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The Southampton History Museum is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization chartered by the New York State Board of Regents and incorporated under the New York State Education Department.
Our mission is preservation and education: We preserve and educate about local history and culture through our unique historic sites, archives, collections, and engaging public programs.
Famous Long Island Shipwrecks Lecture with Bill Bleyer
Wed, Nov 05
|Southampton History Museum
Join historian Bill Bleyer for a gripping lecture exploring centuries of maritime tragedy—from colonial voyages to wartime disasters. Uncover the stories behind legendary wrecks that shaped the region’s seafaring history.
Time & Location
Nov 05, 2025, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Southampton History Museum, 17 Meeting House Ln, Southampton, NY 11968, USA
About the Event
Set sail through centuries of maritime history in this captivating lecture by historian, author, and retired Newsday reporter Bill Bleyer. Explore some of Long Island’s most dramatic and tragic shipwrecks, from the Dutch vessel Prins Maurits, lost while bringing colonists to the New World, to the British warship HMS Culloden, wrecked off Montauk during the American Revolution. Learn about the doomed immigrant ships Mexico and Bristol in the 1830s, the fiery destruction of the Lexington—the worst disaster in Long Island Sound history—and the wartime sinking of the USS San Diego during World War I. The program concludes with the mysterious loss of the tugboat Gwendoline Steers in a 1962 Winter storm. This lecture offers a compelling look at how these maritime tragedies shaped the region’s seafaring legacy.
This program is FREE – Wednesday, November 5, 2025, 11:00am-12:30pm
*RSVP is required. Space is limited.*