New Design, Site for Warship Monument in Cape May
A new design and location have been proposed for a memorial in Cape May honoring the first U.S. warship sunk by a German U-boat in the Second World War.
Myles Martel, chairman of the Jacob Jones Memorial Committee, and John Boecker, a retired architect on the committee, presented a newly designed memorial, now called the Jacob Jones Portal to Freedom and to be located across from the Grand Hotel on Beach Avenue, during a public Zoom meeting April 15.
A new logo has been created for the Jacob Jones memorial.
The monument would honor the 131 Navy sailors who died when the USS Jacob Jones was torpedoed and sunk in February 1942. It went down a few miles off the Cape May shoreline, just days after it began its mission and less than three months after the declaration of war.
At the time of the sinking, America's East Coast was particularly vulnerable, as Germany significantly disrupted supply routes between North America and Europe. All but one of those who died are entombed within the wreckage at the sinking site. Eleven survivors were treated at the Cape May Naval Air Station, now the Coast Guard base.
The memorial, which Boecker described as a "quiet, reverent space," is smaller in height than previously proposed plans, at 8 feet tall and 34 feet in diameter. It would be surrounded by a natural wall of honeysuckle and bayberry bushes, providing food for pollinators and hummingbirds.
The new site, across from the Grand Hotel on Beach Avenue.
"After our presentation last August, we essentially started over," Boecker told an audience of about 40 on the Zoom call. "I called it a Page 1 rewrite. After a two-month break, we reconsidered our design and criteria over October, November and December to come up with our new design.
"Many of those on the Zoom meeting expressed support for the new location and design, although one person remarked that "it seems like science fiction creation and not in sync with the ambience of Cape May or reverence to that era."
Martel said the next step would be to present the new design to the City Council at a May 19 meeting, followed by further refinement of the cost and bidding process, more research on descendants of the Jacob Jones crew members, updating the newly designed website and continuing to seek private funding for the project.
The new design uses shapes associated with World War II warships.
"We've had a tremendous response to pledge support to pay for the memorial," he said.
Boecker said the committee was sticking with a location within Cape May, which had direct sight lines to the sinking site. The new location is within the commercial area, so there is no impact to residential areas. Previously proposed sites included one near Poverty Beach, which is across from a residential area off Wilmington and Beach avenues.
