Historic LI oyster sloop being restored

Filled with memories, Mary Ellen Banfield watched as the Christeen -- the oldest oyster sloop in North America -- was gently lowered into the Sound Saturday, part of a ceremony to celebrate its newly completed restoration and the rich history of Long Island's fishing industry.

"I grew up with this boat -- I got my sea legs on the Christeen," said Banfield, recalling her own family's past with the one-time shellfish-harvesting boat.

Now 52, Banfield clutched a small black-and-white photo of the sloop taken in the 1970s, when her father owned it and she was a teenager. Her tale was one of many shared by a crowd of 100 people who gathered at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park in Oyster Bay for its relaunch and to marvel at the boat's varied past.

Built in Glenwood Landing in 1883, the Christeen's crews spent decades raking up oysters and clams in Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor, helping to bring them to market along the Eastern Seaboard.

"Over the years, I've realized how this boat was part of the huge fishing industry in the past, which was the economic engine for hundreds of jobs on Long Island," said Pete Macandrew, the ship's head captain. He said the boat once could carry as many as 2 million oysters in its hull.

After falling into disrepair, the boat was rediscovered in the early 1990s -- long after Banfield's family sold it -- by a group of Oyster Bay environmental and boating enthusiasts who raised money for its original restoration completed by 1998.

Since then, the boat has offered educational tours of Oyster Bay to about 20,000 students and other passengers. It was pulled from the water last November for repairs after the lower portion started leaking.

Overseen by the Waterfront Center, a local maritime education nonprofit, the latest $250,000 restoration effort included replacement of the boat's original wooden keel, a new paint job and minor repairs and improvements.

"It's like having back surgery," Dave Waldo, the group's executive director, said about the keel replacement. A few metal fixtures are the only original parts of the boat. An updated mast will be installed Tuesday, Waldo said.

With a blast of water high into the air, firetrucks from three local departments Saturday provided the "wet down" for the Christeen as a way to mark the boat's rebirth. Someone placed a flowered wreath on the 32-foot vessel (nearly 50 feet with its extended bow). The crowd clapped and cheered as a motorized trailer carried the Christeen down the park's launch and lowered it into the chilly saltwater.

Bainfield, who climbed aboard, said her father used the boat for family outings in Sandy Hook, N.J., until 1976, after which the sloop saw a succession of owners. She thought the old boat had been lost to the sea and was thrilled when she recently learned of its revival.

"I'm just glad someone who loves her and is now taking care of her," she said.