Bay Brothers

“Bay Brothers” is a fictional story of a young man who in the late 70’s becomes a clam digger pirate on the south shore of Long Island’s Great South Bay. His father’s employed as a machinist for Fairchild Republic, Farmingdale. In 1972 Fairchild was awarded the military contract to develop the A-10 Thunderbolt, ‘Warthog’, the most formidable ground support aircraft in aviation history. He was a star baseball pitcher in high school with potential for the MLB draft but became intrigued with bodybuilding and lost his ‘live arm’. Throughout high school and college, he and his brothers dug clams on the Great South Bay. Of the three brothers he was by far the best digger. And that was his curse. After a brief stint as an adaptive PE teacher the plan was to eventually become a chiropractor. Clamming was intended to be a means to help pay for chiropractic school, but with the advent of making relatively ‘big’ money pirating, chiropractic school fell by the wayside. He becomes Great South Bay’s most wanted pirate. By the mid 70’s local municipalities, in conjunction with the NYS DEC instituted ‘restricted to shellfish harvesting’ areas. These closed areas were thick with clams, so thick one grab could yield 100 or more count necks, enticing diggers to cross the line, to risk it all, break the law in pursuit of riches. At various hours of the night clam pirates marauded the restricted areas and ran from the law. High speed chases in customized racing hulls included evasive maneuvers such as tossing burlap bags, wooden pallets, and dock poles off the stern to obstruct the law’s. On rare occasions, shots were fired. Uzi’s were the preferred weapon of choice. The law’s his opposition, his nemesis. Bureaucracy and its corruption stand in the way of this pirate’s prosperity. But hard-core pirates don’t let the law stand in their way. And make no mistake about it, he’s as hardcore as they get. In secret, his father had been creating a Super A-10 Pirate Craft. Dad, with the help of fellow masters of their craft, miraculously build a 60’s style racing hull powered by twin GE Turbofan jet engines. Dad also outfits the Super Pirate Craft with a GAU Gatlin gun, the essential component of the A-10 fighter, commonly referred to as the "Warthog" due to its unsightly appearance. It took him three years to inconspicuously build the craft in the privacy of his machine shop garage and dilapidated boathouse. Dad’s a self-taught master machinist with unparalleled genius. His middle son, Pat, is much like he once was, a gangster meandering NYC's Hell's Kitchen and Brooklyn's Flatbush Ave. This pirate’s personal life is typical of the era, bars, nightclubs, alcohol, and young women. Friday nights it’s a local bayman’s bar, Toomey’s, which host ‘The Good Rats’, a popular Long Island band of the period. The law relentlessly pursues him. After Dad’s passing he discovers the A-10 Super Pirate Craft secretly stowed away in the rafter of the boat house. Upon trial it’s twin GE Turbofan engines propel the craft to speeds in excess of 120 mph. Suffolk’s copper chopper can’t keep up with it. He discovers the GAU Gatlin Gun is capable of obliterating anything in its path. The mission is to systematically destroy the law in sequence, the Consi’s, Suffolk Marine Patrol’s Challenger, Town of Babylon and Town of Islip Harbormasters, and for a finale Suffolk Marine Patrol’s flagship, the J boat. Once the mission’s completed he heads south to dig clams in Florida’s Indian River. But first he wants to experience Key West, where Hemingway hung out. Having almost read “The Old Man and the Sea” in high school literature class, opting for the ’58 movie with Spencer Tracy, he’s compelled to pay tribute to the man. Read more