The Hand of Fate

(This piece was submitted to Atlas Obscura and is currently pending publication)

Nestled inconspicuously among tiki bars, surf shops, cigar stores and other boardwalk tourist traps along the waterfront at John’s Pass stands an ominous warning and striking sculptural memorial to Florida’s fisherman lost at sea.

Many of us, myself included, seldom pause to think about where and how the sushi on our plate arrived there… but those who fish Florida’s Gulf Coast, for sustenance as well as for sport, confront the vicissitudes of the ocean on a daily basis.

Unveiled on October 29th, 2011, the nine foot tall sculpture was the result of a joint effort between the John’s Pass Village and Boardwalk Merchant’s Association, the Outdoor Arts Foundation and artist Robert Bruce Epstein. Epstein’s sculpture depicts an oxidized, Poseidon-like hand from which a massive wave rises, looming over a hapless fishing boat. From this we can assume that the fate of the crew hangs in the balance.

Inscribed around the base are the names of just some of those commercial and recreational fishermen who never made it back home. While the exact number is unknown, the St. Petersburg Times estimated that more than 140 individuals have been lost off the Gulf of Mexico in Florida since 1933.

A poem inscribed on the front on the monument reads as follows:

“I pray that I may live to fish…

until my dying day.

And when it comes to my last cast,

I then most humbly pray:

When in the Lord’s great landing net

and peacefully asleep

That in His mercy I be judged

big enough to keep.”