lost-at-sea-memorials.com

On a hill overlooking the beautiful and tranquil Pacific Ocean in Honiara, Solomon Islands stands an American Monument to the Naval and Marine Corps nightmare known as Guadalcanal. The first major United States Pacific offensive of WWII was ultimately successful, but at a cost that was horrific. Twenty-four U.S. naval vessels were lost – aircraft carriers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers. Their names echo in American naval history – Astoria, Hornet, Wasp, Atlanta, Cushing, Porter, Preston, Juneau, and on and on. The human cost was even higher – 1,592 Marine and Army troops and airmen killed in action – 5,041 U.S. Naval officers and sailors killed, most of those lost at sea in some of the most heroic and brutal naval combat in human history. One must add to that total the thousands of equally brave Japanese and Australians who also gave their lives in 1942 and 1943 in the tropical waters off Guadalcanal that came to be known as “Ironbottom Sound” to those who survived the carnage.

It’s been almost seven decades now – the brutality and death of the Battles of Cape Esperance and Savo Island and Tassafaronga have been replaced by the lush green background of the Solomon Island hills – and the once blood-stained waters washed clean by a deep calming blue marking the common resting place of men once mortal enemies, now resting together in peace. The words of Joseph Conrad were perhaps meant for this very place more than any other…

“May the deep where he sleeps rock him gently, gently, until the end of time.”

I encourage every reader of this blog to read James D. Hornfischer’s book “Neptune’s Inferno” to learn much more about the U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal. It is superb history, written by a master of the English language.

Almost all lost at sea memorials begin as a vision in the hearts and minds of family, friends, and shipmates. The journey from the initial vision of a memorial to final completion can be long and difficult, requiring constant dedication.

The image on the left is a small model of a proposed sculpture by Florida artist Robert Bruce Epstein entitled “The Hand of Fate”. A dedicated group of citizens of John’s Pass Village on the west central Florida coast hope to turn this beautiful concept into a permanent memorial. Families and friends of Florida fishermen lost at sea are intimately involved in this effort.

The web site for the memorial contains a listing of almost 150 individuals who died at sea sailing from the west central Florida coastal area. The remains of most of those victims are lost forever in the waters of the Gulf. These include commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, divers, Coast Guard crews, and others. Looking through that list is a sobering experience. A fully realized memorial would be a most appropriate way to honor their memory. Perhaps some readers of this blog will be able to contribute.

Please visit the memorial’s fine website at: http://www.floridafishermenlostatsea.com/

An extensive newspaper article on the proposed memorial can be accessed at: http://www.floridafishermenlostatsea.com/pdf/times2010.pdf. This article can also be found on the memorial website.

5/26/12 – The Memorial is now completed and is beautiful. Please see the comment below from the artist Robert Bruce Epstein and these first photographs. More to follow in a future post.

On January 31, 2000 Alaska Airlines Flight 261 plunged into the Pacific Ocean near the Channel Islands off the beautiful beaches of Southern California. The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 on a scheduled flight from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to Seattle, Washington, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco. All eighty-eight passengers and crew aboard the aircraft were killed, many lost at sea.

This accident is one of the most written about in recent memory, mainly because it was determined to be caused by a mechanical failure that could have been prevented. A simple jackscrew mechanism that controlled stabilator trim on the aircraft failed – resulting in a total loss of pitch control. The aircraft plunged nose first into the water, despite all efforts to regain control of the aircraft by the flight crew. This tragic loss was due to a failure to perform routine maintenance by Alaska Airlines and a failure to conduct adequate oversight of maintenance by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Sundial Memorial at Port Hueneme Beach Park is a beautiful combination of remembrance of the dead and a vision of hope for the living. Designed by Santa Barbara artist James “Bud” Bottom, the memorial consists of a 20 foot diameter base and an 11-foot tall bronze arm. The names of the victims are found on bronze plaques circling the base. Every year, on January 31st, at the exact time of the crash, the shadow caused by the bronze arm darkens a special plaque on the sundial’s face.

Port Hueneme was the base of operations for recovery efforts after the crash. On the one year anniversary on the crash, a boat from Port Hueneme ferried family members to the crash site near Anacapa Island. The boat was surrounded by a pod of approximately 1,000 dolphins at the crash site – an enduring memory for all those on that ferry that day.

Dolphins, according to legend, help transport the souls of people lost at sea. Attached to the bronze arm of the sundial are dolphins, free of the water and soaring high. It’s a most fitting image on a memorable memorial…

I have been, and will continue to be, very careful about invoking politics, religion, or other controversial topics into this blog. Such discussions have no place here. This is a site to remember and honor the souls of those lost at sea – and to marvel at the beautiful memorials created by survivors, family members, friends, governments, talented artists, and the many generous contributors and volunteers who work so long and hard to make these memorials grow from an idea to reality.

