True Stories of Old Sag Harbor

Whaling Adventures, Indians and Colonists, Wars, Shipwrecks, Writer and ArtistsJim Marquardt explores the fascinating history of the Village in a series of colorful stories, from the Indians and colonists to whaling, wars, shipwrecks, writers and artists. Did you know that at one time whaling was the third largest industry in the United States? Or that Sag Harbor sailors jumped ship and became kings of South Seas islands? Or that wives sometimes sailed with their captain husbands on three-year voyages? Rather than a broad-stroke history, the entertaining stories cover a variety of personal accounts and incidences that vividly illustrate the lives of earlier Harborites, like the indefatigable Captain Thomas Royce who was first to hunt whales in the Bering Sea, or the friendship between Chief Wyandanch and Lion Gardiner, or the Harbor journalist sued by Alexander Hamilton, or the lighthouse that may have caused a shipwreck. Copies of True Stories of Old Sag Harbor are available on line and at local bookstores and at the Historical Society. Jack Youngs, president of the Historical Society says that "It doesn't matter how many generations you've been here, it's always good reading when Jim dips his pen in the ink." The more than 70 essays in the book are organized into six sections: Sag Whalers Sailed the World, Native Americans and Colonial Life, Sag Harbor in War, Living With the Sea, Business Enterprises, Writers Artists and Personalities, and Homes and Places.