Long Island Maritime Museum

Last updated
Long Island Maritime Museum
Long-island-maritime-museum.jpg
Long Island Maritime Museum
Established1966
Location88 West Avenue, West Sayville, New York, United States
Coordinates 40°43′22″N73°05′43″W / 40.722775°N 73.095286°W / 40.722775; -73.095286
DirectorTerry Lister-Blitman
Website http://www.limaritime.org

The Long Island Maritime Museum is located in West Sayville, New York.

Contents

History

The Long Island Maritime Museum was founded in 1966 on the waterfront grounds of the former Meadowedge estate of Mrs. Florence Bourne Hard in West Sayville. Florence Hard was the daughter of Frederick Gilbert Bourne, president of Singer Sewing Machine from 1889 to 1905. Charged with the mission of preserving Long Island's maritime history and heritage for educational purposes, the museum has been welcoming visitors from all over the world for over 50 years. Today the mansion is used as the headquarters of the West Sayville Golf Course and Country Club, as well as a restaurant aimed at catering to weddings. [1]

The museum's Main Exhibit and Administrative Building, formerly the estate's garage, houses a collection of local half models, a permanent exhibit on Long Island shipwrecks and the United States Lifesaving Service, and a gallery for annual exhibits. Hervey Garrett Smith is credited to being the museum's founder and first director. The museum grounds and buildings were originally owned by the Bourne-Hard family.

The garage also houses the Elward Smith III Library, a treasure trove of books, documents, photographs and boat plans. The Library is located in the east wing of the Carriage House, with the archives upstairs. The Library, which also houses many unique models and trophies is used for educational programs and meetings.

Vessels

The Long Island Maritime Museum is the current home of Priscilla and Modesty , two vessels which are National Historic Landmarks. Other vessels include "Pauline," [2] "Kid," [3] and "Lorelei." [4]

The Long Island Maritime Museum acquired Priscilla in 1976. The vessel was significantly altered throughout her extensive career. Until 2002, she served the Long Island Maritime Museum as a floating ambassador to other organizations on Long Island and in New York City. Priscilla like all working vessels was subject to heavy wear and deterioration, and was constantly undergoing maintenance and repair throughout her lifespan.

Because of her deteriorated condition, Priscilla underwent an extensive restoration at the Long Island Maritime Museum during a 19-month period between 2002 and 2003. The vessel has retained her historical physical appearance and the workmanship of Elisha Saxton and the care of her subsequent owners are testimony to her survival today. At the Long Island Maritime Museum, Priscilla is used as a floating exhibit next to the 1908 Rudolph Oyster House and berthed along the same dock as the 1923 scallop dredger Modesty.

Restored 1888 Oyster Sloop Priscilla, Floating Ambassador of the Long Island Maritime Museum, sets sail for a series of summer events. The vessel is scheduled to begin taking passengers out on the Great South Bay the first week of May, 2010.[ needs update ]

Priscilla has been featured in a variety of special regattas throughout her history, including the Parade of Tall Ships at the "Salute to the Statue of Liberty" Fourth of July Celebration in 1986.

Modesty Modestyondock.jpg
Modesty

The oyster sloop Modesty was built in 1923 by the Wood and Chute Shipyard of Greenport, Long Island. The vessel was originally built to dredge oysters and scallops under sail in the Peconic Bay. Modesty is believed to be the last large sailing shellfish dredger built anywhere along the shores of Long Island. Modesty was modeled after the 1892 catboat Honest, which was built by Jelle Dykstra of Greens Creek, West Sayville. Modesty was built as a gaff-rigged sloop but a two-cylinder Gafka gasoline engine was installed during the construction. The fact that Modesty was even built at the end of the age of sail is due to an old law enacted before World War I which stipulated that only sail power could be used while dredging for shellfish. After working as a scallop dredger in Peconic Bay until 1936, Modesty moved to Connecticut to finish her working career as an oyster dredger. From the 1950s until 1974 she served as a pleasure yacht for various owners.

Historic Landmarks and Exhibits

The museum also includes the National Historic Landmark, The Rudolph Oyster House, a commercial oyster culling building.

The museum is host to other historic exhibits as well. The Frank F. Penney Boatshop, which was at one time the laundry building of the Brooklyn Hotel in Center Moriches. The Bayman's Cottage(Beebe) was built in around the 1890s and moved from its original location at 45 West Avenue to the museum grounds. The Everitt-Lawrence Small Craft Exhibition Building hosts a variety of small crafts by some of Long Island's most important designer/builders; G.F. Carter, Wilbur Ketcham, Frank Conklin and Gil Smith.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bermuda sloop</span>

The Bermuda sloop is a historical type of fore-and-aft rigged single-masted sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century. Such vessels originally had gaff rigs with quadrilateral sails, but evolved to use the Bermuda rig with triangular sails. Although the Bermuda sloop is often described as a development of the narrower-beamed Jamaica sloop, which dates from the 1670s, the high, raked masts and triangular sails of the Bermuda rig are rooted in a tradition of Bermudian boat design dating from the earliest decades of the 17th century. It is distinguished from other vessels with the triangular Bermuda rig, which may have multiple masts or may not have evolved in hull form from the traditional designs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mystic Seaport</span> Maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, US

Mystic Seaport Museum or Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea in Mystic, Connecticut is the largest maritime museum in the United States. It is notable for its collection of sailing ships and boats and for the re-creation of the crafts and fabric of an entire 19th-century seafaring village. It consists of more than 60 historic buildings, most of them rare commercial structures moved to the 19-acre (0.077 km2) site and meticulously restored.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooters Island</span> Island in Newark Bay in New York and New Jersey, United States

The Antique Boat Museum is a located in the 1000 Islands on the St. Lawrence River, in Clayton, New York, United States. The Antique Boat Museum is the premier freshwater boating museum in North America. The ABM's collections hold over 320 unique boats and thousands of related artifacts and archives. The 4.5-acre campus comes alive with speedboat rides, a working skiff livery, and educational programs. It is the site for the country's longest, continuously running annual Antique Boat Show and Auction. The museum has seasonal hours and is open from the first Friday in May to the end of October.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bugeye</span> Chesapeake Bay sailboat type for oyster dredging

The bugeye is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolph Oyster House</span> United States historic place

The Rudolph Oyster House is a historic seafood processing building on the grounds of the Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville, New York. Built in 1908, it is a rare well-preserved example of a typical oyster culling house of the early 20th century, of which many once lined the local waterfront. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001.

