One if by land, two if by sea

We came upon this sketch of the waters off the Greenport Pier, fanciful as it may seem to most, in a collection of photos found at Floyd Library.  We get spoiled a bit with our "mind's eye" view of seaports, all bustling with whaling ships and big sailing vessels from Europe.  The truth in the matter is far more practical and in that light, much more personal.

These aren't whaling vessels; not by a long shot.  The are, instead, schooners (some topsail schooners) and were the modern equal to short haul freight trucks. This type of vessel was hugely popular because they were fast and did well with the wind.  There are a lot of folks locally who can give chapter and verse on the intricacies of schooner construction and handling prowess so we will leave that to more experienced hands.  What we do note is that the waters off Greenport Pier were deep and protected and that, after 1844 (approaching the hay day of schooner popularity and construction), could dock a short distance from the mainline of the railroad that led directly to the  Vanderbuilt Yards in Brooklyn and then by ferry to New York City.  This transportation "fact" saved sailing time and made Greenport a great place for off-loading cargo.  If you think about it the Long Island Railroad runs to the shoreline ending at a dock that can accommodate these vessels only here in Greenport.  This was a natural connection.

We  think about this scene from nearly a couple centuries back. Harbor full of craft of all sorts. Schooners arriving constantly from Connecticut and points east - even Bermuda or the continent.  A harbor that represented the commercial world, offloading items great and small, with a swift transfer a short distance west to a set of iron rails that moved a ship full of stuff to distant New York in the course of a morning and brought things unimaginable from the factories and shops 100 miles to the west, all to find their places in this busy harbor for return trips to who knows where.

(by the way, many thanks for the correction ... a well versed reader commented below that the Atlantic end of the line was really the Vanderbilt railyards. I regret the error but we never regret the correction and are thankful for it.)

Ship Chandlers

Greenport had one and if you aren't sure what they are (they still exist in our village but not like way back then) they are specialty stores that supply things for ships - or in our present era - boats.  When Greenport was a very active port the chandlery store was a big time operation but, as all things shipping waned a bit, these stores had to diversify.

We noted this intriguing store pictured in some local archives.  We can travel to Main St. now and find it, another name on the sign but clearly still part of our village.  This particular chandlery was owned by Mr. J.P. Grady who was a yacht broker - as of 1910 anyway and perhaps this store was just an offshoot of his business as S.T. Preston's, almost next door, was the big dog chandlery in town and had been for half a century when this picture was taken.

We found Mr. Grady in a 1910 phone book. No number but we did some research and as it appears just under 300 folks and businesses here in town had a phone, sorting though to find Mr. Grady's listing didn't take much time and the operator just connected folks by name anyway.  Mr. Preston and a Mr. George Volkman over on Central Avenue were the only chandlers listed as such. We had a couple liquor distributors, three attorneys and a company that made small engines.

Phones were pretty much confined to the north road, main and front streets, central avenue and 1st Street with a smattering on 5th and 6th and Wiggins.  A few, like Mr. Bartlett, didn't have one at his home but at his office at the First National Bank Building which we think is now on the spot occupied by Capital One but will have to go inspect that and find out....there is always an engraved block of granite somewhere if there is a bank...they seem to go hand in hand or hand in glove perhaps is a better expression.

Looking closely at the picture we can see the telephone wires in place and the possibility of a telephone pole upper right.  We will inspect the pole that is in place at that location and see if it yields any clues.  We will be looking for a NYTelephone tag on it - that would be something - as that wonderful former part of Ma Bell was in the directory as well.