Set sail through centuries of maritime history in this captivating lecture by historian, author, and retired Newsday reporter Bill Bleyer. Explore some of Long Island’s most dramatic and tragic shipwrecks, from the Dutch vessel Prins Maurits, lost while bringing colonists to the New World, to the British warship HMS Culloden, wrecked off Montauk during the American Revolution. Learn about the doomed immigrant ships Mexico and Bristol in the 1830s, the fiery destruction of the Lexington—the worst disaster in Long Island Sound history—and the wartime sinking of the USS San Diego during World War I. The program concludes with the mysterious loss of the tugboat Gwendoline Steers in a 1962 Winter storm. This lecture offers a compelling look at how these maritime tragedies shaped the region’s seafaring legacy.
