Introduction: Magnificent Examples of Marine Architecture
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From the latter part of the 19th century to the 1930s the big white night boats were the preferred way for many to travel between New York City and southern New England. Their reliability, comfort, size and impressive public salons made an indelible impression on generations of travelers until changing tastes, faster trains and burgeoning automobile culture led to their decline and disappearance.
The full story of the Long Island Sound night boats and their daytime itineraries is told in lavishly illustrated books by maritime historians, among them Norman Brouwer, Fred Erving Dayton, Edwin L. Dunbaugh, George W. Hilton and Roger Williams McAdam. They are described at the end of the exhibit.
Left: George H. Foster and Peter C. Weiglin's romantic title - Splendor Sailed the Sound - echoes the Golden Age recalled in this exhibit.
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The Golden Age of the Sound boats is also recounted in the unpublished memoirs of Ellery F. Thompson, who as a teenager worked aboard the City of Lowell. Long after the boats had sailed into history Ellery typed up his recollections for a sequel to his autobiographies, Draggerman's Haul and Come Aboard the Draggers. It was never published, but the typescripts are a trove of recollection by a keen observer who often encountered the boats throughout his years of commercial fishing in Block Island and Long Island Sounds.
Ellery Thompson's papers were preserved after his death by Marion Krepcio of Stonington, and since 2020 repose in the archives of the Mystic River Historical Society.
A selection of his unpublished typescripts at the Frank L. McGuire Maritime Library provides the foundation for this exhibition, which also draws upon the library's book holdings.
Below: Mystic River Historical Society borrowed Ellery's unpublished typescripts in 2006 for a series of excerpts edited by Marilyn Comrie and published in The Portersville Press.
Courtesy of Mystic River Historical Society
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Note: This exhibit complements one on Ellery Thompson's life as a fisherman, marine artist, and subject of a 1947 New Yorker profile. It may be viewed by selecting "Browse Exhibits" at the top of these pages and scrolling down to Ellery Thompson: Fisherman, Writer, Artist, and Free Spirit.
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