200 Plus
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•August 20, 2015
‘Goths’ and ‘Vandals’ Plunder Wrecked Ships
In December 1834, the federal government had sent ships, including the armed revenue cutter Alert, into Barnegat Bay to round up dozens of local citizens accused of being the infamous Barnegat…
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•August 13, 2015
Tracking Down the Barnegat Pirates
It was the fall, of 1834 and a group of criminals known as the Barnegat Pirates led by a corrupt county judge, had robbed ships and crews stranded on the beaches of the Jersey Shore. In October they…
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•August 6, 2015
Beware Pirates North of the Inlet
In the mid-1800s, the state of New Jersey had investigated charges that its coastline was populated with cutthroats known as “Barnegat Pirates”; its conclusion was that they were a myth propagated by…
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•July 30, 2015
Barnegat Pirates Fact or Fiction?
A recent Internet poll declared New Jersey is the most disliked state in the nation; last year Ocean County was named the most dangerous place in the country to live. Is this negative view of the…
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•July 23, 2015
Nuclear ‘Cleanup’ Leaves Many Questions
In June 1960, the people of the eastern United States, especially those in Ocean County, breathed a sigh of relief after a possible nuclear accident apparently had been avoided. Earlier, a Bomarc…
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•July 16, 2015
Broken Arrow: Nuclear Incident or Minor Accident?
For several hours on June 7, 1960, the world held its breath as one of the 56 Bomarc missiles carrying a nuclear warhead caught fire inside its concrete coffin in Plumsted Township off Route 539 in…
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•July 9, 2015
Missile Explodes in the Pine Barrens
It was the spring of 1960, and many Americans lived in fear of nuclear war. A young senator from Massachusetts had coined the term “missile gap” and was using the fear of Soviet military superiority…
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•June 29, 2015
The Cold War in the Pines
The 1950s was a time of great optimism for Southern Ocean County. Talks were underway for replacing the old wooden causeway with the new, modern span; others were devising a plan to bring all of the…
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•June 25, 2015
Constitution‘s War Finally Over
In March 1815, Capt. Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution, who was born in Philadelphia but would live in Bordentown, N.J., for over 50 years, found himself in a dangerous position. The captain…
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•June 18, 2015
Big Trouble for the Constitution
The USS Constitution had left Boston in December 1814, as negotiators in Belgium were putting the final touches on the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. By February 1815, as the nation…
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•June 10, 2015
Old Ironsides Finds a Foe
The USS Constitution had set out on her final wartime voyage in mid-December 1814, shortly after the American delegates in Ghent, Belgium, signed a treaty ending the War of 1812. Capt. Charles…
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•June 4, 2015
Old Ironsides Goes Looking for a Fight
When you think of New Jersey’s early naval heroes, the names Lawrence, Bainbridge, and Somers are the first to come to mind. But the name Charles Stewart is usually associated with Philadelphia…
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•May 27, 2015
Dynamite in the Pines Ends With a Whimper
One of the great recurring stories of the Jersey Pine Barrens is the many attempts to profit from them, whether it’s from natural resources such as timber, iron and water or its remoteness. It was…
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•May 21, 2015
Dynamite Death Toll Continues to Rise
When you live in an age where a container of kitty litter carries the message “Warning children can fall into bucket and drown keep children away from a bucket with even a small amount of liquid,”…
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•May 14, 2015
Dynamite Works Undeterred by Explosions
The winter sun had just set over the Jersey Pines in January 1886 and all was quiet. Then, according to the Trenton Times of Jan. 16, “The Telephone Exchange was called up on Friday evening by the…
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•May 7, 2015
‘Flood Rock’ Blown to Bits
Throughout the summer of 1885, about 20 workers at the Germania site of the United States Dynamite Co., just west of Toms River, were engaged in important but dangerous work. They were preparing…
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•April 30, 2015
An Explosive Secret in the Pine Barrens
Through the years the Pine Barrens of Ocean County have hidden many secrets from prying eyes. Whether it was producing poison gas for czarist Russia, or hiding nuclear missiles from the Soviets or…
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•April 23, 2015
Heading Home to ‘God’s Country’ at Last
Peace and home are just words to those who have never served in combat; to those who have, they are experiences. For the most part, the Civil War in the East was over after the surrender of Lee and…
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•April 9, 2015
Did Battle of the Wives Change History?
In a quiet section of the Burlington, N.J., historic district stands a modest, two-story house; in front is a sign that states it was the home of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant during the latter days of the…
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•April 2, 2015
The Noose Tightens Around Lee’s Army
Richmond had fallen after almost four years of futile attacks by the Union Army. The war would continue because the main Confederate force, under Robert E. Lee, was retreating to the west and the…
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•March 26, 2015
Grant and Sherman Close in on Lee
By March 1865, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s strategy of attacking the Confederacy on all fronts was beginning to succeed. The 9th New Jersey had landed on the coast of North Carolina, as it had done…
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•March 19, 2015
Would New Jersey Support Slavery?
The year 1865 would bring major changes to the United States and its people. Some of them are well known; others have been lost with the modern interpretation of history.
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•March 12, 2015
Lt. Drake Finally Makes It Home
In 1861 and ’62, the men of Ocean County had joined the Army to preserve the country they loved; by 1865, they were fighting and dying to free a people that few of them had met or even seen. By that…
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•March 5, 2015
The Truth About ‘Barnegat Pirates’
Most shipwreck stories end with the rescue of the last survivor or the disappearance of the ship beneath the waves. But the grounding of the three-masted ship Georgia on the southern end of LBI has…
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•February 26, 2015
Did Life-Car or Lifeboat Save Wreck Victims?
There are countless tales of shipwrecks on the Jersey Shore, but the wreck of the ship Georgia, at the southern end of LBI, has generally slipped through the cracks of history. The story involves one…
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•February 19, 2015
Life Saving Stations Come to LBI
While the use of the life car in saving 200 lives from the ship Ayrshire in 1850 is well known and the car is in the Smithsonian Institution, the first major use of the apparatus on LBI is less…
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•February 12, 2015
Francis Life Car Proves Its Worth
During the night of Jan. 12, 1850, in a blinding snowstorm, events played out on a New Jersey beach at a town called Squan – which sounds more like part of a Hollywood script then history, but it did…
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•February 5, 2015
Immigrants’ Voyage No Vacation Cruise
The background for the events of the night of Jan. 12, 1850, on the Jersey coast at a place then called Squan is still being debated. But one thing is clear: The vision that Dr. William Newell had…
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•January 29, 2015
Just Who Invented the Life Car?
The wreck of the immigrant ship Ayrshire on the Jersey Shore was one of the first tests of the volunteer lifesaving service proposed by ex-Manahawkin doctor and Congressman William A. Newell. It was…
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•January 22, 2015
No Merriment in This Christmas
The American Civil War was finally winding down. The Union had captured Atlanta, and William Tecumseh Sherman was marching through Georgia. Abraham Lincoln had won reelection in November, and his…