I used to be sailor
Who sailed across the seas
But now I’m just an island
Since they took my boat away from me
(Oh no)
Lyrics from “I Used to Be a Sailor” by Tracy Chapman, 1992.
Photo by Rick Stachura. The East Coast Memorial in Battery Park looking toward the Statue of Liberty. April 23, 2019.
Dedicated by President John F. Kennedy on May 23, 1963, the monument centers on a black granite eagle that clutches a laurel wreath. As it lays the wreath on a cresting wave, the eagle mourns for the 4,597 American servicemen who died in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. Their names are inscribed on eight 19-foot pylons that stretch down to the banks of New York Harbor.