Amphitrite, the underwater Mermaid statue at Grand Cayman island

The Commission

The project began at EXPO 86 in Vancouver, where Morris and Canadian diving pioneer Jim Willoughby agreed with a group of divers that British Columbia needed a focal point to attract dive tourism. Morris, then working mainly in welded steel and with no experience of bronze casting, took the commission and was mentored through it by Tom Jay of the River Dog Fine Art Foundry in Chimacum, Washington.

The first casting, the Emerald Princess, was placed at Saltery Bay near Powell River on 16 March 1989; the cove was subsequently renamed Mermaid Cove on the Canadian Hydrographic Charts.

Grand Cayman acquired the second casting after Reg Creighton and Erica-Leigh Haley, who had trained Morris in nitrox diving in 1999, moved to manage diving operations at Sunset Divers and persuaded general manager Keith Sahm and owner Adrian Briggs to commission it. Sunset House's stated aim was both to add an attraction and to draw diver traffic away from its house reef.

Material and Condition

Morris cast Amphitrite in silicone bronze and assembled her using welding rod of the same alloy, so that no join would discolor differently from the surrounding surface. She has since developed a marine patina, with sponge growth in the channels of her hair.

The Name

The statue was named by public contest at the time of her sinking. Thousands of entries were submitted by divers and friends of the Cayman Islands; the winning name, Amphitrite, was proposed by a ten-year-old girl from Chicago. Her full title is Amphitrite, Siren of Sunset Reef.

Mythology

In greek mythology, Amphitrite was the wife of Poseidon.  She was also considered the personification of the sea as a whole, and the mother of seals and dolphins.

Amphitrite was the eldest of the fifty Nereids, daughters of Nereus and Doris, and the mother of Triton by Poseidon. Her mythology is not uniformly benign: in the accounts of Tzetzes and of Servius, she resented Poseidon's interest in the naiad Scylla and cast enchanted herbs into the pool where Scylla bathed, transforming her into the six-headed monster of the strait.

Visiting

Amphitrite stands on sand approximately 130 yards offshore from Sunset House, 390 South Church Street, George Town. The depth is 50-55 feet or so. Access is by shore dive: divers enter the resort's sheltered sea pool by giant stride or ladder, follow the sand channel seaward, cross the mini wall and descend to the sand beyond. Experienced freedivers and snorkellers can view her from the surface in calm, clear conditions.

Related Works in Grand Cayman

Simon Morris has produced two further works for the Cayman Islands. Guardian of the Reef, a half-human, half-seahorse figure standing 13 feet tall, was placed underwater at Lighthouse Point, West Bay (dated 2014 by the sculptor).

In October 2025 the Cayman Islands Cabinet approved the placement of a third underwater sculpture, Angel of the Reef, at Soto's Reef off George Town, commissioned by Gary and Liz Frost of Living the Dream Divers. Morris also created Tradition, a memorial to Caymanian seafarers in Heroes Square, unveiled by Prince Edward on 10 May 2003.