A memorial service is being held Wednesday for Michael Holland, of Wilton, who was lost at sea along with three other Mainers when the cargo ship El Faro sank in Hurricane Joaquin on Oct. 1.
The celebration of life will be held at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Jay Community Building.
Holland “liked to live life on the edge,” wrote his mother, Deb Roberts, in a memorial to her son that she linked to Sunday night on the closed Facebook page “Making Waves for Mike — Bring the El Faro Crew Home Safely.”
Roberts wrote of a man who loved the outdoors and the sea.
“Michael loved to hunt and fish,” Roberts wrote. “Out-fishing his family and his buddies most of the time. He liked to live life on the edge. He even went skydiving with friends this past summer.
“To Mike there were only two days in a week. Mondays when he was on ship and Saturdays when he was off ship,” Roberts wrote.
Holland, a 2008 graduate of Jay High School and 2012 graduate of Maine Maritime Academy, was one of four Mainers and 29 other crew members who were lost at sea when the El Faro, a 790-foot cargo ship out of Jacksonville, Florida, that disappeared in Hurricane Joaquin en route to Puerto Rico.
Roberts created the Facebook page shortly after the ship was reported lost to curate messages of support and hope for the missing crew and their families.
Over the last 10 days, the group has grown to 4,171 members, a mixture of people who knew Holland and the crew directly, as well as people who didn’t but wanted to support the families of the crew.
Aboard the El Faro were 28 Americans and five Polish nationals. Among those lost were Mainers Holland; the ship’s captain, Michael Davidson, of Windham; Danielle Randolph, 34, of Rockland; and Dylan Meklin, 23, of Rockland.
The last known location of the ship and its crew was off the Bahamas when a distress call was sent out to report that the ship was taking on water. The Oct. 1 message was the last communication that the Coast Guard received from the ship. After an extensive six-day search during which it was determined that the El Faro sank in 15,000 feet of water, the Coast Guard called off the search and rescue mission on Oct. 7.
The family is establishing a scholarship in Holland’s honor and is asking that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the “Michael Holland Scholarship Fund.”
Lauren Abbate — 861-9252
Twitter: @Lauren_M_Abbate
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