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Veteran Savannah river pilot Michael Foran gets asked all the time about the Waving Girl.
When he’s on the bridge of a big ship, maneuvering it up or down the Savannah River, it’s not at all unusual for the ship’s captain or crew to inquire about the well-known monument.
It’s also not unusual for him to have to say “You just missed it.”
“There’s a very small, split-second window when the statue is visible from the ship,” Foran said. “By the time the sailor finds her, she’s gone!”
It’s a shame, Foran said, because the story of Florence Martus — who greeted arriving and departing ships for more than four decades — has endured around the globe as one of Savannah’s most endearing legends.
“These sailors have heard of the waving girl from their fathers and grandfathers in faraway ports and villages,” he said. “They look forward to coming to Savannah to see the monument to the woman who dedicated her life to greeting the ships and sailors.”
In 1972, the Waving Girl monument was erected at the east end of River Street. Commissioned by the Altrusa Club and designed by sculptor Felix De Weldon — best known for his Iwo Jima monument in Arlington, Va. — the statue was meant to be seen from passing ships.
For nearly 25 years, it served its purpose well.
Then came the 1996 Summer Olympics, with its sailing venue in Savannah and the construction of Olympic Park along the river, pushing the pier out some 30 feet.
“So, while the statue itself didn’t move, the new walkway and growth of the added landscaping made it very difficult to see the Waving Girl from the river,”
said Tom Wright, secretary of the Propeller Club of Savannah, which has been working to remedy the situation.
The first idea was to move the monument closer to the river, but that was scrapped, according to Jason Ball, a Propeller Club member and engineer with Moffatt & Nichol, who looked into the option.
“It would have been very expensive, but the main reason was that the statue is so heavy, it wouldn’t be good to have it that much closer to the bulkhead,” he said.
So the Propeller Club began looking at another option — redoing the landscaping to make the monument more visible. Jack Novack, son of Georgia Ports’ executive Chris Novack, took on the task as his Eagle Scout project, creating a two-phase design to remove trees and clear out underbrush. He completed the first phase, removing four of the eight large crape myrtles and cutting back undergrowth. Unfortunately, while the area looked better, the view remained obstructed.
The second phase of Novack’s plan — to remove or relocate several additional trees — received a lukewarm reception from City Council.
Enter Ed Brennan, a retired maritime attorney, with yet another possible solution.
“When the Waving Girl was commissioned, it was meant to be viewed from a distance,” he said.
“Today, the only way to do that is to elevate it.”
His son, attorney Ed Brennan II, agreed.
“It does seem like the obvious solution,” he said, adding that it might be more palatable to the city’s Park and Tree Commission as well as the Savannah Tree Foundation.
“We don’t like to take down trees in Savannah,” he said.
The elder Brennan said he would like to see the monument become a landmark once more.
“This is a beautiful statue created by an internationally known sculptor,” he said. “I also believe it’s also the only statue of a woman in the Historic District.”
In hopes of prompting local civic clubs and businesses to want to help with the project, Brennan commissioned Chris D’Antonio, a student artist at the Savannah College of Art and Design to create several photographic versions of what an elevated Waving Girl might look like on a pedestal.
“As they say, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ I think this speaks for itself,” he said, adding the project will be costly.
“I just received an estimate from Dan Mobley of Oglethorpe Marble & Granite Co., who built the base upon which the statue now stands,” Brennan said. “He estimates it will cost between $400,000 and $700,000 to raise the statue of the Waving Girl in line with the digitally enhanced photos. But we have a number of organizations here that might be willing to help.
“This beautiful tribute to one of our legends deserves to be seen.”
Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.
WHO WAS THE WAVING GIRL?
One of Savannah’s most endearing stories chronicles the life of Florence Martus, born in 1868 while her father was stationed at at Fort Pulaski, She later moved to a small, riverfront cottage on Elba Island with her brother George, the Cockspur Island Lighthouse keeper. From 1887 until 1931, so the story goes, no ship arrived in Savannah nor departed without Martus on the bank, waving a handkerchief by day or a lantern by night. Throughout the years, returning ships watched for and saluted the quiet, slightly built woman with waves and blasts of their ships’ horns as she welcomed them or wished them Godspeed.
Few people ever met her, but as word of her faithful greetings spread to ports all over the world, she became the source of a number of romantic legends.
According to the most popular one, Martus fell in love with a sailor who promised to marry her when he returned to Savannah. He gave her his handkerchief, bade her farewell and sailed off to sea, never to return.
In anticipation of his homecoming, Martus would stand on the riverbank with her collie and wave the handkerchief at ships steaming up and down the river.
While Martus never denied the story about the sailor, she never confirmed it either, and most historians believe her reasons for greeting the ships had more to do with loneliness and isolation than lost love.
Regardless, it’s estimated she greeted more than 50,000 ships during her lifetime, earning a number of tributes in the process.
The SS Florence Martus, a Liberty ship built in Savannah in 1943, was named for her. And in honor of her 70th birthday, the Propeller Club of Savannah sponsored a celebration on Cockspur Island.
In 1972, the Waving Girl monument was installed on River Street.
SHIPPING SCHEDULE
These are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean Terminals in the next week. Sailing schedules are provided by Georgia Ports Authority and are subject to change.
TERMINAL VESSEL ETA
GCT MSC ROMA Today
GCT HANJIN LOS ANGELES Today
GCT ZIM QINGDAO Today
GCT XIN YING KOU Today
GCT HS BRUCKNER Today
GCT MOL EXPRESS Today
GCT MUKADDES KALKAVAN Today
GCT MAERSK CAROLINA Today
GCT YANTIAN EXPRESS Today
GCT JO ILEX Today
GCT SEOUL EXPRESS Saturday
GCT YORKTOWN EXPRESS Saturday
GCT HANSA AFRICA Saturday
GCT HS LIVINGSTONE Saturday
GCT CMA CGM KINGFISH Saturday
GCT MOL MOTIVATOR Saturday
GCT MAERSK WISCONSIN Saturday
OT UGLJAN Saturday
OT TIJUCA Saturday
GCT PORTUGAL Sunday
OT TULANE Sunday
GCT EVER LINKING Monday
GCT WEHR OSTE Monday
GCT MARGRIT RICKMERS Monday
GCT MAERSK HARTFORD Monday
GCT CMA CGM TANCREDI Monday
GCT NYK RIGEL Monday
GCT YM MANDATE Monday
GCT NAJRAN Monday
OT STAR LAGUNA Monday
GCT NYK RUMINA Tuesday
GCT MSC FLORENTINA Tuesday
GCT APL BELGIUM Tuesday
GCT MOL ENCORE Tuesday
GCT XENA Tuesday
OT MANON Tuesday
OT ATLANTIC PEARL Tuesday
GCT SAVANNAH EXPRESS Wednesday
GCT CONRAD S Wednesday
GCT NORTHERN DEXTERITY Wednesday
GCT HERMA P Wednesday
GCT MSC MARIA ELENA Thursday
GCT ZIM CONSTANZA Thursday
GCT JPO CANOPUS Thursday
GCT MSC SAO PAULO Thursday
GCT VARAMO Thursday
GCT DOLPHIN II Thursday
GCT MOL PROGRESS Thursday