Reminiscences Of A Kid
– Tom Hyland –
The Kid was born in 1930, April 20, which made him an Aries or a Taurus, which meant he had a little of both. His father and mother were non-athletic, non-boat owners and for some reason, known only to them (possibly the Great Depression starting in 1929); boats were unimportant.
My father was the main breadwinner, (read, the only bread-winner).We shared our rental house with my grandmother, Uncle Ed and Aunt Ruth. I thought Ruth was my big sister. Things were grim and boats, automobiles and telephones were non-necessities. This was around 1942. I was twelve and WWII was on, and Sig Sorenson let us “help him” on the dock shoring boats. The boats I remember there at the time were my Uncle Ed‟s powerboat, a catboat called the Hard Tack, and the “Estar” or “Istar”, a beautiful sloop that was owned by a New Jersey man and Dick Roberts' 42 ft.Banks Dory. Johnny Wilcox ran a livery out of Sig's dock. He had a series of rowboats and finally added an outboard
motor. Bob Hobson had the prettiest little varnished clinker built sailing dinghy you ever saw. But I digress for a moment - don't forget I was only ten or twelve.
The waterfront, starting at the extreme easterly end was the Great Kills marshes, where I used to watch horse-drawn wagons gathering salt hay. Then moving west was the Tally Ho, (An o1d speakeasy which is currently the Great Kills Yacht Club building.) In front
of this building started the marsh. Moving west was either a small brook or
a railway to haul small boats. On the waterside was an L or T shaped oyster house surrounded by mounds of oyster shells. Upland was a green two-story house, with a wrap-around porch. This was located approximately where the rear gate of Yacht Club Cove exists. A small waterway, then a pond on the waterside in front of Waterside Parkway, led to the beginning of Mansion Ave., where, in the middle of the road, there jutted out a two-story house. Don't forget this was a dirt path.
There, a two-story house jutted out in the middle of the path and Mansion Avenue then
began going west. Upland from there was Dick Brittan‟s house. The first section of this house was built in the1600‟s. He was a crank, and it was obvious even to twelve-year-olds, he didn't like kids. He had a long, well cared for pier for “The Harpoon”, his 35 ft. powerboat. There were no marinas yet, as the Harbor was very shallow. At the intersection of Great Kills Road and Mansion Ave. was Captain Peters' house. The family included his wife, sons, Charles, Allen, and Donald and a daughter, Barbara along with their cousins Art and Tom Ericsson. They were a talented, close knit family and very handy. Sometime about 1944, the Peters did some land filling and built a boatlift.
Mansion Ave. was a dirt street starting around Great Kills Rd. and pointing west. A11 the land on the waterside that we know as Mansion Marina and Richmond County Y.C. was marshland. Continuing along westerly we come toMrs. Shields‟ house, on the upland side,
which also contained a small store. Early in WWII Mrs. Shields lost a son, Harry (age 16) on his first voyage to a submarine attack just outside of Sandy Hook, N.J. The building today is the home of Staten Island Y.C. Still westing on the waterfront side; we came to the original site of Richmond County Y.C. (with a gate). In 1942 kids didn't pass a gate, even if they weren't locked. Then westing some more welcome upon Great Kills Boat Yard, Peterson's or Knudsen's.
We finally arrive at Sig Sorenson's boatyard. He also had boats stored on barges, plus upland sections. He had a nice two-story house, which is still standing today, on a large open area that extended to Cleveland Ave. After Cleveland Avenue, there was Shell Beach with 6 or 7 summer bungalows, and Fitzgerald's Field and Hotel with a grove of tall trees. We have reached Nelson Ave., and Stevenson‟s Boatyard. Bert was a quality boat builder best known for his clinker-built New Jersey skiffs. He almost mass-produced them. He built a prototype of a PT boat, about 25 feet long with a reverse his time. He also built a 30 ft. racing sloop and many 65 ft. commercial fishing vessels, including a couple Miss Moore type Head Boats.
As we continue our westward tour, wecome to the Shoal's dock and restaurant. (Not in operation, as I remember it.)Then on to Lunde's boatyard and Tony's dock. In the middle of the harbor was Brown Brothers gas barge, where everyone had to go to purchase fuel.
During the summer of 1944, Dick Dury and I met a new guy who became a lifelong friend, Jim Burri by name. Jim was brilliant; Dick was a plugger and I was just plain dumb, so naturally I sort of became the leader. I acquired a 16 ft .wooden lifeboat, probably off a tug or ferryboat, which we were convinced was off a ship sunk by a U-boat. Where else could the holes come from? It was double banked with four rowing positions and I was the coxswain. I paid $5.00 for the boat and I let them buy into it on a share basis. (A big mistake.) Then they wanted to steer - silly boys! I was the biggest -they learned quickly.
