Auxiliarist William Adam

When you first enter the house on Bayview Ave. in Sag Harbor (NY) you know you are in the home of a sailor. The tables in the living room hold stacks of maritime books and the walls are decorated with paintings of old Coast Guard cutters and black and white photographs of air and sea adventures from a time well before GPS navigation systems and color TV on the mess deck.

Eighty-six year-old William Adam answers the door in his worn Coast Guard Auxiliary uniform and welcomes you into his living room as if he were a ships captain giving a tour.  His face is weathered from many years on the sea and aviator glasses hang from his uniform.  He is one of the oldest members of the (local) Coast Guard Auxiliary, the volunteer arm of the Coast Guard.

“I joined the Coast Guard for a certain reason, I am still waiting for that reason,” laughs Adam.

He began his Coast Guard journey in 1942 and served honorably for three years, eight months and 20 days, he said.  As an active duty Coast Guard member Adam served as an aviation machinery mate in Miami.  Adam serviced airplanes such as the Martin Mariner and the Grumman Goose.  The journey continued in 1962 when he began a 45-year tour of service with the Auxiliary.

Adam recently received an Auxiliary service award for his 45 years of service.

“It is exceptional for a man to be active for as long as he has been,” said Commander Elizabeth Young, Director of Auxiliary, First District Southern Region. 

As much as a milestone Adam has set with his time in service, his home, family and heritage are fragments of nautical history as well.  Growing up in the community of Sag Harbor, which has primarily been a mariners’ town where merchants, sailors and fishermen lived, William is within walking distance to what some consider the most beautiful beaches on Long Island.

As time has changed Sag Harbor to such a lavish area, in the past it raised and was the home to many brave seafarers, one such person was Adam’s grandfather.

Great memories within

Adam’s hero and grandfather is Capt. George Page.  He was a quartermaster onboard the revenue cutters Tozier and Joseph B. Campbell in the late 1800’s.  Along with his time in the revenue cutter service he also worked as a whaler and a merchant mariner.

Captain Page stares out at those in the home he built with his own hands from a black and white picture on the wall.  Just last year, the home was appraised for $1.5 million, a low estimate some may say for the modest home in what today is a tourist town and playground for the rich and famous.  “I am still following his footsteps,” said Adam, as he glances at the photo and looks down at his untied boat shoes and smoothes out a wrinkle in his uniform.

When a Coast Guardsman grows up trying to match the likes of a Revenue Cutter Service sailor and a tried and true seaman, it is inevitable that they will have what some may call a natural affinity for the sea.  “Adam is a man with a depth of experience on the water,” said Young.  “He was imbedded into the Coast Guard service since the day he was born, from his grand father, to his active service, to his 45 years in the Auxiliary.”

One month away from his 87th birthday, Adam doesn’t spend much time serving in the Auxiliary, but he remembers his passion for flight both as an active duty Coast Guardsman during World War II and his many years of Auxiliary service.  “You’re really doing something, being up in the air,” said Adam.

He somberly recalls one mission in December 1945 when he and his Coast Guard crew onboard a Martin Mariner sea plane were searching for a missing TBF-1 Avenger, a torpedo bomber, near the Bimini Islands off the Florida coast.  Adam spotted a piece of paneling from the aircraft floating in the water and a life raft with no one aboard.  A search for the missing soon turned up the Avenger in 12-feet of water.  There were no survivors.  For many people in the life saving business it’s often the memories of those you couldn’t save that stay with you the longest. 

A man of few words, Adam enjoys spending his days at the American Legion with his buddies.  His daily visits have led to his very own key to the establishment.“I go there to drink coffee and shoot the breeze,” said Adam.  He is proud to be the only Coast Guardsmen and smiles when he thinks of it.

A couple of times a week Adam goes down to the marina to watch the boats.  “The water used to be a lot higher.  If you came down here 50 years ago you’d be up to your neck in water,” he said.

Adam looks out on Tyes Beach at the pleasure boats and yachts and seems to be flooded with memories of a time long gone.  “I’m still a boat man at heart,” he said.

Adam’s motto for life and for Coast Guardsmen in service is a phrase carried down from the seagoing days of his grandfather and those before him.

“Head her into the wind.”