The bay and ocean are not always a "Sunday Picnic." They must be respected even by the most knowledgeable and capable seaman. Over the years there have been literally hundreds of ship wrecks and other catastrophes along the south shore of Long Island and in its bays. In the immediate area opposite Amityville and vicinity, three or four of the many wrecks on the beach are best remembered.

The one that first comes to mind is the wreck of the "Roda" which came ashore just opposite what is now Tobay Beach near what was then called Jones Beach or High Hill Life Savings Station. It was a 350 foot tramp steamer out of Huelva, Spain. She carried a heavy cargo of copper ore. In those days there was the outer and inner sand bars off shore. As was often the case when weather was bad and a ship was too close to the beach, the Roda hopped over the outer bar on the night of February 13, 1908. It became stranded between the beach and the inner bar. Capt. Stephen Austin was then Keeper of the Jones Beach Station, and Capt. Clarence W. (Cal) Chichester was Keeper of the Zachs Inlet Life Savings Station to the west of the Jones Beach Station. The wreck was within Capt. Austin’s jurisdiction, and he and his crew of "Surfmen" launched and rowed their surfboat out to the ship; however neither the Captain, W.J. Beaven, or the crew of the ship would leave it. Capt. Chichester was on hand to lend assistance, but on this turn of events, he and his crew returned to their Station indicating they would be available if Capt. Austin needed them. The next day the ship’s crew again refused to come ashore hoping the tug boats that had been ordered would putt them off. Such was not to be the case. In fact one of the ocean going tugs, the "Howard," also went aground and broke up on the beach. The second tug also went aground but it finally got off. The storm got worse so the ship’s Captain asked that his crew be taken off on February 15th. It took several difficult trips, and everyone but the Captain was rescued off the ship. The next day at 11 A.M. the Captain finally signaled he wished to be taken off and Capt. Austin, with the help of the wrecking crew standing by, got the Captain off the ship to the beach. It took a total of seven trips to get the 26 men off the ship. The copper ore was valued at $22,680, and the ship which was a total loss was valued at $80,000 in 1908. Although all official reports, a letter of thanks from Captain Beaven, and Life Savings records designate the ship as the "Roda," my good friend, the late Horace (Pete)Ruggles of Amityville claimed it was "Rhoda." He based his assertion on the fact that his father was the engineer in charge of the salvage operation, and Pete, as a boy, stayed with him on the beach. Pete said he knew there was an "H" in the name because that was his initial and he asked his father to get him the "H" and "R" off the stern of the ship. That was always good enough for me until I started to recheck the facts for this story. I found that without question the ship’s name was the "Roda"; but the discrepancy still bothered me. I could not figure it out until I began to write this. Then it dawned on me that the name on the back of the ship also would have indicated its home port, which in this case was "Huelva"; and that is where the "H" came from.

Another ship that came ashore locally was the "Seth Low." It was one of the largest to wreck on the south shore, at 1147 tons and a 20 foot draft. It came to its end in January of 1895. It was an old wooden ship built in Maine in 1861 and had been a full ship rigged bark sailing as "The Craigs" under the British Flag. As was the case in those days, when an old ship had outlived its useful life as a full rigged ship, it was humiliated by being reduced to a coal barge and rigged with two masts carrying small steadying fore and aft sails. This kind of vessel did not normally sail under its own power, but was towed by a steamer, which in this case was the "Santuit". This was the cheapest way to transport coal, and several barges were towed at one time. On this occasion the other "barge: was the "Ringleader." After leaving their anchorage in New Jersey, they ran into very heavy weather, and the towing line snapped. This left the "Low" on her own in heavy seas and winds with only the steadying sails not large enough to hold her on course. As a result she was finally driven ashore by the wind. The steamer had tried to pick her up again, but it had a heavy load of coal aboard and could not maneuver very well. Aboard the "Low" were the Captain, B.W. Dottridge and four crew members, one of whom was his son. The son and another crew member washed overboard and were never found. Although the Captain was unconscious after running aground, he and the other two men were saved through the valiant efforts of the lifesaving Crew from Zach’s Inlet Station, but only with the help of the Crews from Jones Beach, Short Beach, and Oak Beach as well. It was a terrible ordeal for all, and only through the heroic action of the Lifesavers, was a total catastrophe avoided. The Keepers of the four stations were Capt. Chichester of Zach’s, Capt. Ketcham of Jones Beach, Capt. Edmonds of Short Beach, and Capt. Arnold of Oak Beach. Many of the surfmen were from Amityville. There is a house on Richmond Avenue that is built of timbers from the "Low."

