Coastal Cultural Experience, Long Island Maritime Museum & Boat Burning

Today on our trip we went to visit the Maritime Museum in Sayville. In the first exhibit that we went to visit was the room with that show cased two of the ways that people can be saved from a vessel that was in distress and was sinking off the coast. On display is the Lifecar that is from the United States Life Saving Service (USLSS) station of Bellport. This is a metal oval that could hold up to six people at one time and rescue men from a sinking ship. At each of the Lifecar there would be ropes attached to the vessel that was sinking and then the land so that this metal oval carrying up to six men can be pulled back and forth to save people from a sinking ship. Even though getting into the life car could be the difference of life and death on the ocean many men did not like this device. Some men would claustrophobic or if the device was at the right angle to the waves it could begin to spin while the men were inside it. There was always the risk of a wave coming over and filling the Lifecar. With it being metal it had a good chance that it could sink if too much water filled into it.

The other option the crew on board of a vessel in distress has the Beach Apparatus. The United States Life Saving Service (USLSS) would also use this to retrieve people from a sinking ship that was close to land but to far a way to swim to shore. The apparatus had a cannon that would fire a projectile towards the vessel that was sinking and had rope was attached to the end of the projectile. This projectile would get caught in the mast of the ship that was sinking and was a strong point on the vessel that the rope could remain attached to. There would now be a rope going from the vessel to beach and from there the USLSS could start saving people. On the line attaching the vessel to land there would be a life ring hanging from it along with a basket so the men can get into it and be pulled back to the beach safely. This had its own risking because of the surf was really rough and the waves were very high there was the risk if drowning with all the water. Most men would prefer to be rescued with the Beach Apparatus than the Lifecar because they somehow felt safer this way.

To finish off the trip we ended the night with the traditional Halloween Boat Burn that the Sayville Maritime Museum hosts every year as a fundraiser for the museum. Each year someone from the community donates a wooden boat that is past the point of repair to this cause. This year someone donated a 50 foot wooden boat to the cause. The lighting of the boat started around 7pm after the local fire department was in scene to make sure that everyone would be safe. Once the fire department has cleared the boat that it is ready to burn, flares are thrown into the boat and being that it is all wood the boat then ignites and burns for a couple of hours. This boat burn is considered Long Island’s largest bonfire.

by Emily Recchia

But if you live in The Great South Bay you might have heard ‘the oyster is your world’. The Long Island harbor was a driving force of the booming oyster industry following the civil war. Blue Point was especially notorious for it’s gourmet breed of oysters, which by 1880, a barrel of these shellfish were worth their weight in silver! Members of the wealthy upper class around the world would have Blue Point oysters shipped to them overseas. This demand made the industry extremely competitive, to the extent that Blue Point oysters had to be legally defined and to qualify, a Blue Point oyster must spend at least three months in The Great South Bay. It wasn’t just about bragging rights either, New Jersey fishermen actually tried to dip their oysters into The Great South Bay and call them Blue Point oysters. This was a law that actually had to be enforced by Bay Patrol.

The Long Island harbor has more to gain from a healthy oyster population than a gourmet cuisine. Oysters are necessary for their natural filtering abilities and are important if we want our water to be clean. A lot of the local grassroots efforts to save The Great South Bay and harvest oysters and other shellfish are implemented in order to benefit and sustain our environment. Luckily, years of reestablishing the oyster populations have led Long Island oystermen to pick up some very effective tricks of the trade. Certain techniques, such as putting old oyster shells back into the harbor so young oysters can settle, help the population of oysters to rapidly rise. Oysters are still extremely profitable in aquaculture. They are easy to grow, extremely sustainable, and are still a tasty and healthy indulgence. It’s no wonder the oyster industry is still an important part of Long Island culture today.

 
Sayville Maritime Museum
by John Carswell

This week we went to the Sayville Maritime Museum. The museum consisted of multiple buildings each with different historical exhibits. One of the buildings we went into was an old house on the water, or at least it used to be by the water. The house had blue clapboards, with people working on the back of the house, perhaps painting the back side of the house. It was not a large house, but was in great shape. When we went inside, it was soon obvious that this house was from the early 1800s. The walls were covered in a beautiful dark colored wood, with detailed molding around the doors and corners of the room. The ceilings were high, which I always like. Being 6 foot 4 inches, I am used to hitting my head on low ceilings and doorways in old houses, but it is always nice to not have to continuously bend down. The ceilings were not high because people living there were tall, but rather as a status symbol. The tall ceilings and detailed molding showed that the original home owners were well off, or at least rich enough to afford the extra cost of the tall ceilings. Tall ceilings not only meant you had to buy more wood to make them, but they also were more expensive to heat in the winter. The original home owner of the house was most likely a ship owner.

The economy of Sayville, and majority of south shore of Long Island during the 1800s through today, is dependent on the water. During the time the house was built, whaling was dying out due to the rise of petroleum oil, and the shell fishing industry was rising. The Native American people living on Long Island were shell fishing thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. The Dutch, who settled Long Island, started the shell fishing industry on Long Island. Sayville was a Dutch Town originally, and the house we were in was Dutch.

The first room we went into was the kitchen, which was fully furnished with kitchen supplies and furniture from the 1800s. There was a living room, and a couple bedrooms. The living room had a player piano, which was another sign of wealth. In one room connected to the bedroom, there were toys and some clothing. There were a couple creepy dolls and an old teddy bear, but what was brought to our attention were a pair of wooden clogs. I always knew that clogs were Dutch, but always assumed they were worn by farmers and people living in the country side. We learned that clogs were much more common during the 1800s, especially in the city. The streets of New York City had lots of puddles at this time, but not puddles of water. There was not a very effective sewer system at that time, so sewage was in the streets. Clogs were worn over shoes to keep sewage off their clothes.

The house was a great experience. We learned a lot about the life in Sayville during the 1800s.

The Long Island Maritime Museum, located in Sayville, converted a US Navy seaplane hanger into a boathouse. On display are over 30 different boats used throughout Long Island’s history. One can observe the different sails and hulls and accessories crafted specifically for their work or recreational purposes.

Inside the boathouse is a station with four fifty pound sandbags attached to a series of pulleys, labeled one through four. The numbers represent the number of times the rope goes through a pulley. With each additional pulley loop, the mechanical advantage increases. Therefore, the system with one pulley takes four times as much effort to lift as the system with four pulleys, even though the bags weigh the same and are reaching the same height.

This boat is called an ice scooter. It can reach incredible speeds on ice, typically for recreational purposes. This model was built and raced in the 1960s.

The Priscilla was launched in 1888, when it was used for oyster fishing. After the oyster fisheries collapsed, due to overfishing and oyster habitat loss, she became a recreational sailing vessel instead. Today, thanks to the restoration efforts of the museum, she is the only surviving workboat of the former Great South Bay oyster fleet and she can still be taken out on the water for the enjoyment and education of visitors.

The Long Island Maritime Museum doesn’t just restore and display boats; they also have an annual tradition where they destroy a boat. Each year, someone donates an old wooden boat that is beyond repair and hundreds of people watch the boat burn, from a safe distance. Pictured here is the boat, which you can see is quite large, and produced quite a large blaze.