While at the movies (Strand Theater) Great Kills, we saw a movie, The Deer Slayer. I believe it was a James Fennimore Cooper tale; it showed a barge-like boat with a small sail luffing and obviously under power. The Deerslayer Class was born. All Deerslayers started life as a flat bottom rowboat. I had a 14 ft. rowboat with a centerboard and a leg o'mutton sail. Tom Ericsson had a rowboat to which he added a dagger-board. George Peterson had a rowboat sloop and a new kid, Wikstrom, had a nice rowboat, centerboard sloop. Tom Ericsson and my boat had great sails, made from paint tarps.
Here are a few boats I remember as a kid: Mr. Bailey had a 60 ft. oyster schooner, The Imelda Campbell, tied to Sig's dock. She was about 20 tons with a large centerboard and raked mast. When the tide rose the boat didn't. He had to be a great mechanic, because he would start the big old engine every once in a while. There was a 42 ft. cat yawl, a couple of beautiful cutters. Ken Milnes had a big Matthews powerboat, as did Harold McCormack. A1 Milnes owned a tricabin and Tom Whelen had a 26' Elco. The Williams Bros. had a 70' schooner yacht. If you old-timers can recall, there was the 40-50 foot powerboat with around stern and a pilothouse well forward and a 2-lunger engine for power, which made popping exhaust sounds. It belonged to a chap by the name of Raoul Delile and it moved through the water without leaving any wake or disturbance. I think it was called the “Rebound” and was moored off what is now RCYC, formerly the Brown Brothers Marina, the first marina built on Mansion Ave.
At the time RCYC was a motorboat club - sailboats were tolerated. John Drury owned an Air Rescue P.T. boat about 65 or 85 feet.He kept it on a mooring on the far
side of the harbor and jokingly said it burned 50 gallons of fuel just to bring it in to the RCYC dock. It was a monster. RCYC had a tender, a 25-30 foot flat bottom open skiff with a tunnel for thes haft and propeller so as not to dig into the mud, but it could not be used when the tide was out. If you owned a boat, you either belonged to RCYC or used the water taxis, or rowed out to our boat (unless you owned an outboard motor, which I recall were very hard to start and difficult to keep running when you needed them.)
Looking back at the early WWII days in Great Kills harbor, there was gas rationing for everyone, boats included. Boats were allotted 24 gallons a season. There were DIM-OUTS - the top portion of automobile headlights and streetlights facing the bays and ocean were painted black. This was done to reduce the nighttime glare that silhouetted ships for night attack by the German submarines. Fitzgerald's football/baseball Field had machine gun emplacements and soldiers with British style helmets. They were removed by 1943.
At the beginning ofW.W. II the Coastguard Reserve was created; private yachts were enlisted to assist the regular Coastguard in submarine detection patrols along the East and Gulf coasts. Great Kills Harbor boats usually patrolled from Sandy Hook, NJ down to Barnegat, NJ. They were crewed by four reservists and a regular CG signalman. Radios were few.
Civil Air Patrol, (CAP) with small private aircraft (Yellow Piper Cubs were very popular) also patrolled the coastline, and checked out the coastal patrol boats regularly. All boats had a CG signalman on board. The procedure went something like this: the boats on patrol
watched for periscope wakes or other indications of a submarine. When one
was detected they would record its position and when CAP flew by, the signalmen
would exchange the information. The CAP would return to its base, get to
a telephone and deliver the submarine‟s position information to the US Navy airbase
in Lakehurst, NJ. They would launch a Navy blimp, which would fly to
the location and bomb the submarine if it was found. This should give an example
of how unprepared, under-equipped and undermanned our nation was in the first
early months of World War II.
I remember seeing Dusty Doresbacker with his sea skiff taking five or six people out fishing. Spike Ashe was out there clamming. I always called him "mister" then; anyone older than you was always addressed that way. Other clammers were Andy Fiorella, Bob and Rollie Ollerich and Kerry Coyle and their nemesis, Serge Polovoy, the game warden.
About 1948 or '49 the Great Kills Yacht Club was rejuvenated.
Dick Shields, George Olson, Jack Wheeler, Charles McAteer,Esq., Bobby Amory, Esq., and others were the prime movers. Bob Cordes, Jack Wheeler and Dr. Berg were the only rag sailormen that I know of. Everyone else was out on moorings. In 1949 I recall going down there and getting stuck in front of GKYC. They were back filling
with a huge bucket and the soil was very soft indeed. In January 1951 I left for the
service and when I returned GKYC was there to stay.
A word about yacht clubs: Richmond County YC had a far-reaching vision on
how to get and retain members. They had a junior program that was unique. This
program was designed to entice the local kids into the club. If your father belonged
to the Yacht Club, you couldn't be a junior member. It was for local kids only. It
had its own Commodore, Vice Commodore and Rear Commodore. All
were answerable to the Board of Governors. They also had the responsibility
to conduct themselves in a responsible way. The club may have failed at this
juncture…as they allowed me at age 14 (1944) to become the youngest junior
member.
