Long John Silver

The Cutty Sark Collection of figureheads were all acquired by an avid collector of maritime artefacts called Sydney Cumbers. He was born in 1875, and from a very early age began to collect everything and anything to do with the merchant marine. Sydney lost his left eye when he was young, and when he later took to wearing an eye patch over it, he acquired the nick-name ‘Captain Long John Silver’.

Sydney was based in London and in the 1930s, he purchased a second home in Gravesend, Kent. This was named ‘The Look-Out’ and became the home of his growing collection of artefacts as well as the spiritual home of his alter-ego, ‘Captain Long John Silver’. He lived there with his wife, who was fondly referred to as ‘The Mate’.  The house was fitted out and named after different parts of a ship (for example, the ‘Bridge’, ‘Foc’s’le’ and ‘Hurricane Deck’) and was dominated by the extensive collection of figureheads.

The Silver Collection of figureheads was developed and maintained by Sydney and his ‘crew’, and ranged from individual heads to 10 foot tall figures. He would research the figureheads as far as he could, and was constantly on the look-out for new acquisitions.

When the lease was up on the property in 1953, Sydney Cumbers donated his collection to The Cutty Sark Society. ‘The Silver Collection’ is, as it was then, dedicated to the merchant seamen of Great Britain and the flotilla of small ships that went to rescue the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk in 1940.