The East End Seaport Museum’s annual Maritime Festival in downtown Greenport is around the corner, and this year’s visiting vessels and minstrels in Mitchell Park are again keeping the focus on what’s unique about this homegrown community event: It truly celebrates Greenport’s history as a working fishing village.
Visiting Vessels
In addition to filling Mitchell Park with Coast Guard demonstrations, classic wooden boats and ice boats, including the historical coastal picket patrol Zeda and the lifesaving Bebee Surf Boat, and the annual parade of working fishing boats through Greenport Harbor and the Cardboard Boat Regatta on Sunday, two boats that are now floating museums will be in town offering tours during the festival.
“We’re particularly excited to have the historic oyster dredge Ida May here, and she’ll be staying on for two more weeks after the festival to do historic oyster boat tours, and we are also excited to have the historic fireboat Fire Fighter back,” said the East End Seaport Museum’s Executive Director, Erin Kimmel, as she and the museum staff worked earlier this week to finalize Maritime’s weekend events.
Ida May
The Ida May at the 2024 Maritime Festival.
IDA MAY, a replica of the first engine-powered oyster dredge built in 1925, is a hallmark of The Waterfront Center in Oyster Bay, Long Island. She’ll be in town for Maritime at the Mitchell Park Marina.
This 50-foot wooden boat has been reimagined by a team of traditional wooden boat builders to comfortably carry up to 44 passengers, adhering to modern Coast Guard safety requirements, with an open deck providing space for educational programs and public cruises.
Ida May will be open for tours on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday, Sept. 21 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. She will be offering a sunset sail on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. Find Out More.
Built in 1925, the original Ida May was the first engine-powered oyster dredge, marking a shift from sail-powered harvesting. For 75 years, she worked the waters of Oyster Bay, playing a vital role in the region’s oyster industry.
Fireboat Fire Fighter
The retired FDNY fireboat Fire Fighter, a storied city fireboat that led the marine response to the terrorist attack on World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, is returning to Greenport, where it will be at Mitchell Park’s East Pier during the festival.
The ship is now a non-profit museum, which called Greenport its home from 2013 to 2020. It was most recently berthed at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut and will be in Greenport through the winter.
Fire Fighter, launched in 1938, had been in service to the New York City Fire Department for 72 years when she was replaced in 2010, and she was headed for the scrapyard when a crew of firefighting buffs rescued her. Over the next decade and a half, they’ve turned the vessel into a floating museum.
Fire Fighter first arrived in Greenport in February of 2013. She underwent a major overhaul in 2017, including a hull repainting from red to her original color, black. The boat left the village in the winter of 2020, in the midst of plummeting visitors and donations due to the Covid-19 pandemic and escalating costs to dock at Greenport Village’s East Pier.
Fire Fighter was designed by renowned naval architect William Francis Gibbs, had a storied career with the FDNY, fighting more than 50 major fires.
It led the department’s Marine Unit response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center “by supplying water to emergency crews fighting fires in Ground Zero,” according to the Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum’s website. “Spending three weeks pumping at her maximum capacity while her crew sought out damaged but still-operational pumpers to use as inland pumping stations among the rubble of the Twin Towers, Fire Fighter was only released from her station at the foot of Albany Street in the Battery when enough landside water mains had been repaired to support the firefighting efforts.”
More information on the fireboat is on its very active Facebook page.
This Year’s Grand Marshal
“Sailor, painter, designer, rigging specialist, volunteer, community leader and all around good guy Paul Kreiling” will be the Grand Marshal at this year’s Maritime Festival Parade, which steps off at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20 at Main and Broad streets, continuing down Main Street to Front Street and Mitchell Park. Mr. Kreiling has been very a very active volunteer for the museum and member of the museum’s board for years.
“Paul Kreiling served as a member of the Board of Trustees for seven years, four of which in the role of President from 2019 to 2022,” said East End Seaport Museum Board President Sarah Mills Sands. “During his time with the Board, Paul used his creativity, graphic and artistic skills to transform the museum exhibitions into vibrant, storytelling experiences that feature the people and history of the East End maritime environment, Paul continues in the role of Volunteer Curator designing new exhibits, updating on-going exhibits and connecting the Museum with important items for our collection. In addition, Paul is an undying advocate for the Museum’s role as steward of Long Beach Bar (Bug) Light and its iconic position as a treasured community resource at the entry to Peconic Bay.”
“He’s done every display in the museum and has collected the history of this place. He’s the heart of the museum — he’s responsible for all the stories, videos and displays. He’s always available,” said board Vice Chair Joan Ripley. “He’s taken the kids out seining and knows a lot about the environment. It’s great to have him to work with for the education component.”
As the parade draws to a close, follow participants from Sts. Anargyroi, Taxiarchis & Gerasimos Church down to the end of Main Street for their annual Blessing of the Waters, in which a young parishioner jumps into the harbor to retrieve a blessed cross.
Or continue down to Mitchell Park to cheer on your favorite Merry Merfolk in the annual contest for the best piratical paraders at noon.
Cardboard Boat Regatta Gets Competitive
The competition is always fierce at Maritime’s Cardboard Regatta, to be held this year on Sunday, Sept. 21. This year’s race, now in its third year, will be held at Noon on Sunday, with registration at the waterfront being held from 10 to 11 a.m.
“We’ve really upped the ante with the Cardboard Boat Regatta this year. We’re hoping for a big crowd, and we’ve had lots of great energy around it already,” said Ms. Kimmel, who added that this year’s regatta will be sponsored by the Greenport Harbor Brewing Company.
Robert Vitelli of the LGBT network, who serves as the MC of North Fork Pride, will be the MC for this year’s regatta.
“He was such a great MC for NOFO Pride that he’s gonna bring his humor, quick wit and warmth to one of our signature events,” said Ms. Kimmel.
Find out the rules, register, and build your boat!
Music in Mitchell Park
Ethel’s Mermen, a group of great singers who surprised the crowd at North Fork Pride in June with an impromptu concert of spicy sea shanties in Mitchell Park, will be able to leave the lawn for the stage for a concert of sea shanties at 1 p.m. on Saturday, followed by louder electrified sea shanties by Bangers & Mash from 2 to 5 p.m. On Sunday at 1 p.m. Fiddler’s Green will also perform sea shanties on the Mitchell Park stage.
As always, downtown Greenport will be filled with craft vendors and food trucks and food, oyster, wine & beer tastings. The East End Seaport Museum on Third Street will be open, along with the Village Blacksmith Shop on First Street (Behind Aldo’s) and the Stirling Historical Society at 319 Main Street. Kayak races will be held on Saturday at 2 p.m., Snapper Fishing Contests will be held on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. and the Paul Drum Pirate & Mermaid Breakfast will be held on Sunday at 10 a.m. at Front Street Station. The festival comes to a close Sunday with the drawings of the Greenport Fire Department Raffle in front of Colonial Drug on Front Street at 4 p.m., followed by the Eastern Long Island Hospital “Dream Green” raffle drawing at the OpShop at 321 Main Street at 4:30 p.m.
For the full schedule of all that is happening at the Maritime Festival visit the East End Seaport Museum’s website.
A Celebration Under the Sea
The community turned out Friday evening, Sept. 12 to celebrate the village’s nautical history at the annual Land & Sea Gala in advance of the Maritime Festival.
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