Memorial plate for Liudvikas Stulpinas

The memorial plate, featuring a bas-relief of the prominent Lithuanian seaman and Captain of the Port of Klaipėda – Liudvikas Stulpinas (1871–1934) was opened in Klaipėda on the wall of a building on Tilžės Street 9 on 4 December 2016. Captain Liudvikas Stulpinas used to live in the building, currently known as Pelėdžiukas Children’s Library, in 1933–1934.
The Captain was born on 4 December 1871 in Jomantai. He grew up in a family of wealthy farmers, but was orphaned at the age of fourteen. At the age of fifteen, he went to the port of Liepaja and worked as the cabin boy in a Latvian sailship. He gained seafaring experience on Latvian and Estonian sailships and then served 5 years at the Ledokol II icebreaker, where he participated in an expedition to the North Pole. While working as a boatswain in 1900–1903, he studied at Liepaja Navigation School and graduated with a diploma of a seagoing navigator. He was known to be very smart and courageous. After lots of adventures in the oceans of the world, he dropped his anchor in Klaipėda during the Interwar Period and worked here for ten years, becoming the first Chief and Captain of a Lithuanian seaport. He died on 15 July 1934 in Klaipėda.
The memorial plate with L. Stulpinas’ bas-relief was created by the sculptor Gintaras Jonkus from Klaipėda and opened by the Lithuanian Seamen’s Union, the Sea Captains’ Club and the Sea Veterans Association for the Captain’s 144th birth anniversary.

Compiled in 2018