Merchant Seamen Receive Memorial for War Service

A 20-foot-tall bronze statue to honor merchant seaman who served in wartime will arrive this morning in San Pedro, where it will be mounted in front of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum on Veterans Day.

“It has been a long, rough road home,” said former seaman Ted Kedzierski, president of the American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial Committee.

The statue, depicting two merchant seamen climbing a Jacob’s ladder after making a rescue at sea, is believed to be the first national memorial to merchant seamen in the United States. More than 5,600 merchant seaman were killed and 650 of their ships were destroyed during World War II.

During a ceremony on Veterans Day, Nov. 11--which is expected to attract local and national political leaders, as well as seamen from around the country--the statue will be mounted on an 84,400-square-foot base in John S. Gibson Jr. Park next to the museum, Kedzierski said. It will be surrounded by a circular pool, a cascading fountain and sloping wall veneered in marble.

“It’s going to be quite a spectacular thing,” Kedzierski said.

In August, 1986, the committee, made up of a group of seamen based in Wilmington, commissioned the statue and began to raise the $700,000 needed for the memorial.

About three-quarters of the funds have been raised, Kedzierski said, mostly from private donations but some from local government agencies. Land was donated by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, while the city’s Board of Harbor Commissioners contributed $100,000.

Jasper D’Ambrosi, an Arizona artist who was born and reared in Wilmington, was commissioned to sculpt the memorial. He died last year before completing the statue, Kedzierski said. His two sons, Michael and Mark, who studied under their father, finished the work.

A plaque and bust of D’Ambrosi will be added to the memorial, Kedzierski said.

Until January, the Defense Department had refused to grant veteran status to merchant seamen who served in wartime. Officials said the merchant sailors did not meet the government’s strict criteria on training, discipline and organization for new veterans groups. The department reversed its position after losing a court case.

But the seamen decided not to wait for the government to build a memorial to them.

“After what we’ve gone through, you might say we are happy,” Kedzierski said.