1951
SALTAIRE38.blogspot.com "In the time of your life--live." That time is short and it doesn't return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition (--Tennesse Williams)
7 comments:
Frank O. Braynard has one of his ink drawings of the Fire Island Queen- Do you have one Jim?
If not, I can scan it and send it to you.
GJZ
To quote one of Captain Al's favorite lines "Ride the Queen to Fire Island"
Note the lifeboats on the davits.
The Queen met her ultimate end while tied up behind the Oak Beach Inn.
The most memorable voyage of the Queen was a summer weeknight in '74 when she almost sank on an evening cruise at the junction of the State Boat and Snake Hill channels. But for the use of a Saltaire FD pump taken out to her by my father and myself and the able scuba diving skill of Capt Frank she may have sunk.
Hey Jim, Beaver, Frank and Justin, glad to see more Ferry info- thought I would add:
She was built as a yacht then became a ferry for Point O' Woods- named Point O' Woods III.
Yes, that was a good grounding in the State Boat Channel by Capt. Jack.
What about the time she ran aground in between East and West islands - and had to towed back to Bay Shore by the ferry Capt. Patterson.
Used on many moonlight sails for Fire Island Ferries, and the Atlantique run. A pair of 110s GMs in her, about 400 hp during her service with them, using air clutches-what a way to run a boat :)
Fcc call letters: WB 7119
88 tons built in East Boothbay Maine 1920 94.3 feet. Originally 123 grt.
She barley turned around in the OB Basin. Made Sunday trips from Kismet on late Sunday afternoons if there was a need to do when the crowds were there and she was needed.
I believe she went down to Jones Beach for the rally against Robert Moses for the sake of Fire Island during the 1960s.
Yes her fate was her sinking at the OBI dock, and then broken apart and hauled off.
Hope to see more of this on the Saltaire38 Blog guys.
FA
Yes, Capt Jack(a/k/a Lumpy, Fat Jack, the Whiskered Whale, etc). A great guy and along with Mike Egan, an excellent bayman in the mold of a Capt Al Skinner. I only wish I had a picture of Jack that night. His eyes were as big as proverbial saucers. Jack was one of my all time favorites at FI Ferries. His heart was as large as his appetite(I remember him eating 3-4 Burger King Whoppers one day as a "warm-up" to having lunch). Another great Jack story is the time Patterson sent Jack to cover Capt Al's trips on one of Al's birthdays. Jack arrived early, went up to the Shim Shack and got so inebriated that he could barely walk back to the dock. Great memories of the mid 60's, early 70's ferryboat days. As Jack so eloquently put it one night when, a few years back, I stated that I'd love to run a boat again "Beaver, it's no fun, the new steel boats are like driving buses plus you're not allowed to run them when you're drunk."
Yes, summer of '63 - Capt.Patterson(Pat to the FIFI crew) ran the Queen and Mooney the Belle to the meeting opposing Moses plan to destroy Fire Island. That's when Charles Collingwood(second owner of the Dobie, current Ortenberg/Claiborne house)compared Moses plans for Fire Island to Hitler's plan(s) for the Sudetenland. Moses, after that comment, stormed out of the meeting surrounded by some of his LI State Park Police stormtroopers. Christ, those guys were like a modern day Gestapo. I remember Moses claims that paving the Island would "stabilize" the beach from further storm damage. That meeting was the beginning of the end of Bob Moses plans to cover the majority of LI, NYC, and the rest of the state with concrete.
Superb blog post, I have book marked this internet site so ideally I’ll see much more on this subject in the foreseeable future!
yes, it was a good blog wasn't it. Hope Jim gets things started again with some more GSB (Great South Bay) pics.
FA
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