 Upon the ship is the "Flag Staff Truck" (part of the mast) of the French ship Orient (1791), flagship of the French fleet, sunk at the Battle of the Nile.It originally stood on a cylindrical marble plinth carved with the people of Birmingham, surrounded by iron railings with lanterns standing on up-ended cannon at each corner.The statue was originally erected on the site of the Old Cross, a two storey building (a meeting hall over an open space), built in 1703 and demolished in August 1784.