May always seems to me like the gateway to summer. Lilacs are blooming, grass is green, the fish are arriving in waves with every tide and moon, and for some reason a campfire and a cold beer begin to call my name every weekend. I…
Long Island Boating World
I have the proud pleasure of having a grandson who is a cadet at the Merchant Marine Academy at Fort Schuyler at the foot of the Throgs Neck Bridge. Lately he has been taking fire fighting classes and experiencing it in actual process. All the…
I’ll take the month of May any day over any other month to fish. Truly, it is the first real month of solid fishing on all fronts, from surf to inshore to offshore and what a start we’ve had. Stripers carpet-bombed the Raritan Bay and…
As I am writing this in April, it is still cold outside. We had a few teaser days when it was warm, but they quickly vanished. I am hoping that by the time this gets published we are experiencing better weather and that your boats…
In any kind of trial, whether the matter involves a boating accident or disagreement over a shipyard contract, the outcome can often boil down to testimony from witnesses. It could be something someone heard. “I was standing right next to her. She told the kids…
The Civil War is primarily known as a land war in which the armies of the Union and the Confederacy fought over the right of southern states to secede from the Union. The main issue was that these states wished to continue to hold, purchase,…
Months before the collision on July 25th, 1958, between the super luxury Italian Line cruise ship SS Andea Doria and the cruise ship SS Stockholm, I had the good fortune to attend a bon voyage party for Monsignor John Flemming who had been summoned to…
I’ve always been fascinated with legends like the Flying Dutchman or ghost ships covered with slime that would ensnare unwary sailors. At one time, a lot of derelict vessels, while not necessarily haunted by ghosts, could still kill unsuspecting mariners.At the end of the nineteenth…
One Sunday morning in the middle of January 1984, Bo Curtis left Rockland, Maine, in his 15-foot outboard and headed for Kent Cove to dig clams. En route, a sudden snow squall packing 35-knot winds roared across Penobscot Bay and overtook Curtis’s small skiff. The…
In July of 1773, 189 Scot immigrants boarded the three-masted, square-rigged ship Hector, bound for Nova Scotia. Built in the Netherlands, the Hector had operated as a cargo ship for some 20 years before being converted into a transport vessel. Already nearing the end of…