Unfortunately, the dedication of any memorial is not the end of the journey. Most memorials are designed and constructed using private funds. Often, not enough thought is given to the long-term funding and maintenance requirements of the memorial. Human traffic and the natural elements will take their toll – the memorial can become weathered, eroded, or damaged by vandals, with no funding available to repair the damage or even to provide minimal upkeep.

If you live near one of these beautiful memorials, please consider volunteering your time and energy towards maintaining the site in its original state. If you’re a visitor, then please give whatever money you can to the foundation responsible for its upkeep.

Quite often a simple design can most effectively relate the power of the sea. The Seamen’s Memorial Wall in Eden, Australia is a striking example. The wall was originally designed and built as a memorial to the fishing trawler ‘Shiralee’, lost with all souls on August 10, 1978. Today plaques dedicated to the memory of 24 New South Wales souls lost at sea are attached to the granite wall shaped like a giant wave. These plaques include the names of two sets of fathers and sons who were lost on separate occasions.

Eden is located on Twofold Bay, a beautiful refuge from the Tasman Sea to the East. Eden was for generations a leading port of the whaling industry. It’s location was a perfect spot to intercept whales migrating from the Antarctic to the waters of the Great Barrier Reef. Eden remains a vibrant hub for the Australian fishing industry – and a place of extraordinary natural beauty, befitting its name. But the beauty and peace of any port, unfortunately, often becomes the final memory for some mariners. Fishermen who take to the seas always do so at great risk – some never to return to their personal Eden…

Many of the facts concerning the deadly encounter of the HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran on a November night in 1941 remained a mystery for almost six decades. Even the discovery of the wrecks of both ships in 2008 did not answer every question. Those remaining secrets will forever rest with the hundreds of souls who died that night off the coast of Western Australia. What is known can be researched and contemplated by reading through a number of superb Internet sites maintained by the Australian government and private foundations. I will attach links to many of these sites – as well as a link to the talented artists who created this most beautiful and uplifting memorial.

During WWI and WWII the German Navy employed Raiders with some success. Raiders were basically merchant or passenger ships converted to fully functioning warships, but maintaining the silhouettes of the original vessel. Weapons (guns, mines and torpedoes) were disguised, as were the name and country of origin of the raiders. The HSK Kormoran in late 1941 was disguised as the Dutch freighter Straat Malakka as she carried out her orders to lay mines and sink Allied merchant ships in the Indian Ocean.

HMAS Sydney II was a Leander Class light cruiser built in Great Britain and launched in 1934. In late 1941 she was patrolling the waters off Western Australia. On the night of November 19, 1941 she intercepted the German Raider Kormoran. The time from the moment that the two ships first sighted each other to the end of the engagement constituted less than two hours. Shortly after the engagement was over both ships lay at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. The Kormoran lost 82 souls to the ocean depths – 318 of her crew survived and were rescued by the Australians. The toll on the Sydney II was unimaginable – 645 lost at sea – the entire crew. The Royal Australian Navy has a long and glorious history. The loss of the HMAS Sydney II remains its greatest tragedy. Over six decades there has been much written questioning how a fully-armed Australian warship could have been lost with all souls to a German Raider that would have had to keep her actual identity and intentions secret until the last possible minute. Please click on the links at the end of this post if you wish to read more about this subject. My feeling is that it was combination of bad judgement and bad fortune for the Sydney – and quite the opposite for the Kormoran. The wreckage of the Sydney most certainly reveals that her loss was due to a devastating explosion some hours after the battle had ended – the explosion cutting the ship in half.

The HMAS Sydney II Memorial in Geraldton, Australia is one of my favorites. Incorporated within this extensive memorial are nautical themes, the pain of survivors, and a tribute to the dead that envelops and surrounds the visitor.

The artists who conceived and built this memorial are husband and wife Charles Smith and Joan Walsh-Smith. Originally from Ireland, they settled in Western Australia in 1984. Their web site devoted to the design and construction of the memorial can be found at:  http://www.hmassydneymemorialgeraldton.com.au/

The memorial has several elements:

• The Dome of Souls: This is a most appealing structure within the memorial complex. The dome consists of 645 seagulls, one for each member of the Sydney crew lost on that fateful night.
• The Podium: The area underneath the dome, done in beautiful mosaic, with a ship’s propeller as the centerpiece.
• The Stele: A representation of the Sydney’s bow section.
• The Waiting Woman: A statue of a women looking out to the Indian Ocean – silently waiting for a loved one who will never return.
• The Wall of Remembrance: A history of the ship and a listing of the names, rates & ranks, and birthplaces of the dead. The wall ends with the inscription “The Rest is Silence”.

