Relay: A Suit of Armor, a Lost Propeller

An old religious statue goes missing from a Village of East Hampton bird sanctuary. A piece of a medieval suit of armor located in an East Hampton mansion walks off with an uninvited winter visitor. A 70-pound steel propeller vanishes from the corner of a village property.

These events all happened in East Hampton: One might guess the soil itself is the culprit, or maybe a salty sea wind from the south. A person might conjecture amusing mysteries are part and parcel of the place.

Religious Statue

An old beloved family dog kicks the bucket at a home somewhere in East Hampton. The owner buries the faithful family dog by the tree next to her house. The dog had many friends, mostly neighborhood children who visited it to play on their way home from school. As the children walked by the neighbor’s home, one child would say to another, “Let’s go play with Fido.” This went on for years andyears. The children caught wind of Fido’s demise!

The children schemed a proper tombstone to place at the dog’s burial spot. A religious statue remembered by few, in a bird sanctuary, was acquired on a quiet day when no one was looking. The 21/2-foot Christian statue made its way to the dog’s burial site by stealth of night.

The statue simply seemed to appear out of thin air atop the dog’s gravesite. Nobody said anything. The kids were smart! A man mowing the owner’s lawn identified the relic a few years ago. The man said, “I seen that” . . . the colloquialism for a positive identification.

Some had seen this statue from the 1960s until the year 2000 at the quaint sanctuary for birds. The statue the children moved to the neighborhood dog’s gravesite five miles away was replaced with a replica by the village, or village representatives, years ago.

Suit of Armor

“I have Mrs. Regan on the phone. She claims a piece of armor has gone missing . . . suit of armor, from a suit of medieval armor . . . not sure which piece . . . not the sword or mallet with hanging ball . . . we’ll stop by tomorrow.”

Brief laughter erupts in the Village of East Hampton’s Newtown Lane police station among the three police officers stationed there on that brisk day in 1967. Missing armor is a new one at village headquarters.

The Vietnam War is raging. East Hampton has been sparse of population this winter of 1967. The weather has not been fit for man, woman, or animal. The terrain seems scorched an amber crystal, glowing as if waiting for birds and spring to bring winter’s end.

At some point during the winter, a youthful soul entered a large empty home through a door or window and took a souvenir. The souvenir was a piece taken off a complete suit of medieval armor. The suit of armor had been shipped from Ireland to the States in the early 1940s.

Maybe the young Gallade had wandered the perimeter of the old home, swinging his newly acquired item at the sea clouds or fantasy of mind. Maybe young Sir Gallade had a lady accomplice? Maybe they wandered off through East Hampton dune and sand to find a nice, secure place to cuddle and relish their newly acquired piece of a suit of armor. Maybe they took a small dagger or possibly the small spiked ball hanging on a chain. Maybe they had a bottle of rum or whiskey to celebrate like pirates and say a prayer to winter’s end.

Lost Propeller

A ship propeller goes missing in the Village of East Hampton. The propeller had been lying in the corner of a village property since 1984. Walked away sometime between 2005 and 2011. Somebody took it, unless it buried itself — rumors are heard of stranger things than that, ’round this neighborhood.

The propeller was one of the two original propellers on a Montauk-based long-liner. Captain Mike had replaced the boat’s original propellers after they were damaged hitting something. The old bent propellers were put in the back of the captain’s crewmember’s 1978 Ford truck. Extra weight in small trucks is nice for driving in snow. The propellers were removed from the truck and placed in the corner of the property in May of 1984 after winter’s end. The remaining matching propeller still sits in the corner of the property.

If anyone comes upon one approximately three-foot-in-diameter standard ship propeller that weighs 70 pounds, painted worn maroon and gray, please drop it off near Guild Hall. Act as if you know what you are doing when dropping the propeller off! Prop the propeller up somewhere on Guild Hall’s property. Tell anyone who asks that it is part of a de Kooning collaborative. The propeller has no value except for sentimental.

These paragraphs are excerpts from a lengthier script, “Modern Mysteries of East Hampton,” by Morgan McGivern, The Star’s staff photographer.