For over 125 years, the family of Harold “Harry” Stumme has worked as sailors, from the shores of Great South Bay to the distant seas of Europe and Asia.
Stumme spoke to about two-dozen people about his family’s history and the history of schooners in the Great South Bay during a lecture at the Long Island Maritime Museum on Feb. 8.
Born in Yaphank in 1874, Stumme’s grandfather, Herman, was the captain of his own sailing vessel, shipping cargoes of lumber, coal, and other commodities, according to his 1937 obituary. Stumme’s father, also named Herman, accompanied his parents and eight siblings on many of these journeys, often in the family boat, theAnni Louise,and later in life continued sailing in his own clamming boat in the Great South Bay.
But looking back on how his generation tackled the sailing industry, Stumme said his story stands out.
“Out of all the cousins pursuing maritime-related careers, I stand out as the saltiest,” Stumme joked.
Stumme, a graduate of SUNY Maritime College, worked in the sailing industry for 35 years in positions such as chief mate before retiring as a captain on cargo vessels traversing the globe.
In his personal and historical sailing stories, Stumme captures a life of excitement and a love for the trade.
One story Stumme shared with the audience began with a picture of Stumme grinning from ear to ear inside a ship’s bridge. The ship was sailing from Puerto Rico to New York during the January 1996 blizzard, which dropped around two feet of snow across the Northeast and produced wind gusts of 40 to 50 miles per hour.
Stumme and his crew rode through the storm’s eye for 18 hours amid horizontally falling precipitation and made it to New York on schedule, which made him grin and left a proud story for generations.
Some members of the audience were fellow SUNY Maritime graduates, friends, and even family members who have their own treasure trove of stories of Stumme’s travels over his life.
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