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SCULPTURE OF THE MONTH #1

For more on Ericsson, see Essay 2 in Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan.
 

John Ericsson 
by Jonathan Scott Hartley
Dedicated 1893;
replaced with a modified version 1902

 Location  §  Owner
About the Statue
About the Subject
What’s in Forgotten Delights but not here
Stop – look – think
Other nearby sculptures
Other nearby delights
Share-a-sculpture
 

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Location
Battery Park, north of the Eisenhower Mall, between Castle Clinton and Battery Place. If you can’t find it, the Parks Department has scattered detailed maps of the area throughout Battery Park. Note: Ericsson’s fenced in, and the reliefs on the base are very difficult to see from outside the fence; bring binoculars.

Owner
City of New York

About the Statue                                                                                  Back to top

Ericsson holds a model of the Monitor, the first American warship constructed almost entirely of iron and without mast or sail. On the pedestal, a relief shows his Princeton (ca. 1840), the first screw-propelled vessel of war, which still bears the rigging and masts of a sailing vessel. Another relief shows an array of mechanical equipment which, alas, I can’t identify for you. (E-mail sculpture@forgottendelights.com if you can make them out.) The third relief shows the “Battle of the Ironclads”: the Monitor in action against the Merrimack / Virginia. The fourth shows firemen fighting a blaze with a steam-driven fire-engine (See More Photos.) Ericsson designed the fire-engine when raging fires in New York often reduced hundreds of buildings to ashes, and won an important award for his novel and efficient invention.

About the Subject                                                                                 Back to top

Ericsson (1803-1889) was one of the foremost naval engineers of the 19th century. In the 1830s he was invited to the United States from his native Sweden to design a screw-propelled vessel of war, the Princeton, for the U.S. Navy. Although the paddlewheel steamships then in use were faster and more maneuverable than sailing ships, their wheels were very vulnerable to damage. Ericsson’s screw propellers, being under the waterline, were not so open to enemy artillery. Unfortunately, during a trial aboard the Princeton one of the guns misfired, killing the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War. Although Ericsson bore no responsibility for the guns, the incident darkened his career for years.

Then came the Civil War. Early in the conflict, Confederates raised the sunken frigate Merrimack, iron-plated it and renamed it the Virginia. It wasn’t fast, but it was nearly invulnerable. Ericsson, after a scathing exchange with the Navy brass, was commissioned to build the Union’s first ironclad vessel, and supervised its construction in a hundred days flat. Two months later the Monitor met and defeated the Merrimack / Virginia at Hampton Roads.

What’s in Forgotten Delights: The Producers that’s not on this site:

• A detailed contemporary account of how Ericsson won the commission for the Union ironclad

• A contemporary account of the battle of the Monitor and Merrimack

• The fate of the Monitor

 To be notified when Forgotten Delights: The Producers is available, send an e-mail to comments@forgottendelights.com.

Stop–look–think                                                                                 Back to top

This section gives you some questions to ponder alone, or discuss with a child, a significant other, or anyone who’s interested in history or art history.

1.      What sort of person do you think Ericsson was: charming or severe, proud or humble, hard-working or laidback? What details of his face and posture make you think so?

2.      Does he remind you of anyone you know? Based on which details?

3.      The point of art is to show you something important. (See About this site.) Based on the sculptures erected in the years following the Civil War, New Yorkers clearly felt that inventiveness, courage and patriotism were important values that deserved commemoration. If you could erect a statue today in a prominent place such as Battery Park, who or what would the statue represent? What values would it commemorate?

4.      The poem below is a remarkable match for the spirit of the Ericsson. Read it through first silently (pay attention to the rhythm and alliteration: this isn’t a story from the New York Times), then read it aloud--preferably in front of Ericsson. The author, Berton Braley, lived in the early 20^th century.

                           "The Thinker"

 Back of the beating hammer by which the steel is wrought,
Back of the workshop's clamor, the seeker may find the thought.
The thought that is ever master of iron and steam and steel,
That rises above disaster and tramples it under heel.
The drudge may fret and tinker, or labor with lusty blows,
But back of him stands the Thinker, the clear-eyed man who knows.

 For into each plow or sabre, each piece and part and whole,
Must go the brains of labor, which gives the work a soul.
Back of the motor's humming, back of the belts that sing,
Back of the hammer's drumming, back of the cranes that swing,
There is the eye which scans them, watching through stress and strain,
There is the mind which plans them--back of the brawn, the brain.

 Might of the roaring boiler, force of the engine's thrust,
Strength of the sweating toiler--greatly in these we trust.
But back of them stands the schemer, the thinker who drives things through,
Back of the job, the dreamer, who's making the dream come true.

Nearby sculptures                                                                                 Back to top

Battery Park has some very attractive memorials, including the East Coast Memorial, dedicated to World War II soldiers lost at sea. The centerpiece is a stylized eagle swooping down to lay a wreath on the waves. The names of those lost are inscribed on eight enormous slabs placed between the eagle and the Harbor. Look between the tablets and you can see (appropriately) the Statue of Liberty.

Other nearby delights                                                                   Back to top

• Nebraska Steak House, on Stone Street. (How could anyone prefer Peter Luger’s?) Try the chili, the garlic smashed potatoes and/or the filet mignon with three divine sauces.

• The Staten Island Ferry: why not go there and back just for the view?

• The Ritz Carlton’s 14th-floor bar, also for the view—particularly nice at sunset.

• A stroll west and north to Battery Park City, and lunch amid the palm trees in the Winter Garden, once again open after being damaged on 9/11.

Share-a-sculpture program                                                       Back to top

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