64 COMMERCE, NAVIGATION AND FISHERIES. 



Orient, at the places previously named on both the north and south side of 

 the county, many thousands of tons of shipping, comprising the smallest 

 class of boats and yachts and rising to the majesty of one " big ship" that 

 never floated, but actually including a ship of over 2,000 tons, have been 

 added to the mercantile marine of our country. In the construction of 

 these vessels large quantities of Long Island grown oak, chestnut and lo- 

 cust timber have been used. There are now on the books of the Survey- 

 or's office at Greenport 235 steam and sailing vessels aggregating 15,268.- 

 82 tons engaged in actual and active commerce ; at Sag Harbor 20 vessels 

 with an aggregate tonnage of 1,063.44 ; at Patchogue there has been a 

 steady increase from 57 vessels and 934 tons in 1875 to 203 vessels and 

 2,611.53 tons in 1883 ; at Port Jeff"erson there are 114 vessels and 14,858 

 tons; at Cold Spring 99 vessels and 4,574.82 tons. This makes an 

 aggregate of 671 vessels and 39,376.61 tons of shipping owned mostly in 

 this county and engaged actively in commerce or the fisheries, manned by 

 several thousands of Suffolk County's hardy seamen. The number of these 

 seafaring men who are residents of our county is not definitely known, but I 

 estimate it to be close upon 3,000, or about one-third of the active male 

 inhabitants. 



A few words ought to be given to the specific matter of aids to navi- 

 gation through the waters in and about this county. It was not till near 

 the close of the last century that the general government, to which the con- 

 stitution entrusts exclusive jurisdiction over the coastwise commerce and 

 navigation of the country, began to provide light-houses, beacons and 

 buoys for lighting and marking the coasts and channels of the waters of 

 this county. Previously, for over a hundred years from the first settle- 

 ment, the daring and adventurous men who went down to the sea on ships 

 from our ports made their voyages without any of these aids to navigation. 

 Long Island Sound, not less than the northern seaboard and the eastern 

 bays, lay in darkness and in uncharted obscurity so far as can now be 

 learned. Mariners upon its broad bosom had to steer their courses and 

 note their distances unhelped by any other resources than their own quick 

 eye and ready memory. Many year later, when much had been done in 

 the direction of supplying this need, Daniel Webster remarked in substance 

 that L. I. Sound ought to be lighted as brilliantly as a ball room. This 

 was said in view of the large growth to which its commerce had then at- 

 tained, long before Hell Gate improvements had been begun. Could he have 

 lived to see the immense expansion which has gone on since that day and 

 to note how vast the tide of tonnage that constantly flows up and down 

 this noble arm of the sea, how much more of emphasis and weight might not 

 have been added to his notable saying. The federal government has from 

 time to time expended considerable sums in providing light-houses and 

 light-vessels for points of prominent exposure on or off" the coasts of Long 

 Island, and it has been liberal in placing buoys to mark the channels of its 

 bays, and creeks, but there are other places that still need attention, and the 

 necessity of one or more harbors of refuge on the long stretch of coast be- 

 tween Orient Point and Port Jefferson Bay grows yearly greater. It has 

 done an excellent work in improving the entrance to the last named 

 bay and it is now building a breakwater to preserve part 

 of the harbor at Greenport. Other points present claims to like 

 improvements — claims which sooner or later will be heeded. The first 

 light-house within the limits of the county was at Montauk, lighted for the 



