak timbers of the fighting ship, HMS "Temeraire", by the donor's ancestor John Beatson, a shipbreaker from Rotherhithe, Great Britain. The chair has a padded leather back rest, armrests and seat. The chair is carved with an inscription relating to the Battle of Trafalgar.
HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun ship of the line in the Royal Navy. She served mostly on blockades or convoy duties during the Napoleonic Wars. She fought just one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar, where Vice Admiral Lord Nelson was killed, but became so well known for her actions that she is known as "The Fighting Temeraire".
In 1838 the Temeraire was towed up the Thames River to a ship-breaker’s yard. Beatson took some of the timber and made a set of twelve dining chairs. And how did the chair come to be in the Whanganui Regional Museum?
In 1851 John’s brother William immigrated to New Zealand, taking two of the chairs with him. William gave this chair to his daughter Emma when she married. Emma’s sister Catherine married Samuel Henry Drew, the Museum’s Founder and first Curator. It is through this connection that the chair is in the Museum collection.
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