Waving Girl Statue

Photo credit - Jami430 @ Wikipedia and WWP team

The Waving Girl statue honors Florence Martus, who used to wave to the ships entering or leaving the Savanah harbor for 44 years, never missing one. She started waving the ships when she was a girl living with her parents at Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Islandת and continued doing so when she moved in with her brother, a lighthouse-keeper on Elba Island. An isolated island 5 miles up the river from Fort Pulaski.

Martus became the sign for the sailors that they arrived safely to the shore, and they waved back at her. The legend was that Martus was waving at the ships since she looked for a sailor she was once in love with. Others believe her greetings gave her life joy and meaning, especially since she lived on an isolated island.

The statue was created by Felix de Weldon in 1974. It depicts Martus as a girl, waving with her Handkerchief. Among Weldon’s famous statues is Mother Joseph, one of the statues in the Statuary Hall collection, in the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

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