44 Years of Waving - Black and White
by Renee Sullivan
Title
44 Years of Waving - Black and White
Artist
Renee Sullivan
Medium
Photograph - Photography - Digital Art
Description
Meet Florence Martus (1868–1943). For 44 years "the Waving Girl" took it upon herself to be the unofficial greeter of all ships that entered and left the Port of Savannah, Georgia, between 1887 and 1931. A few years after she began waving at passing sailors, she moved in with her brother, a light keeper. From her rustic home on Elba Island, a tiny piece of land in the Savannah River near the Atlantic Ocean, Martus would wave a handkerchief by day and a lantern by night. According to legend, not a ship was missed in her forty-four years on watch.
Many other legends endure about this woman, notably that the reason she greeted ships was because she had fallen in love as a young girl with a sailor and wanted to be sure he would find her when he returned.
Florence Martus grew into a Savannah legend, known far and wide. On September 27, 1943, the SS Florence Martus, a Liberty ship, was christened in her honor. The Waving Girl Statue was made by renowned sculptor Felix De Weldon, the sculptor of the United States Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, Virginia - also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial.
This is one of my favorite Savannah stories. The river was very foggy the day I captured this image, which I think only adds to the story and the mood.
Uploaded
February 21st, 2014
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