ANOTHER statue in Morecambe may be facing the wrong way, it is claimed this week.

Following the debate over Eric Morecambe's attitude to Morecambe promenade, several calls to the Citizen have asked about the memorial dedicated to legendary international swimmer Commander Charles Gerald Forsberg OBE.

The Forsberg seat' is situated on the Breakwater car park at the Battery - and seems to be swimming towards the pub rather than the sea.

A plaque below the memorial says it was his retirement wish to site facing wonderful Morecambe Bay to imbibe the magnificent view'.

But he is facing away from the view, says one reader who contacted the Citizen.

Cllr Ron Sands, Lancaster city councillor with responsibility for tourism and one of the people who helped get the memorial completed, disagrees, though.

"Everyone who walks along the promenade gets to see Charles face because he, like Eric Morecambe, is facing his audience. If he were to be turned around people would get to see the back of his head after reading the plaque. I believe he is facing the right way as the seat now allows tourists to view the bay that Charles swam in on many occasions."

So who was Cmdr C Gerry Forsberg? Originally from Can-ada, he spent many years in the Merchant and Royal Navy and then became a British citizen.

He gained his OBE while working as a Destroyer captain in the Royal Navy but his real love was long distance swim-ming and aged 45 in 1957 he broke the cross Channel swim record, beating the previous best time by 22 minutes.

Only two weeks later he became the oldest competitor to win the British Long Distance Swimming Association's Winder-mere Championship.

Cmdr Forsberg Gerry to all his friends also wrote two books on long distance swimming and was elected to the Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965.

He became President of the Channel Swimmers' Association in 1962 and remained in office until his death, aged 88, some 38 years later.

He was also an honorary vice president of the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association.