JACKSONVILLE, Florida — It’s been one year since the cargo ship El Faro sank near the Bahamas with 33 people on board, including four from Maine.
Many families were in Florida for special services this past weekend, but one Maine family is marking the anniversary in a special way.
The Mainers lost aboard the El Faro were Capt. Michael Davidson, 53, of Windham, a 1988 graduate of Maine Maritime Academy; Michael Holland, 25, of Wilton, a 2012 graduate of Maine Maritime; Dylan Meklin, 23, of Rockland, a 2015 graduate of Maine Maritime and Danielle Randolph, 34, also of Rockland, a 2004 Maine Maritime grad.
Another crew member, Mitchell Kuflik of Brooklyn, New York, graduated from Maine Maritime in 2011.
While in Jacksonville over the weekend, Holland’s mother, Deb Roberts, got a tattoo.
“So when it’s done will it look like the one Mike had?” she asked the tattoo artist.
She got a sailor’s swallow tattoo. Mike got the same one in Jacksonville last summer to mark his 5,000 miles traveled at sea.
“To find the same tattoo artist was awesome — probably in the same chair Mike did it just really makes me feel his spirit,” she said.
It looks the same, but for Deb, this swallow design symbolizes something else.
“When a sailor drowns, the swallow will make sure he gets to heaven,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Mike’s younger brother Ron who grew up to share Mike’s love of fishing and also followed him to Maine Maritime Academy, will leave Florida with the same tattoo.
“It fits perfect; it’s like it was meant to be there,” Roberts said.
Mike Holland’s family and other families from Maine attended a private ceremony late Saturday afternoon at Dames Point Park.
TOTE, the owners and operators of El Faro, worked with the city of Jacksonville to rehab the park and add a lighthouse monument to honor the people who died on the El Faro.