A visit to the Long Island Maritime Museum
Kidsday reporter Rhiannon Whelan outside the LI Maritime Museum in West Sayville. Credit: Sharon Whelan
The Long Island Maritime Museum in West Sayville is a great place to visit. The Museum’s mission is to preserve Long Island’s maritime history. The Maritime Museum has historical buildings and a beautiful beach and marshes to walk. It has a boat house with lots of wooden boats, an oyster house, a museum, and a historical Baymen’s Cottage from the 1800s that you can tour. My grandfather volunteers at the Maritime Museum, restoring really old wooden boats. I have visited him there and I saw how they used steam to bend wood into the right shape for a sailboat.
The Maritime Museum has a summer camp for kids with fun activities like crabbing, hiking, making crafts, learning about marine life, and visiting Sunken Forest on Fire Island. The Maritime Museum also has a Pirate Festival, a Seafood Festival, a Boat Burning, and activities for kids during the school breaks. In the nice weather, you can take a tour on their sailboat, called the Priscilla, which is an oyster sloop that was built in 1888. It is located: 86 West Ave., West Sayville. Call: 631-854-4974. The website: limaritime.org.
