Bill Bleyer to Publish Book on "Shipwrecks on Long Island"

By Leader Staff

Bill Bleyer, a local historian and Chair of Friends of the Bay, will be publishing a book on "Shipwrecks of Long Island" thanks to a generous grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.

The Riverhead-based Gardiner Foundation supports historical projects on Long Island and around the region, and has provided a $3,000 grant towards publication of “Shipwrecks of Long Island.”  The book is expected to be published by the History Press in late fall or early 2027.

The Gardiner Foundation grant was awarded to the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society, which is Bleyer’s nonprofit partner on the application.

The grant will allow the society and the author to purchase books from the publisher that they can sell to support their work.

The society and Bleyer previously teamed up to successfully apply for a Gardiner grant to underwrite publication of the “Fire Island Lighthouse: Long Island's Welcoming Beacon” which was published by the History Press in 2017.

"The Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society is excited to support another book written by author Bill Bleyer,” stated Jonathon Gaare, the Executive Director of the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. “With the completion of our lighthouses in 1826 and 1858, the amount of ships that wrecked on our shores drastically reduced. We are excited to learn the stories Bill will share with us." 

“These books are important for understanding the region's past,” added Bleyer. 

“Long Island's maritime history touches each community in its own way," stated Kathryn Curran, the executive director of the Gardiner Foundation. "Exploring these stories expands this heritage across our shores and offers insight into our local culture."

"Beyond the exciting and romantic stories of shipwrecks, this research tells of tragedy and loss, along with the commerce and economics that emerged around these events," added Curran. "The lost ships remaining off our shores add another dimension of this historical telling. Standing on either a north or south shore beach, knowing these stories of wrecks, you enter into to Long Island's rich maritime legacy."

Bill Bleyer was a staff writer for Newsday for 33 years specializing in history and maritime issues. He has written about Long Island during the Civil War, Sagamore Hill, the first complete maritime history of Long Island, the Culper Spy Ring, the 1840 wreck of the Steamboat Lexington on Long Island Sound and the Roosevelt family in New York City.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation was established in 1987 and supports the study of Long Island history and its role in the American experience. Robert David Lion Gardiner was, until his death in August 2004, the 16th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island. The Gardiner family and its descendants have owned Gardiner’s Island since 1639, obtained as part of a royal grant from King Charles I of England.