This allegorical statue is located behind the pavilion in Monsignor McGolrick Park, near Monitor Street. It was commissioned in 1938 by the State of New York to honor inventor John Ericsson and the sailors of the USS Monitor.
Italian sculptor Antonio di Filippo created the statue depicting a monumental male nude pulling a rope around a capstan.
Ericsson, a Swedish-American born in 1803, is famous for designing the Monitor, an ironclad warship which battled the Merimac in the battle of Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 1862. The Monitor and its crew are credited with saving the Union Navy from defeat in the Civil War.
The Monitor was built in just 101 days at the Continental Iron Works, located north of Bushwick Inlet in Greenpoint. Fun Fact: Middle School 126 located on Leonard Street is named after Ericsson.
The Greenline 