El Faro Memorial: Sailor Ghosts
Rockland, Maine
Titled "El Faro Salute!," this sculpture features two 3-D sailor ghosts -- all you see are their clothes -- a man and woman, facing aft on a 2-D metal boat, saluting the sea. It symbolizes a sea funeral, and was created by artist Jay Sawyer, who said it took him six years to complete the sculpture.
The SS El Faro, a cargo ship, sank in a hurricane off of the coast of Puerto Rico in 2015. The entire crew of 33, including five from New England, died; no bodies were ever recovered.
Two memorials to the El Faro crew are in Florida and one is in Puerto Rico, but Sawyer felt that one was needed here as well, since two of the crew were from the Rockland area.