It was erected in memory of Captain William Lewis Herndon who courageously decided to go down with his ship, SS Central America, and the men left aboard rather than save himself on September 12, 1857.
William Shakespeare | William Laud | Lewis Carroll | William Blake | William | William III of England | William Morris | William McKinley | William Howard Taft | William Ewart Gladstone | William the Conqueror | William S. Burroughs | William Shatner | William Faulkner | William Randolph Hearst | Jerry Lee Lewis | Jerry Lewis | William Wordsworth | William Tecumseh Sherman | William Hogarth | Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | William Penn | William Jennings Bryan | William Gibson | William Wilberforce | William James | William Makepeace Thackeray | Fort William | William Hanna | William Hague |
On 3 September 1857, 477 passengers and 101 crew left the Panamanian port of Colón, sailing for New York City under the command of William Lewis Herndon.