Long Island Adventures: Maritime Museum

Last week, (before New York was hit with a heat wave), William took me to the Long Island Maritime Museum. The weather was cloudy, but it was cool out, especially out on the water, but we still had a wonderful time.

The museum was very informative and it was really interesting to see old clamming and fishing tools and photographs. It was on a big piece of property, with many buildings, some of which were donated by Long Island families in the 1800's.

 

The main building contains all of the artifacts and tools. We got to see photographs and remains of ship wrecks in the Bay. Thinking about shipwrecks in the Great South Bay was funny to me because our town is right on the bay and it seems like such a small body of water, I can't fathom a ship sinking in it!

 This was a life boat from an old ship from the 1800's. The inside of this thing looked terrifying! I don't think I'd be able to handle staying inside one in an emergency situation.

 I'd love to own an old sewing machine like this one!

And of course, this was the only good picture I got from him.

The museum also offers boat tours, where you can sail out on the Bay in groups. We walked around the docks and there were dragonflies all over the place, swarming around by the marsh. The marshlands were so beautiful, but after reading signs posted around the dock, we learned that the marshes on Long Island aren't supposed to look the way they currently do. Unfortunately, pollution and development are destroying the wildlife and plants that grow in our marshes.Despite this fact, it was still so cool to think about how diverse the Long Island landscape is; we have beaches on the North and South shores, deserts out by Montauk, wetlands, marshlands, and more.

I look so awkward because the sun was in my eyes.

The next building was an oyster house, set up just as it would be in the 1800's. It was really neat to see how they fished for oysters and we were astonished at how many they managed to catch.

The property is located right on the bay, and we eventually made our way down to the water. The waves were rough because a storm was approaching, and it was very windy.

The next building housed a ton of old sailboats and fishing boats. They were so beautiful, and very old. I would love to own a sailboat one day...

The last building we visited was a house donated by a Long Island fishing family. I didn't take any pictures inside of the house because it was very dark and a tour group was inside.

When we stumbled upon the outhouse, we just had to take some photos inside.

Such a silly boy...