Twenty-one feet of grey granite rise in front of you on the U.S. Naval Academy grounds, the Herndon Monument to Captain William Lewis Herndon. This is the Herndon Monument, erected in memory of Captain William Lewis Herndon, who died while helping to evacuate passengers and crew from his ship, the SS Central America, as she foundered in a storm on September 12, 1857. Because of his efforts all women and children and many of the men aboard were saved.
Take in the monument’s sheer mass: a 400-by-71-by-71-inch block of granite (10.2 m × 1.8 m × 1.8 m) presented to the Academy by the class of 1860; its sculptor is unknown. On the base facing the Naval Academy Chapel a plaque names “Maury,” and you’ll read that Maury is Matthew Fontaine Maury, Herndon’s co-worker from 1842 to 1846, brother-in-law, and cousin. To the right, in raised block letters, is HERNDON; on the opposite side the date September 12, 1857 is carved.
Nearby sits the bell from the Central America, discovered in her wreck in 1988, donated in August 2021 and dedicated on May 23, 2022. Notice the Central America's rescued bell, resting quietly beside the obelisk that remembers her captain.