Four Chaplains Mural - York, PA - Lincoln Highway on Waymarking.com

The Four Chaplains are well remembered on the Lincoln Highway as this is not the only memorial to them. There is also the Four Chaplains Memorial Viaduct in Massillon, Ohio which is also listed in this category. This part of the Lincoln Highway is one way only. The other direction is also a part of the Lincoln Highway which is one block north of here.

The inscription of the memorial reads On February 3, 1943, The Four Chaplains aboard the troop carrier USS Dorchester gave their life jackets to others aboard the torpedoed ship. As the ship sank into the cold waters of the North Atlantic, the four men of God linked arms and died together in a heroic expression of self-sacrifice and brotherhood.

This mural was painted by Connie Burns Watkins. She painted a lot of different murals. This particular mural is 23 feet wide and 24 feet tall. The point of this mural is that the boat was sinking and the chaplains gave up their seats on the lifeboat when their ship was sinking. That means that they saved someone's life and gave up theirs. Alexander Goode even gave up his warm gloves so someone else's hands wouldn't freeze when he went into the life boat. This mural was painted in York because Alexander Goode was from York.

The four chaplains were featured in the mural two times. The first time a rope in the mural connects the men where there hearts were on the each of the pictures of the four chaplains. The second time they were in the background and painted in white. This symbolizied the chapalines caring and respectful spirit. The four chaplains were a group of men who prayed on the USS Dorchester, a ship near Greenland. The ship was hit by a German torpedo and was sinking. When the ship was drowning the four chaplains held hands and went under the desolate, deep, cold water. The chaplains were very special because they saved other people's lives and died. All the chaplains were awarded the medal of honor.