I understand plans are underway for an additional element called The Pool of Remembrance. At the bottom of the pool will be a map showing the final resting places of the Sydney and Kormoran.

Please visit the following links for more detailed information on the battle and the aftermath:

The Western Australian Museum: http://wamuseum.com.au/sydney/
The Finding Sydney Foundation: http://www.findingsydney.com/
The HMAS Sydney II Memorial Site: http://www.sydneymemorial.com/

The beautiful photographs of the memorial and Indian Ocean southwest of the memorial were taken by Michael Lawrence Sofoulis (Spider52 on Panoramio, the Google Earth Photo Site). In his email that granted me permission to use his work on this post, Michael related that he was named after an uncle, Michael Nicholas Sofoulis, who was lost at sea in the sinking of the HMAS Parramatta II off Tobruk (North Africa) by the German submarine U-559. Michael Nicholas Sofoulis was 19 years old when he gave his life for his country on November 27, 1941, exactly 8 days after 645 of his countrymen sacrificed their futures on the Sydney. The Geraldton memorial is dedicated to the memory of the crew of the Sydney, but The Dome of Souls and The Waiting Woman most certainly reflect the value placed on every Australian lost at sea in war – whether on the Sydney, the Parramatta II, the Waterhen, the nurses lost on the Vyner Brooke or even the ANZAC troops lost off the shores of Gallipoli a generation before 1941. The Seven Seas contain the resting places of untold numbers of brave Australians, who sailed from home for distant shores and an unknown fate. The seagulls of the Sydney memorial fly eternally for them all…

VP-50…

In the language of the United States Navy VP-50 was “Fixed Wing Patrol Squadron 50” – also known as the Blue Dragons. From 1946 until June 30, 1992 they were an active squadron of the United States Navy. I once flew for the U.S. Navy. The death of any aviator or any sailor has an impact on all of us who earned Navy Wings of Gold – or any of the other hard-earned insignias of naval service (surface warfare, submarines, SEALS, and the other specialties).

On March 21, 1991 two P-3C Orions of VP-50 collided about 60 miles southwest of San Diego, CA in bad weather. One aircraft was relieving the other on a normal anti-submarine patrol watch. The aircraft were stationed at Naval Air Station Moffett Field, south of San Francisco, CA. I distinctly remember reading the first newspaper reports the day after the accident – 27 U.S. Navy personnel missing at sea. That is a horrific toll for any Navy squadron, whose total personnel would only be a few hundred officers and enlisted men – especially when it happened in a single instant, in peacetime. I could only imagine the shock and sorrow within the VP-50 family and NAS Moffett Field community that day.

The cause of the accident was never determined beyond it being a mid-air collision. Pilot error was probably a contributing cause – and weather, crew fatigue, and perhaps a mechanical problem additional factors. The human cost, however, was almost instantly quantified – 27 young souls lost at sea – lost forever to their wives, children, parents, friends, and shipmates. Lost, but not forgotten.

Moffett Field Naval Air Station has been closed, but Moffett Field as a civilian airport remains. Located on its grounds is a plaque listing the names of all 27 men who perished in the Pacific Ocean that night. There is another monument to these same men in Arlington National Cemetery.

I have included three photographs in this post. One is of the monument at Moffett Field, listing the names of those who perished that night. Another is of four VP-50 aircraft in flight. And one is of two P-3C Orion aircraft flying over the Golden Gate Bridge. These are not VP-50 aircraft, but I know every man who ever flew with VP-50 out of Moffett Field witnessed this view. They loved flying for moments like this.

Please visit the VP-50 web page devoted to the men who died that night at: http://www.vpnavy.com/vp50mem_04dec98.html

In 1944 an incident eerily similar to the SS Struma sinking took place. In this instance 350 Jewish refugees bound for Palestine from Hitler’s Europe were lost at sea.

The Mefkure (sometimes known as Mefkura) sailed from the port of Constanta on August 5, 1944, accompanied by two other ships. Their destination was to be Istanbul, in neutral Turkey. The Jewish refugees would then attempt to enter Palestine by whatever means that could be devised.

After midnight the Mefkure was illuminated by flares from an unknown vessel, then fired upon, and finally torpedoed. The captain and 6 of the crew escaped the sinking ship in a lifeboat. Of the passengers – only 5 of a suspected total of 350 survived. After WWII it was revealed that the Mefkure, like the Struma three years earlier, had been torpedoed and sunk by a Soviet submarine – in this case the SC-215.

The first monument to the left shows the routes of the fateful final voyages of both the Struma and the Mefkure – the incidents were three years apart, but joined together forever in this monument. The second sculpture is a memorial to the motor schooner Mefkure and to all her lost souls resting on the bottom of the Black Sea…

The waters of the world contain the bodies of countless refugees. Quite often these seem to be the saddest of the stories of those lost at sea. Hopeless situations throughout history have led refugees to flee their homelands, only to find death instead of a rebirth.

