Nelson, carved in teak and weighing 3.5 tons, served as HMS Conway’s figurehead and thus presided over the ship’s wrecking in the Menai Strait 14/4/1953, a stretch of water he was known to regard as one of the most treacherous a sailor could encounter. Artist Charles F Tunnicliffe records the ship grounded on the Platters, never to reach Birkenhead for its refit, and returns with his camera in 1956 when the vessel was being broken up and a heat torch spark had set it alight.