Cape May New Jersey The Fisherman's Memorial

A Cold and Windy Trip to The Cape May Fisherman's Memorial During February.

This past weekend I visited the Cape May Fisherman's Memorial which overlooks the bay into Cape May Harbor. It was a cold and windy day and I had the time to reflect and pay respects to the many souls that have perished from Cape May at Sea, as they worked to make a living on the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The Fisherman's Wife

The Striking Statue of a Fisherman's wife and family, holding her two young children faces into the Bay and Harbor entrance, forever frozen as she waits for the return of her loved from the Cape May Inlet. As I approached the monument on that cold and rainy day I could feel the loss of the fisherman's wife as she tightly embraces and protects her young children.

At the base of the Memorial etched with the names of lost fisherman at sea, lay multiple artifacts and small gifts that have been left as a memorial from grieving loved ones and friends as they pay their respects to the souls lost at sea. These small gestures included shells and stones, flowers, shot glasses, and flags, plastic toys, fisherman's gloves, and hand picked shells all carefully placed at the base and on top of the memorial wall. This memorial is etched with over 75 names including the most recent recent sinking of the Cape May scallop boat in 2009 named Lady Mary in which six people perished.

The Fisherman's Memorial in Cape May

Overlooking Cape May Harbor

 

Small symbols of love mark the memorial including a Fisherman's cap.

Carefully hand picked sea shells placed in a row mark a visitors gesture.

After spending a few quiet moments at the site, I read each one of the Fisherman's names out loud to myself, and I quietly stepped back and placed a small stone on the top of cold granite wall to pay my respect to those many lost souls at sea......

You can read more about the sinking of the Lady Mary here at NJ.Com.

The memorial has 75 names, starting with Andrew Jeffers, who died in 1893, and includes the six people who died in March 2009 with the sinking of the scalloping boat Lady Mary.

The granite statue was designed by Heather Baird, with Jerry Lynch, and features a fisherman's wife and her two children located inside a giant compass and looking out onto the sheltering waters of Cape May harbor. The monument occupies a dedicated site at the juncture of Baltimore and Missouri Avenues at Harbor Cove