HERO OR SCOUNDREL? a Visit to Ocean City for Two Or Three by George Kurz Days Became an Annual Tradition for Us
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Volume 12 Number 104 June 2018 HERO OR SCOUNDREL? A visit to Ocean City for two or three by George Kurz days became an annual tradition for us. Each time we saw the jagged metal out “I wonder what those iron pipes in the ocean, one of us was sure to sticking out of the water out there are,” comment, “Our shipwreck’s still there,” I mused to Elisabeth on our initial visit or “I wonder if they will ever clean it to Ocean City, NJ, in March 1982. up.” Why would anyone want to go to Ocean City in March! For us, the On about our 15th visit to Ocean City, occasion was our honeymoon, and we the beach was a beehive of activity. were intent on enjoying every minute, Enormous pipelines ran virtually the full riding our bicycles, walking the length of the beach. Noisy earthmoving boardwalk, flying kites on the beach, equipment was pushing sand and never giving a second thought to everywhere. Strange-appearing ships sat the wintry weather. far offshore near the north end of the island. “Oh, they’re sucking up sand From where we stood on the from the bottom of the ocean out there,” boardwalk near 17th Street, only a we were told. “The beach is going to be narrow stretch of beach separated us restored.” Ocean City was at last from the edge of the ocean, even correcting decades of erosion of its though the tide was low. The strange beaches. pattern of twisted metal easily visible between the breakers was probably a When we returned the following year, mere 75 yards away from us. A sign the change was dramatic. The level of on the beach warned swimmers to stay the sand under the boardwalk was a clear of the area. good eight or ten feet higher than it had been. Just beyond the boardwalk, there “Could they be part of an old was a new sand dune. Whereas shipwreck?” Elisabeth asked. previously the water came right in under the boardwalk and at high tide waves “I’ll bet they could,” I responded. often splashed against the bulkheads protecting homes in that area, now the ocean’s edge was nearly 100 yards headed for the museum. There we found beyond the boardwalk, even at high a sizable exhibit devoted to the Sindia. tide. Ocean City’s beach restoration Pictures of the ship showed her project had been a success. Our magnificence with three square-rigged “shipwreck” had completely forward masts and a gaff-rigged disappeared. We had no idea whether mizzenmast. Many objects recovered it had been removed or was just from the ship were on display, including covered by sand. fine china cups and saucers. The boardwalk has several wooden The highlight of the museum’s exhibit pavilions that project out over the was a video which included the voices, beach, providing lovely places to sit in recorded in 1959, of two eyewitnesses the shade and enjoy the sound of to the shipwreck. One man told how as waves and seagulls. One of these a boy he could see the stranded ship out pavilions prominently displayed its his window from his home on Asbury name in large capital letters: SINDIA. Avenue. A nearby sign marked the location of the wreck on December 15, 1901, of It was all very convincing—convincing, the Sindia, a four-masted steel bark that is, until our next trip to Ocean City. built in Ireland in 1887. According to When I mentioned my interest in the the sign, she was carrying a cargo of ship to the owner of the bed and porcelain, fine China, manganese ore, breakfast where we stayed, whom I and other items from Kobe, Japan, to shall call Leonard, he came alive. “The New York under the command of Sindia was the largest ship under sail in Captain Allen McKenzie when she ran the world,” he claimed. “She had an aground in a storm. Stuck on the sand experienced captain who would know for three or four days, she eventually he wasn’t at New York City. He could split in two and flooded. Most of the see the Atlantic City lighthouse from far cargo was lost, but there was no loss of out and would know where Ocean City life, thanks to the heroic efforts of the was. Ocean City Life Saving Station. “Besides,” Leonard continued, “He The entire wreck, including the bit that came in under full sail. I’ve checked the had projected above the water in years weather records, and there’s no record past, was indeed buried in sand. of any severe storm at that time.” Visitors were referred to the Ocean City Historical Museum for more “I don’t get it. Why then was the Sindia information. wrecked?” I asked. Elisabeth knew I was hooked. We took “According to the ship’s manifest, she our bikes, left the boardwalk, and was carrying 200 tons of manganese,” 2 Leonard elucidated. “None of that was the whole story. It would be an ever recovered. I’ve researched the expensive project, but it would be newspaper accounts. What really fascinating. We would expect the sale of mattered was 72 tons of silver coins the cargo to cover the cost and yield a from China. Yes, the crew was all handsome profit as well. Can you rescued, but the officers stayed on imagine the tourists wanting to watch? board till those silver coins were all Why, money could be made just selling brought ashore.” T-shirts!” With that, Leonard reached onto a I decided to ask Leonard no further shelf in his kitchen and produced a questions, although several were on my silver coin, about the size of a half- mind. Would he someday organize an dollar. It had Chinese writing on one excavation of the Sindia? Was he side, English on the other. “Are you probing for people who might be willing saying this was one of the coins on the to invest in his dream project? There Sindia?” I inquired. could be no doubting that her cargo included fine china. We had seen “No. But it’s one like the coins that the examples in the museum. But could captain brought in. He had on board Leonard prove his theory that the ship his own personal cargo which he had, instead of the manganese on its insured separately, not with the manifest, a cargo of contraband, which insurance for the regular cargo. led the captain, fearing detection were Actually, the cargo was largely he to land in New York, to decide his contraband from Shanghai where chances were better if he deliberately vendors were selling goods for five ran his ship aground? cents on the dollar. He had the cargo in huge cartons. The money that captain In short, was Captain McKenzie a hero, made went to finance oil exploration in as one might conclude from reading the Oklahoma by Rockefeller.” sign along the Ocean City boardwalk, or actually a scoundrel? It may take many “Are you saying the ship was wrecked decades of natural beach erosion and/or deliberately, Leonard?” I asked an enterprising archaeological team, but incredulously. I hope one day we will know the answer to the mysterious shipwreck of the “Due diligence has not been Sindia. exercised,” Leonard went on, ignoring my question. “Probably one-third is ***** still in the ship under the sand. BEYOND THE PARKWAY Cofferdams would have to be built by Kay Silberfeld around the area, the sand removed, and the ship emptied before we would have It was a question I hadn’t considered until a recent exchange of emails with a 3 close friend from childhood. How was wouldn’t say, “Oh those Jews. they it possible that in the late 1930s, my don’t know how to behave properly.” Jewish grandfather was able to purchase property in Greenwich, CT, a While I was in elementary school in town known for its anti-Semitism? The Greenwich, my non-Greenwich same friend told me that she used to grandmother came with my mother to hear her mother refer to “those people pick me up. Apparently, she then told who lived beyond the parkway.” my parents they could not keep me in “Beyond the parkway” was a phrase I that school because she had not seen had never heard before, but, indeed, any other Jewish children there (I was that’s where my grandfather’s property not the only one). I didn’t change was and where I lived as a child. It schools, but the question itself indicates also explains why none of my (gentile) the uneasiness of the time and the school friends lived nearby and why variety of attitudes in my family. there had been a gradual influx of Looking back now, I’m glad I was so other Jewish families into our area. unaware of being different (Jewish). It amazes me now how ignorant I was, The “beyond the parkway” property was particularly for someone growing up a wonderful place to grow up. And I during WWII. My first awareness of was further fortunate that the principal any distinction between myself as a of the school I went to in Greenwich Jew and non-Jews occurred when I was accepting of all individual was about 11 years old. A gentile differences. One after-effect of all this is friend invited me to go to a dance at my hesitation even now to say that I’d the Greenwich Country Club. Next lived in Greenwich as a child.