The SS Struma was a ship chartered to carry Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-controlled Palestine during World War II. The Struma voyage was one of several attempts by Zionist organizations to create a workable escape route for Jews from Eastern Europe – first to neutral Turkey via the Black Sea, then from Turkey to Palestine via land or sea.

The Jewish refugees on the Struma were mostly wealthy Romanian Jews who could afford the high price of their escape. What they found when they boarded the ship in Constanza, Romania in December 1941 was basically a derelict – a 180-ton two-masted vessel that had once been used to haul cattle on the Danube. There were approximately 770 people crowded into a space that could hold perhaps 100. There was one bathroom. The ship had wooden platforms built on the deck to allow more people to be transported. After three days at sea the engines failed and the vessel was towed into Istanbul. That’s when the real nightmare began.

For the next 71 days the ship lay at anchor, the refugees not allowed to leave. Food and water were provided by Jewish relief organizations. During this time secret negotiations were conducted between the Turks and British on the fate of the passengers. The British would not give the refugees entry papers into Palestine – fearing more violence in the Middle East if they did not restrict massive Jewish immigration. The Turks were neutral in the war at this time, and were a trading partner of Nazi Germany. They did not desire to become the conduit for Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis.

On February 23, 1942 the Turks apparently believed that an impasse with Britain had been reached. They decided to rid themselves of the situation completely. Turkish authorities boarded the disabled ship and towed it through the Bosphorus strait to a site ten miles away in the Black Sea. The Turkish authorities then abandoned the ship with over 760 refugees and crew aboard. Without power for propulsion or food or water – the Struma, her crew, and over 750 refugees drifted on the Black Sea. On the morning of February 24, 1942 the Soviet submarine SC-213 torpedoed the Struma. The vessel sank almost immediately – at least 768 people died, including over 100 children. The Soviet submarine was under orders to sink any unidentified vessel to keep war materials from reaching Germany. Only one man survived the sinking of the Struma – a 19-year-old man named David Stoliar. Type Mr. Stoliar’s name into a search engine. The leading results will take you to video and audio histories he has recorded concerning his experience on Struma and his life after the incident. They are fascinating and horrifying. He presently lives in Oregon.

The two monuments shown above are found in Holon, Israel and Ashdod, Israel. I’ll cover an Israeli monument to another ill-fated refugee ship in a later post.

War always results in tragedy, but this is one that is difficult to comprehend and accept. Political considerations guided the ill-fated decisions of the British, the Turks, and the Soviets. But like many decisions guided solely by political considerations, basic humanity is somehow lost in the equation. What all too often results when politics trump basic human morality is the deaths of the most innocent…

First, the most important part of this post. The two breathtaking photographs shown above are the work of Aires dos Santos. I have spent hours admiring his extraordinary work on the Internet – every subject imaginable – each and every photograph beautiful and memorable. I encourage everyone reading this post to view his work at http://www.trekearth.com/members/AiresSantos/. You will not be disappointed.

The Monument to the Discoveries is located on the estuary of the Tagus river in Lisbon, Portugal – the site where countless ships sailed into the unknown during the great Age of Exploration of the 15th and 16th centuries. During these 200 years the Europeans extended their cultures to virtually the entire globe. The Portuguese were second to none in their curiosity and daring. Henry the Navigator, Vasco da Gama, Saint Francis Xavier, Ferdinand Magellan, Pedro Escobar – their names echo through the annals of discovery. Their reach included the Americas, India, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific islands.

The 52-meter high monument is in the shape of the prow of a ship. The bow faces the river – the stern side features a sword reaching the full height of the structure. On the sides of the monument are representations of 33 Portuguese instrumental in the quest for discovery – explorers, scientists, artists, missionaries, and cartographers.

The monument was conceived and executed by artist Cottinelli Telmo and sculptor Leopoldo de Almeida as part of the Portuguese World Fair in 1940. The original materials were perishable, so it was rebuilt in concrete in 1960 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator. A stunning mosaic wind rose forms the pavement leading up to the monument. Displayed within the wind rose is a world map with the routes of famous Portuguese explorers. The mosaic was a gift from South Africa in 1960.

Today we have still have explorers – they launch into space and explore the great depths of the oceans – they climb mountains and risk their lives in caves. Despite modern technology and all precautions, some die. We hear about their deaths – we celebrate their courage and mourn their loss. But think about all those lost at sea during the Age of Discovery – those countless souls who sailed from the estuary of the Tagus river in Lisbon, or from England or France or the Netherlands or Spain – not knowing their destination or their fate. Their names and faces are not found on the Internet or in history books. Think of them also when you admire the beauty of the Monument to the Discoveries…