TOBAY Beach

Part of living in Syosset for almost four decades means I basically grew up spending endless summer days at TOBAY, that strip of Jones Beach where Town of Oyster Bay residents can sunbathe along the Atlantic Ocean.

I taught my "Upstate NY" husband, Tom, how we Syossetites schlep to the beach: cooler filled with drinks and snacks, portable chairs, towels, blanket, sunscreen… park near the first Ocean Parkway underpass, head to the right of the concession stand.

When I was younger, my friends and I would hang a "left" near the volleyball nets and boogie boards.  I even remember taking the bus from Broadway Mall (previously Mid-Island) that pulled into Field 4.  But once we learned to drive, it was TOBAY for us.

Even though the fireworks show was canceled, the weather was glorious this holiday weekend, and our family kept our tradition, excited to be back on the beach another year.

There have been many changes on the beach over the decades. The St. Mark's of Venice replica, encased in scaffolding with green top off, is getting a facelift.

The beach seems narrow as the water creeps closer to the dunes. Even the concession stand has an awning to protect from sun and seagulls. People were buying Chicago-style hot dogs from the new Just Dogs stand at the mouth of the underpass. And across to the bay side, there's Singletons Seafood or Salsa Shack restaurants.

But, one of our favorite things is to check if Roda is still there.

A few hundred feet off shore, straight south from the concession stand, Roda is a cargo ship that has been shipwrecked for 102 years.

The posted sign tells the seafaring tale:

Late at night on February 13, 1908, a thick fog settled on the Atlantic Ocean near the shore of what was then called High Hill Life Saving Station before developer Robert Moses created Jones Beach in the latter part of the 1920s.  

Roda was a 315-foot-long, 44-foot English freighter built in 1897.  Apparently, the tramp steamer was from Huelva, Spain carrying a cargo of $22,680 worth of copper ore.  The ship hopped over an outer sandbar and got trapped between an inner sandbar and the beach.

The story goes that on February 14^th, Captain Stephen Austin, "keeper" of the Jones Beach Station and Captain Clarence W. Chichester, keeper of the Zach's Inlet (the water surrounding Jones Beach Theatre) tried to help the stuck "Roda. Men rowed out to the ship in surfboats and tried to free the steamer.  Realizing it was not budging, they recommended that Captain W. J. Beaven start evacuating. Capt. Beaven refused, not allowing anyone to leave the ship.

The next day, tugboats arrived trying to dislodge the Roda. After two stormy days, Capt. Beaven finally began evacuating the crew. And records indicate that at 11 a.m. on February 16^th, 1908, Capt. Beaven abandoned his post and came ashore to Long Island.  

Apparently, it took seven trips to get all 26 crew off the ship at an estimated loss of $80,000.

When it's low tide, you can see the smoke stack like a fixed black buoy sticking up out of the water. At really low tide the bow and stern can be seen as well.

Sometimes, I imagine the crew on that ship.

In Antonio Banderas' Spanish accent I hear Capt. Beaven: "I will not get offa this boat, until they build Jones Beach."

"But sir, that won't start for 18 more years," says the first mate.

"We will wait."

"It will take three years to complete and then many people will come from all over, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan. People will enjoy coming here."

"Huh? What will they do, these people?"

"They will sit on the clean white sandy shore that Robert Moses will import and plant beach grass on purpose on the dunes to keep it in place. They will bake in the sun half-clothed and wade in the water."

"This deserted sandbar is good real estate, No? I will not leava this ship."

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"Mom, do you think they found any treasure on that shipwreck?" Robert said, pulling me out of my daydream.

"I think they probably took it all off when they left," I said.

With every single wave—day in, day out for a century—all those storms surging and hurricanes that have blown through, it seems impossible that it's still stuck there. But it is, and no one could pry the ship from the sandbar leaving a legacy of old and new at TOBAY.