Diana memorial - Lerwick, UK - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

At the bottom of the fountain it is engraved that the monument was erected by the brother of the surgeon in 1890.

"The Diana Fountain is a monument raised in tribute to the Hull whaling ship the Diana, whose crew comprised of many Shetlanders, and their harrowing tale.

In 1866 while whaling in Baffin Bay the ship became trapped in ice and remained stranded for over 6 months. Thirteen of the crew, including the captain, perished during this time, and the rest were severely malnourished.

Upon their eventual return to Shetland, the crew were in such a poor way that many of them had to rest on sheepskins to stop their bones breaking through their skin, and one sailor was inadvertently killed by his own mother - who did as many would do and fed her starving son - sadly though, his malnourished body couldn’t cope with the food and he too passes away.

The monument was raised by the brother of the ship’s doctor, whose diaries recounted the horrors of the ordeal, which were later published and we can still read today.

Sadly the fountain is no longer operational, but remains a fine memorial at the head of Victoria Pier."
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"The vessels’s surgeon, 29-year-old Charles E. Smith, survived and wrote an account of the tragedy. He returned to the Arctic on a voyage of exploration to Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, then emigrated to New Zealand. But his health broke down, and he returned to England, where he died at only 42 years of age.

Many of the Diana’s dead were Shetlanders, and in 1890 the surgeon’s brother had a large memorial fountain erected near the harbour in Lerwick. It bears the words: “In Memory of the Providential Return of the S. Whaler Diana of Hull.”

It’s hard to miss. At the edge of a parking lot at the dock a few steps from the town centre, it keeps the tragedy of the Diana alive in the minds of Shetlanders."
(visit link)

Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link] Location: Victoria pier at the harbor in Lerwick

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