HMS Dauntless Captains Gig Badge.     Ferrer's Walker Collection

This substantial brass boat badge from HMS Dauntless that was once fitted to the onboard the port bow of the Captain’s gig, otherwise known as ‘galley’. It depicts a classical male figure riding a horse, with DAUNTLESS prominently cast beneath. On the reverse is charmingly stamped ‘GALLEY PORT’. Royal Museums Greenwich holds another 1918 HMS Dauntless boat badge with the same mounted figure, confirming its association with the cruiser.

HMS Dauntless was a Danae-class light cruiser, built by Palmers at Hebburn, launched in April 1918 and completed in November 1918. Displacing about 4,650 tons, she carried six 6-inch guns and could reach 29 knots.

She served in the Baltic in 1919 and later on the America and West Indies Station. In 1928 she ran aground near Halifax, Nova Scotia, requiring major repairs. Recommissioned in 1939, HMS Dauntless performed Atlantic convoy and trade-protection duties during the Second World War before becoming a training ship. She was sold for breaking up in 1946. From the famed Ferrers Walker collection that was curated by, and once on display at, the National Museum of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth.