By Anthony Rifilato
Scott Tuomey, a Baldwin resident and a nautical buff, wiped sweat from his brow as he and the truck operator laboriously maneuvered the nearly 100-year-old anchor onto the 20-foot truck.
"I don't know how these guys did it," Tuomey said, referring to the generation that manufactured the anchor. "How they moved this around beats me."
As the truck's conveyer slowly dragged the anchor forward, its tail ripped a deep line in Tuomey's front lawn at 225 Milburn Ave., as the flatbed elevated, heaved and lowered the nearly 10-foot anchor -- not to mention its 2,000-pound, 125-foot chain -- into proper position. Finally, the anchor, along with several other gigantic items, was ready to be driven away to East Rockaway, to be part of that town's revitalized waterfront.
"It's going to be your average front lawn for now," Tuomey said.
Toumey's home has been anything but average. The anchor has been on his property since late last year, where it was placed prominently on his front lawn, along with a 36,000-pound ship safe from the 1800s in the form of diver's bell, as well as other eye-catching relics, which turned his modest home on the corner of Atlantic Avenue into a nautical museum of sorts. As a result, Toumey has become something of a minor celebrity in town.
Originally from Hempstead, the 32-year-old has been salvaging antique treasures from shipyards and auctions for years. He bought the anchor from a private seller last year, and found other items, many of them hundreds of years old, such as the dive bell, at an abandoned marina in Island Park. In an attempt to turn his hobby into a lucrative business, he sold the dive bell and several other items to Paddy McGee's restaurant in Island Park last year. Last month, Tuomey sold the anchor and other nautical artifacts to the Village of East Rockaway, which the village said will complement its waterfront revitalization project.
"They're going to put up a plaque with my name on it," Tuomey said, a bit shyly. "It's really cool."
Tuomey, a self-employed buyer, seller and restorer of boats, has been trying to sell the anchor and other items for some time. But the offers he was getting, he said, were insulting. Because people didn't want to pay the right price, he held out, knowing that the items were too important to be sold to just anybody.
"People were telling me to take their offer, that I would never sell them," Tuomey said. "But I knew that the right person would come along and appreciate it."
In July, when he found out about East Rockaway's waterfront project, Tuomey wrote letters to East Rockaway Mayor Joseph Carrigan. Two months later, he got a response. "When these things came to our attention, our building superintendent and architects flipped over them," Carrigan said. "They said these would be perfect."
The village bought two 1,500- to 1,800-pound ship ballards, or cleats; a 2,000-pound ship's bit, which is found on the bow of a boat and secures the anchor; and the anchor itself, for $6,500.
"I was kind of shocked and extremely pleased," Tuomey said. "To know that I owned them and placed them in a good home is important to me, because I don't want to see them get destroyed."
Carrigan said that the pieces would be an asset to the $3 million to $4 million waterfront project, scheduled to be completed in 2004. While the items will be stored until next year, the mayor said the anchor will eventually be placed in the center of the parking area, surrounded by a manicured garden and the anchor's chain.
"The anchor is certainly the centerpiece, that's for sure," Carrigan said.
Now that he has sold all of his most cherished items, Tuomey's lawn will be bare, and he is selling his home and leaving Baldwin because he wants to live, for obvious reasons, closer to the water. While he will continue salvaging nautical paraphernalia, he said it hurts just a little to part with items he spent so much time and effort recovering and restoring. But in the end, he said, it was worth it. "That's the peace I have, knowing that they will be in East Rockaway," Tuomey said. "I can always go visit."