<i>Priscilla</i> (sloop) United States historic place

Priscilla is a classic oyster dredging sloop and museum ship at the Long Island Maritime Museum. Built in 1888, it is the oldest surviving boat from the Great South Bay oyster fleet, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. It is berthed near the Modesty, another National Historic Landmark sloop.

<i>Modesty</i> (sloop) Oyster-dredging sloop built in Long Island

Modesty was an oyster sloop built in 1923 by The Wood and Chute Shipyard of Greenport, Long Island, and is now located at the Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville, New York.

Priscilla as the name of a ship may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishing dredge</span>

A fishing dredge, also known as a scallop dredge or oyster dredge, is a kind of dredge which is towed along the bottom of the sea by a fishing boat in order to collect a targeted edible bottom-dwelling species. The gear is used to fish for scallops, oysters and other species of clams, crabs, and sea cucumber. The dredge is then winched up into the boat and emptied. Dredges are also used in connection with the work of the naturalist in marine biology, notably on the Challenger Expedition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvert Marine Museum</span> Regional maritime museum in MD , USA

The Calvert Marine Museum is a maritime museum located in Solomons, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. C. Lore Oyster House</span> United States historic place

J. C. Lore Oyster House, also known as J. C. Lore and Sons, Inc., Seafood Packing Plant, is located at 14430 Solomons Island Road South, in Solomons, Calvert County, Maryland. It is a large two story, rectangular frame industrial building constructed in 1934 as a seafood packing plant. It replaced a 1922 building that was destroyed by the 1933 Chesapeake Potomac hurricane. It is significant for its historical association with the commercial fisheries of Maryland's Patuxent River region, and architecturally as a substantially unaltered example of an early-20th century seafood packing plant. It has been adapted by the Calvert Marine Museum to house exhibits and many of its original spaces, artifacts, and records have been incorporated into them.

<i>E.C. Collier</i> (skipjack) Boat built in 1910 at Deal Island, Maryland, US

E.C. Collier is a Chesapeake Bay skipjack, built in 1910 at Deal Island, Maryland. She is a 52-foot-long (16 m) two-sail bateau, or "V"-bottomed deadrise type of centerboard sloop. She has a beam of 17.9 feet (5.5 m), a depth of 4.5 feet (1.4 m), and a registered net tonnage of 14 tons. She is one of the 35 surviving traditional Chesapeake Bay skipjacks and a member of the last commercial sailing fleet in the United States. At the time of her documentation on the National Register of Historic Places she was located at Tilghman, Talbot County, Maryland. She is now a permanent exhibit at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Saint Michaels, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Norman (skipjack)</span> United States historic place

The Stanley Norman is a Chesapeake Bay skipjack, built in 1902 by Otis Lloyd, Salisbury, Maryland. She is a 48-foot-3-inch-long (14.71 m) in Length overall with length on deck (LOD) OF 47.5-foot-long (14.5 m) two-sail bateau, or "V"-bottomed deadrise type of centerboard sloop. She has a beam of 16 feet (4.9 m), a depth of 4 feet (1.2 m) at the stern with the centerboard up, and a registered tonnage of 7 tons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oyster buy-boat</span>

An oyster buy-boat, also known as deck boat, is an approximately 40–90 foot long wooden boat with a large open deck which serviced oyster tongers and dredgers. Similar in function to sardine carriers, buy boats circulated among the harvesters collecting their catches, then delivered their loads to a wholesaler or oyster processing house. This spared the fishermen the task and its downtime, allowing them to catch more oysters. Buy-boats also bought seed oysters, or spat, for planting in oyster beds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harbor History Museum</span>

The Harbor History Museum is a regional maritime and history museum in Gig Harbor, Washington. It hosts exhibits on regional culture and history, and Midway Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1893 and moved to the museum's grounds in 2009. The museum won the Washington Museum Association annual Award of Project Excellence for an ongoing living history program called Midway Pioneer School Experience that leads grade-school students through a day in an early 20th century classroom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Maritime Museum</span>

The Michigan Maritime Museum is a museum and research library located in South Haven in the U.S. state of Michigan. The museum is located next to the Dyckman Avenue bascule bridge on the Black River just in from Lake Michigan, the second-largest by volume of the five Great Lakes. The museum specializes in the maritime history of the state of Michigan and the lake of the same name.

The Menger Cat 19, also sold as the Thom Cat 19 Catboat, is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by father and son team Bill Menger and Andrew Menger as a daysailer and cruiser and first built in 1990.

References

  1. "The Mansion at West Sayville (Lessings.com)
  2. Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-340, " Gil Smith R Sloop PAULINE, Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville, Suffolk County, NY ", 4 photos, 1 measured drawing, 3 data pages, 1 photo caption page
  3. HAER No. NY-341, " Gil Smith P Boat KID ", 3 photos, 2 measured drawings, 3 data pages, 1 photo caption page
  4. HAER No. NY-342, " Gil Smith BB Catboat LORELEI ", 7 photos, 1 measured drawing, 3 data pages, 1 photo caption page