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2004 USS POWER
REUNION
Florence Martus: The Waving Girl
 Men
returning home from sea would expect her. Men from foreign lands
learned that she would always be there to greet them when they made
port in Savannah.
For 44 years, Florence Martus met every ship entering the Savannah
River and every outgoing ship headed for the uncertainties of the
Atlantic Ocean. She became a seafaring legend.
Martus was born on Cockspur Island Aug. 8, 1868, in a frame building
just north of Fort Pulaski. Her father, John Martus, a Civil War
veteran, had recently completed 40 years in the U.S. Army and was
assigned as ordnance sergeant at the fort.
Until she was 13, Florence and her brother George led uneventful
lives. But in 1881, a hurricane heading for Savannah blasted tiny
Cockspur Island. Her family, fleeing the wrath of the storm, sought
refuge in the nearby fort. But it too was threatened when water began
to pour into the parade grounds. The Martus family finally found
safety in one of the spiral stairwells deep within the fort.
During another colorful summer, Martus and her brother rescued the
31-man crew from a government dredge that had caught fire. All, except
one of the crew members, survived.
When George accepted a job with the Lighthouse Service in 1887,
Florence moved with him to the lighthouse keeper's house on Elba
Island. It was at the cottage (a white, two-story house with a
columned porch) that Martus, 19, began greeting ships. Waving a white
handkerchief by day and a lantern by night, she welcomed both incoming
ships and outgoing vessels.
She claimed to have waved at every vessel during her 44 years on Elba
Island. Years later, when asked in an interview with Ernie Pyle if she
ever missed a ship in all that time, she replied: "I was never too
sick to get up when one was coming and I could always hear them
coming."
In time, Martus earned the nickname "The Waving Girl" and became known
throughout the seafaring world, receiving letters from hundreds of
sailors. Romantic stories emerged. The most popular story was that of
a sailor sweetheart who was lost at sea. She waved at other seamen,
the story goes, as a tribute to her lost love. She never verified the
story, but she never denied it either.
A passenger, on board a New York-to-Savannah steamer during the first
quarter of the 20th century, recalled Martus' greeting: "The first I
saw of her was at sunrise. The little white cottage where she lived
was close to the bank. She was a little thing, thin, but sturdy
looking. The wind (was) whipping at her skirt and almost tore the
cloth out of her hand. The sun showed her hair as gray and curly with
red color still in it. Her eyes were blue. She wasn't pretty, but so
alive. Her smile was one of the warmest I've ever seen. We saluted her
with three blasts. I followed the ship's rail all the way to the
stern, looking at her as long as she was visible."
After George retired from the Lighthouse Service in 1931, Florence,
who never married, moved with him to an apartment at 642 E. Liberty
St. From Liberty Street she moved to Thunderbolt.
To celebrate her 70th birthday, 3,000 people descended upon the parade
grounds at Fort Pulaski. Two bands, the U.S. Marine Corps Band, and
the Savannah Police Department Band, played while the Coast Guard
cutter Tallapoose fired a salute.
On a cold and windy November day in 1943, a liberty ship, the S.S.
Florence Martus, slipped smoothly away after a champagne christening.
She was the 13th of 88 liberty ships built during World War II in one
of the largest ship-building programs in U.S. history. Martus, who had
greeted so many vessels, died a few months later. |