Friday, March 14, 2008 – Merchant Marine

Two merchant seamen climbing a Jacob's ladder after making a rescue at sea – sculpture by Jasper D'Ambrosi – at the American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial, South Harbor Boulevard at West 6th Street, San Pedro, California –

Note:

The first national memorial to merchant seamen in the United States, was commissioned by a group of local seamen to honor merchant marine veterans from all wars. At the height of World War II, there were 215,000 merchant mariners, including many teenage boys too young to enlist in the military, and men classified as 4-F, yet caught up in the patriotic fervor that swept the country after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. According to official statistics, more than 6,795 civilian merchant seamen lost their lives in World War II for a causality rate of 1:32 (the highest casualty rate of any service); 600 were taken prisoner; and more than 650 of their ships were sunk. Unofficial statistics cite 8,651 merchant mariners killed at sea, 11,000 wounded, 1,100 died from their wounds ashore, 604 taken prisoner and 60 died in prison camps.

The bronze statue depicts two merchant seamen climbing a Jacob's ladder after making a rescue at sea. The designer of the statue was the Wilmington, CA sculptor, Jasper D'Ambrosi. His creation of the original design was finished and accepted in early 1986. However, D'Ambrosi died August 1 of the same year before starting the final clay model. The enlargement was done by his sons, Marc and Michael as a tribute to their father. The Jacobs ladder was cast at the family foundry, Arizona Bronze, in Tempe, AZ in 1987. Although the land for the memorial was donated by the City virtually all of the $700,000 for the project came from private donors.

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Technical Note:

Photographs after March 3, 2008, were taken with a Nikon D200 – or a Nikon D70 when noted. All previous photographs were taken with the D70. The lenses used are (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto, or (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. Photography here is modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  The earliest photography in the archives was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik