The old schooner sat at the pier forlorn and tired with two soldiers holding M1 rifles at the ready, guarding her. The town of Newport, Rhode Island was all abuzz with rumors, “What’s going on down at the dock? Did you see the soldiers? What…
Long Island Boating World
On September 19, 1942, Liberty Ship SS Stephen Hopkins, a.k.a. “Ugly Duckling,” set out from Cape Town Harbor, Africa. The 441-foot long freighter was bound for Dutch Guiana (Surinam) at the northeast end of South America. Once in harbor, the vessel was tasked with loading…
What a great month for fishing July is. For striper obsessed anglers like me, it’s a transition. Most of the Long Island waters have gotten too warm for a consistent and dependable striper bite except for Montauk. There’s still bass and blues around but most…
Summertime is here and the livin’ is easy as fishing is firing on all cylinders to keep anglers happy. Backwaters are loaded with fluke and beasties such as kingfish, blowfish and bluefish. Sea bassing was lit up on the nearshore wrecks where bigger fluke were…
Name one boat accessory that has been kind of overlooked of late. If you haven’t figured it out yet, well sadly, there’s little I can say or do except “READ THE ___TITLE AGAIN! Yes! Alright, you got it now. No more yelling on my part.…
Happy Summer to all. I have just returned from an amazing vacation in Italy. Besides the beautiful scenery, jaw dropping architecture and artwork in the churches and the history in every town, what impressed me most was the food. How much simpler and healthier it…
The term “abandoned vessel” could bring to mind a number of different settings in maritime law. If we’re talking about a breakaway vessel drifting through a crowded anchorage after a fall Nor’easter, the urgency of the situation is obvious to most observers. The vessel is…
I used to be tall, but at my age, I’ve been in my shrinking stage for a while. What I have lost in height has been gained on my “Grog Belly”. When I’m with people of my generation, I still rate in height. When I…
There is an expression, “Wooden ships and iron men.” The expression came from a book of poetry published in 1933 by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet titled Clipper Ships and Captains.There was a time before our time,It will not come again,When the best ships still…
The passengers boarding the SS St Nicholas that warm evening at the Baltimore Wharf were relatively happy considering there was a civil war raging between the North and the South. Amidst the hustle and bustle of boarding some sixty passengers, there emerged an elegantly dressed…