1908 was not a very good year for ships off Jones Beach. On May 1st of that year the largest sailing ship ever wrecked on the south shore of Long Island came ashore of High Hill Beach. It was the fourmasted fully rigged "Peter Rickmers." It was known as the Kerosene ship because of its particular cargo of kerosene and crude oil in five gallon drums. It was of German registry and was headed for Rangoon, Burma. Her master, Capt. Bachmann, refused to abandon whip when requested to do so by Capt. Cal Chichester of the Short Beach Station and Capt. Seaman of the Point Lookout Station (on the west side of Jones Inlet) who was also on the beach. Bachmann felt he stood a chance of getting off if the storm let up, so he proceeded to jettison the cargo. His effort was to no avail because the ship had such a heavy cargo it had sunk too deep in the sand. The tugs that had come to help could not get it off. The storm continued for more than a week and on May 9th the Captain finally agreed to abandon ship. The weather was still so bad the Lifesavers had to shoot a line, in fact several, until one caught. Then by breeches-buoy, the crew of 40 and the 50 wreckers who had previously been put on board were all rescued. Shortly after this miraculous rescue the remaining cargo ignited, and the ship burned to the water line. It wasn’t long before word got around that there were a lot of cans of kerosene floating ashore, and no one suffered that winter for lack of kerosene. It was picked up quickly by all, some storing it in their beach houses, and some taking it back to the mainland. The only problem was that it seemed to be more volatile and probably was of a cheaper grade than normal for these parts. Reilly Raynor, one of the surfmen at the Jones Beach L.S. Station stored some in the barn of his beach house. It ignited by spontaneous combustion and burned the barn down. After that, he stored it outside and so did everyone else who had picked it up.

Another ship locally called the "Banana Boat" came aground March 20, 1906 at Hemlock. It was the "Bodo" out of South America with 20,000 bunches of bananas. As was usually the case with a ship aground, the first thing the Captain did was try to lighten it so it might possibly slip back over the outer sand bar. When word reached the mainland that crates of bananas were washing ashore, everyone headed for the beach. My father sailed over with Solomon Wanser and John Kerns in Capt. Wanser’s skiff. They really were not dressed for the occasion with boots and gear, so they got their feet wet in the surf salvaging bananas. There was a lifesaver’s way-station or hut nearby where they lit a fire in the stove to dry out. John Herns put his shoes on top of the stove to dry out. After a time they went back out to the surf to get more bananas, but this time barefooted. When they got back, the shoes were curled straight up and burned to a crisp. Actually, wagon loads of bananas were salvaged by the most enterprising. It was jokingly reported in the Southside Signal that someone must have a nearby banana farm from the number of wagons of bananas going thru Babylon. A local church had a banana pie festival and no one came. Bananas were stored in every cellar and over on the beach they filled the drained water towers and any thing else that would hold them. They were of course still green and lasted for quite some time.

There is another wreck that deserves mention here, although it came ashore to the east of us on Fire Island and not on Jones Beach. That is the "Northern Pacific." The significance is that an Amityville Life Saver or Coast Guardsman and well known bayman by the name of Louis Larned was the unsung hero of the three day ordeal. At 3 a.m. on January 1, 1919, the Troop Transport carrying over 2500 passengers and a crew of 450 coming back from France went aground. Many of the passengers were wounded U.S. soldiers in need of urgent medical attention. The local Coast Guard Station called for assistance from other stations, and among those who reported for duty was Louis Larned. Many of the parents of the returning veterans were on the beach and were anxious to learn the fate of their own. The only man on the beach who knew semafore, the art of transmitting words with two flags, was Louis Larned. Standing hour after hour in the cold surf, he communicated with the man on the ship’s bridge as to the well being of soldier after soldier. The grateful parents and friends tried to force money in his pockets in gratitude for his help, but Louis refused. He often said later, he could have been a rich man if he had taken all the money offered him over the three days. Many of the passengers were brought ashore by breechesbouy and life boat, especially the most severely wounded. Eventually, after the storm subsided, they were able to pull her off.

There were many more shipwrecks and even a French balloonist who ended up on the beach, all great stories.

Reprinted here, with permission, from Amityville History Revisited by William T. Lauder.