HMS Minerva was a fifth rate frigate and modified Leda class of 46 guns, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard on 13 June 1820. [1]
The ship was placed in Ordinary (reserve) on completion and was never commissioned. In 1859 she became a floating workshop and was hulked for harbour service in 1861.
Minerva was sold out of naval service in 1895 and was broken up.
This figurehead was carved in 1819 by Edward Hellyer of Hellyer & Sons, a Portsmouth and London based family business of prominent carvers.
It can now be seen as part of the collection of figureheads at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth.