(l)urking across the ice

in the very preliminary stages of a research project on memorials to those lost at sea, and in the midst of a particularly chilly february day, came across this statue to"icewalkers" in the netherlands. seems that before 1940, the town of urk was an island in the zuiderzee, and, when conditions got rough in the winter and urk residents needed to get to the mainland, brave "urkers with an iceboat/ijsvlet especially prepared for this goal" would try to get to the mainland over the ice. in 1939, a dike broke, thereby ending the necessity of this ice venture and removing the islander status from the valiant urkers.
hot tips on memorials to whalers, fishermen, and other seamen encouraged.