Pilots' Monument

File:Monument to Thomas Freeborn, Pilot.jpg

The Pilots' Monument is the tombstone for the pilot Thomas Freeborn (1808-1846), a New York Sandy Hook pilot. The monument was built in 1847 and is located at Battle Avenue standing upon one of the highest points, at the top of Battle Hill in the Green-Wood Cemetery. It was erected by the New York pilots.{{cite book|last=Rider|first=Fremont|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_s5AAAAMAAJ |title=Rider's New York City and Vicinity, Including Newark, Yonkers and Jersey City. |date=1916|work=The Rider Press, Inc. |place=New York |page=446|access-date=2021-06-23}}{{cite web |url=https://catalogs.marinersmuseum.org/object/CL17442 |title=Monument To Thomas Freeborn, Pilot Lost In The Ship John Minturn, February 15, 1846, Greenwood Cemetery. |work=The Mariners' Museum and Park |place=|date= 17 Feb 1846|page=|access-date=2021-06-23}}

On February 14, 1846, Freeborn was on the pilot boat Blossom, cruising at sea outside Mantoloking, New Jersey, when he sighted the packet ship John Minturn from New Orleans. Freeborn went on board the John Minturn to guide her safely to port but ran into trouble when trying to guide the ship in an icy hurricane.

{{cite book |last=Russell |first=Charles Edward| date=1929|title=From Sandy Hook to 62°|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7KBOAQAAMAAJ&q=Blossom

|publisher= Century Co.|oclc=3804485|pages=64–70}} The ship was pushed toward the Jersey Shore and ran ashore on Squan Beach. Thirty-eight out of fifty-one persons died including Freeborn. Freeborn's death was commemorated in two 1846 lithographs; one by James D. Smillie and another by Nathaniel Currier of Currier and Ives, which show visitors to Green-Wood paying respects at the monument.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KrXvVlrWcwIC&dq=Monument+to+Thomas+Freeborn&pg=PA71|title=Images of America, Green-Wood Cemetery |last=Mosca |first= Alexandra Kathryn |date= 2008|work=Arcadia Publishing |page=71|publisher=Arcadia |isbn=9780738556505 |access-date=2021-06-23}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/41794713/john-minturn-initial/ |title=The Terrible Storm, On Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. |work=New York Daily Herald |place=New York, New York |date= 17 Feb 1846|page=2|access-date=2021-06-23}}

File:Pilot's Monument.jpg of Currier and Ives.]]

The Pilot's Monument consists of a marble shaft 40 feet in height, set on a solid massive square sarcophagus made of marble. The front of the sarcophagus is surrounded with a representative of the actual sea storm and shipwreck. Upon this rests a ship's capstan and cable coiled about it, which is severed at the end. A pillar rises from the capstan that depicts a cutoff mast and crowned with a figure of Hope still holding on to her anchor and pointing to the heaven.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80136962/design/|title=Pilot's Monument |work=The Brooklyn Union |place=Brooklyn, New York |date= 29 Aug 1873|page=2|access-date=2021-06-23}}{{cite book |last=Gleason Ballou, Maturin Murray |first= Frederick |date=|url=https://archive.org/details/gleasonspictoria03glea/page/96/mode/2up?q=Freeborn |title=Gleason's Pictorial |work=F. Gleason |place=Boston, Mass. |access-date=2021-06-22}}

{{cite book| last= Cleveland |first= Nehemiah |date=1867|url=https://archive.org/details/greenwoodadirec00cleagoog/page/n126/mode/2up?q=FREEBORN |title=Green-wood, a Directory for Visitors |work= Pudney & Russell printers |place=New York |page=100|access-date=2021-06-22}}

{{Reflist}}

• Official website
• [http://losttosight.com/2016/12/thomas-freeborn-the-pilots-monument/ THE PILOT’S MONUMENT]

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Category:Monuments and memorials in Brooklyn

Category:Burial monuments and structures

Category:Sculptures in New York City

Category:Stone monuments and memorials