A Reminder of New York City’s Past as “Sailortown”
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
Down at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan is a little reminder about a big ship that never made it there. The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, at Fulton and Pearl Streets, was originally placed at the Seamen’s Church Institute at 25 South Street, a little factoid that can be gleaned from a plaque on the lighthouse. The memorial is a pertinent reminder that the Titanic’s sinking was, in part, a New York City disaster, what with so many of its residents aboard, including John Jacob Astor IV as well as Macy’s department store founder Isidor Straus. The Titanic had been headed to Manhattan at the time of its sinking in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912. Some 1,500 people died after the ship, initially touted as unsinkable, struck an iceberg and sank.
The lighthouse, now placed at the entrance to the South Street Seaport Museum, also reminds onlookers of New York City’s maritime past, a moment in history before big container ships departed from Newark, N.J., when lower Manhattan was referred to as “sailortown.” There were floating churches for seamen, and the Seamen’s Church Institute, in addition to providing services for those working in the maritime field, was essentially a hotel for seamen.
The choice of a lighthouse as a memorial for a shipping disaster seems an odd one today, like it’s a reminder that here is the beacon those on the boat didn’t get. It makes one wonder, what are appropriate memorials to those who died in disaster?
Photo credit: M. Ciavardini
The lighthouse, originally referred to as the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse Tower and Time Ball, included a ball that would drop each day to mark noon. Now more associated with New Year’s celebrations, “time balls” are reminders of how different life was in the past, when people had to set their watches regularly, when watch batteries wore out, when people actually wore watches rather than looked at their phones to tell what time it was, when ships sailed without sufficient lifeboats.
The lighthouse was dedicated a year after the Titanic sank and was moved to its present location in 1968 after the original Seamen’s Church Institute building was demolished.
—Lori Tripoli
