Hauling down the Flag And Other Stuff

By Lew Werner

1998 

Ralph didn't ask me to do an article for this issue of Hi Tidings, but he did hint that maybe the commodore should write something, so here goes. As I guess most of you know, I am a devout dock rat. My earliest recollections are of the Manor dock. I grew up at the dock, learned to swim at the dock, learned to sail at the dock, went there all summer and after school in the spring and fall, went out on the ice in the Bay in winter, never missed a storm or hurricane. Generations of dock rats came before me and will come after me. We are kindred souls, but what happens to dock rats when they grow up? The answer is some do and some don't. How- ever, the great majority of them do very well. Some are doctors (Lisanne Lange), lawyers (Ali Akpinari) and some are Indian chiefs (John Dietz). But wherever they're coming from, they all seem to come back to this wonderful place, maybe to watch the sunset and remember.  

Well I remember Henry Dodge, dockmaster from the early thirties to maybe the early fifties. (No, I don't remember the thirties.) You could always tell summer was coming when Henry's car showed up the dock. Henry did everything- scraped and painted all the steel I beams under the dock, plus the pipe railings; prepared the wood boats and wood gangways; set all the moorings; painted the lockers; painted and caulked the three wood Manor boats; and on top of that ran the launch!! Henry could roll a cigarette with one hand. Some of his favorite words were Off dat wheel! to kids on bikes, Brring dat boot in! to kids playing in the Manor boat, and Goddamn kids will be ass ober tea- kettle in a minute. Henry was a German national and prohibited from running the launch during the war when the Squadron began to provide launch service (I guess they thought he would contact German subs in the Bay). This is when the Squadron began to provide launch service. Henry was my mentor and I guess he taught me to do things myself, the hard way!!! I just never learned to delegate.  

Where the heck am I going with this ? I suppose it's to explain that my life has been the dock and Bay. Everything I've been has some- thing to do with boats. In the army I had a month at sea on a troop ship! On the police force I was in the harbor unit! On the Hudson in World

Yacht dinner boats! On the Manor board as piers and beach chairman (no fun)! And dockmaster for two years! ! Over to Ray Langley. Mooring man extraordinaire and another mentor, until one cold November day in 1987, looking at his sunken workboat in a Bay busy imitating the North Atlantic seas, he said "How would you like a mooring business?" We shook hands and Ray went to Siesta Key in Florida where he and wife Dolores live happily to this day!!! And so Homeport was born eleven years ago and I now have a similar state of mind as November moves to December with great speed (Siesta Key?).  

Now I know what hauling down the flag has to do with all this!!! It means after two years as Commodore (not fun, but proud to be) I was bringing to a close a long time of service and looking forward with great joy to a summer of my own, leaving the Bay at will and returning to one mooring, not a hundred. Now to the flag!! The commodore, vice-commodore, and rear Commodore are flag officers in the Squadron. These flags are flown at the yardarm of the flagpole at the dock when the officer is present. Mine has been hauled down for the last time with I hope some honor and with great relief. I know Commodore Moravek will bring much respected organizational skills to the Squadron. Please give him your support and if you are not v member, join!!! See you at sea! !(Siesta Key?)