Statues cast of Scottish founder of Chile's navy
- Published
Sculptor Leonie Gibbs as a lorry heads off with packaged statues bound for Chile
Bronze statutes of a Scottish Royal Navy admiral are to be installed in Chile in honour of his founding of the Chilean Navy in 1818.
Lord Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, was dubbed The Sea Wolf by Napoleon for his actions against his French forces between 1800 and 1809.
Cochrane went on to found Chile's navy and also commanded its fleet in naval campaigns against Spain.
The statues have been cast at the Black Isle Foundry in Nairn in the Highlands.
Copies of the statue are to be installed in Chile and Oban in Argyll
Chilean businessman Manuel Ibañez commissioned Scottish sculptor Leonie Gibbs to portray to Cochrane in bronze as a 200th anniversary present to the Chilean Navy.
Three of the statues cast and are to be installed in Chile. They will be erected in the town of Cochrane in Patagonia, also the Chilean Naval Academy in Valparaiso and Mr Ibañez's farm near Santiago.
A fourth copy of the monument is to erected in Lochnell, near Oban, home of the current Earl of Dundonald.
There is also a plan to have fifth copy cast for erection in Edinburgh.