Mount Pleasant resident Tressy Mellichamp cried tears of joy Monday morning when she learned somebody returned 10 pounds of sculpted bronze shrimp ripped from a life-sized bronze Shem Creek statue of her father, the late Capt. Wayne Magwood.
She said she was cooking breakfast Monday when a friend called to say that the missing shrimp stolen from the statue over the weekend appeared to be back. Somebody placed the shrimp in a basket at the base of the statue on a pedestrian boardwalk over Shem Creek. In the original sculpture, Magwood held the shrimp.
“I ran up the side of that bridge — it was covered in ice — and started bawling,” Mellichamp said. “Somebody just laid it down on top of the shrimp basket. They were there.”
Relieved, she added, “We will get it reattached in such a way this will not happen again.”
Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie said it was good the story ended positively.
“When something like this happens, it is tempting to throw our hands up and say, ‘This is why we can’t have nice things,’ ” he said. “But the upside of this was to see the outpouring of care and concern by our community, just as it has done when the bridal shop burned down and hundreds of gowns were donated and when a sweetgrass basket stand was destroyed in a car wreck and dozens of volunteers had it rebuilt in half a day.
Haynie said Mount Pleasant residents show up when needed.
“They really care about things that matter, and this statue in honor of Wayne Magwood is just another example of something that really matters,” he said. “It will be repaired and will remain as a tribute to the heart of Mount Pleasant for a long, long time.”
Saturdays vandalism
Early Saturday, Mellichamp’s cousin, Rocky Magwood, told Mount Pleasant authorities that someone snapped off the bronze of tasseled shrimp from the statue on the boardwalk adjacent to the Coleman Boulevard Bridge.
“It’s a big shame somebody would do something like that,” said Magwood, president of the S.C. Shrimpers Association.
Rocky Magwood said he drove by the statue around 4:30 a.m. Saturday and noticed nothing awry as he headed to his boat. At 7 a.m., however, a friend phoned to say the string of bronze shrimp dangling from the statue’s hand were missing.
Rocky Magwood added the weekend vandalism wasn’t the first encounter the family had over a statue. About 20 years ago, a similar bronze statue of his grandfather, Junior Magwood, was stolen from in front of a nearby seafood restaurant. It’s never been recovered, Rocky Magwood said.
Statue unveiled in 2025
The Wayne Magwood statue by Savannah, Ga., sculptor Susie Chisholm was unveiled in April 2025, five years after the death of the legendary shrimper and defender of his industry.
According to a Mount Pleasant web page on the statue, “Captain Magwood was a lifelong fisherman, widely recognized for his advocacy on behalf of the commercial fishing industry. As president of the South Carolina Shrimpers Association, he worked at the local, state and federal levels, including lobbying in Washington, D.C., with the Southern Shrimp Alliance against imported shrimp.”
His boat, Winds of Fortune, also was a familiar sight.
“He brought widespread awareness to the fishing and shrimping industries, as well as the cultural importance of this coastal way of life in the Lowcountry.”
Community and family members worked to raise money for a life-sized statue after Magwood’s death in 2020. More than 150 people and organizations donated more than $100,000 for the bronze sculpture of Magwood holding a mess of shrimp.
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