The above are photographs of the figurehead of the "Asia", taken on different days which explains the colour difference, and it′s what William would have seen each time he embarked and disembarked from the ship. Strangely enough, when I first saw it, in the Royal Naval Museum, in Portsmouth, I had no idea that William had been a Royal Marine or had any connection with the "Asia" but, for some reason, it stuck in my mind – so much so that when, a year later, I did find the connection, I remembered where the figurehead was, that it was on the second floor and in the far left hand corner.

I had to wait some months before we could visit the Museum again but when we did, with great excitement, I was able to go straight to the figurehead and take my photograph!

I found out that, normally, figureheads were made of pine but as the ship was built in India, the Asia′s figurehead was carved from teak, which was a much easier wood to obtain out there.

As can be seen from the photograph the turban is a reddish brown (more red than brown) the earrings are gold, the moustache and eyebrows black. What looks like a scarf or a singlet, is coloured white, and, from memory, the eyes were a dark brown. His skin was a beautiful was a beautiful, varnished light brown to honey-colour.

I can′t remember, unfortunately, how large it was in comparison with me or anything else but it was smaller than I expected a figurehead to be - though still very impressive. I was thrilled to think that I was looking at something that my great-great uncle would have seen, in 1824, when he was seventeen – and it was new!