My Tern

[Sumpter250]

It's scary when you realize what people used to travel across the oceans. Take a look at the replica of Henry Hudson's Half Moon. I've been on it and it's not much bigger than the average boat in a Marina.

It is when you finally do realize, what people used, to travel across the oceans in the age of sail, that you truly begin to appreciate what the Founding Fathers of this nation risked, to escape the religious persecution of Europe, and to establish this great nation.

One of the very first models I ever built was a sailing ship....in fact, a two mast schooner. That little block of wood, with its little "stick" spars, was all of maybe 4" in length, and, I think only I knew, that it was meant to be a schooner.
My love of the sea, and my knowledge of sailing craft has only grown, and keeps on growing, since those days.
It took , New York Central steam, working up the Croton river, out of Croton Falls, N.Y. to get me started in model railroading. The final step "over the edge" was watching a Long Island Railroad Steam loco, pull into Bridgehampton station, pulling a passenger train out from Babylon, on the way to Montauk. We had gone to the summer cottage on Noyac Bay, and my father had come out by train to joins us. We were waiting for him at Bridgehampton.
I guess it was also my love of the sea, that influenced my decision to enlist in the Navy, back in 1961. Yes, I do miss the "salt water". Lake Michigan is the closest thing to an ocean that I can regularly visit now.