HMS Peterel was a Rosario-class sloop of the Royal Navy.
Peterel served three commissions as a warship, on the North America and West Indies Station, the Cape of Good Hope Station and the Pacific Station. In 1877 she became a lightship marking the wreck of , then in 1885 she was converted into a coal depot before finally being sold in 1901, the longest lived of her class.
The ships figurehead was a simple three-quarter-length female bust carved by the resident carver of Devonport Dockyard, Frederick Dickerson of the Dickerson family.
When the ship was sold, the figurehead was preserved at Devonport Dockyard and subsequently moved to the training establishment of HMS Royal Arthur.
The figurehead eventually transferred to the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust who still own the artefact. It is currently at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth as part of 'The Dockyard Apprentice' exhibition.