Finding North
Monuments October 29, 2021
"Kathy I'm lost," I said, but I knew she was sleeping. July 10, 2021
A brother writes home. September 15, 2020
Love In Our Time Of Cholera July 21, 2020
Remembering Christmas December 24, 2018
The Forty-Sixer August 26, 2018
The Last Herd Path July 29, 2018
Where are we and where are we going? July 21, 2018
Reunion July 15, 2018
From B to D to C to B. April 28, 2018
Thursdays with Kathy April 1, 2018
Watching hockey with a friend. March 17, 2018
The halls at Hopkins March 14, 2018
In sickness and in health. March 4, 2018
The dismal wilderness. October 16, 2017
Chocolate wrapped in a love poem August 16, 2017
Just a couple hundred yards more. August 14, 2017
Skylight August 10, 2017
The Washout August 7, 2017
Silver and Gold July 23, 2017
River in the rain. May 30, 2017
The Best Years of Our Life January 10, 2017
They settled it on the field. October 30, 2016
The bridge. August 21, 2016
Finishing the Dix July 15, 2016
The Seward Range and Seymour July 13, 2016
A trip to Knoebels. July 4, 2016
River Redux May 31, 2016
The best mashed potatoes I have ever had. September 29, 2015
The Harry Potter Guessing Game. September 5, 2015
Henry and Josephine. August 30, 2015
"Low the sun sets in the western sky . . ." August 18, 2015
"I don't know, but we sure have hiked a long way." August 11, 2015
"For the Sheer Joy of Climbing" August 6, 2015
11, 12 and 13 August 3, 2015
Goodbye Grace. July 26, 2015
Mount Colden, the hard way. July 8, 2015
The Class of 2015. June 19, 2015
The river hates you. May 28, 2015
Good Morning Starshine March 9, 2015
Skating the Olympic Oval. January 30, 2015
Giant love November 9, 2014
A bench by a stream November 8, 2014
Manhattan Transfer October 26, 2014
On top of New York September 15, 2014
Through and around the Upper Lock September 1, 2014
Three Friends on Three Brothers August 31, 2014
10 August 28, 2014
Alone in the woods August 17, 2014
The next journey begins August 9, 2014
A few words of thanks July 27, 2014
Happy birthday to David Kelley's favorite sister July 21, 2014
Garter snake, fricasseed July 13, 2014
Come hike with me awhile July 3, 2014
A soldier writes home June 5, 2014
Remember David Kelley May 21, 2014
Reading the run May 18, 2014
On the road again May 9, 2014
Friends indeed May 5, 2014
I Can See For Miles and Miles and Miles and Miles March 15, 2014
January Hymn January 6, 2014
Change in my pocket December 22, 2013
Swimming with both eyes open December 8, 2013
Day Runner December 3, 2013
Night Rider November 17, 2013
Running on empty . . . October 7, 2013
Fahrenheit 66.74 September 21, 2013
In a New York state of mind September 20, 2013
Pancakes, Ice Cream and an Arrogant Bastard September 14, 2013
May the wind be always at your back September 5, 2013
Heading home alone September 4, 2013
Biking with Lucy in Sofia September 3, 2013
The last train September 2, 2013
Jogging in Bucharest September 2, 2013
The view from Cabin 31. September 1, 2013
Night train to Bucharest August 31, 2013
Five guys enter a bar . . . August 31, 2013
Finding North on the Left Bank and Upper Bunk August 30, 2013
London night music August 29, 2013
And we're off August 27, 2013
The nicest swimmer you'll ever meet August 25, 2013
Abigail, a father's joy August 22, 2013
The slowest jogger in Central Park August 16, 2013
The trip August 6, 2013
Finish. August 4, 2013
This one's for my father. July 28, 2013
Swimming in the cold Atlantic July 21, 2013
Thank you Bruce and Abby July 19, 2013
Liberty and Union, the Journey of Lydia and Samuel July 16, 2013
Montebello Reservoir, Baltimore's Mirror Lake July 15, 2013
William Presbrey, wanted for desertion July 12, 2013
An open letter to David Byrne July 10, 2013
Edward F. McGrath, the grandfather I never met July 10, 2013
The start of the journey July 7, 2013
The Start of the Journey
40th Reunion Adirondack Park ADK 46-R Bicycling Bikes N Coffee Bulgaria Charm City Masters Swimming David Byrne Family Friendship Geneology General Clinton Canoe Regatta London to Sofia by Train NOLS NOLS Northeast Open Water Swim Rando Ramble Running in Baltimore Sofia Talking Heads Uncategorized
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SS Coamo
Archives For SS Coamo
Good Morning Starshine
Anna Elizabeth Hubert was born on August 11, 1914, in Newark, New Jersey and died on August 27, 1956, in Saranac Lake, New York. She was my grandmother. She had two brothers, John and Edward, and one daughter, Mary Ann, who was my mother.
Anna worked in a hospital and contracted Tuberculosis, which is how she ended up in Saranac Lake where she received treatment at Trudeau's sanatorium. She was in Saranac Lake on November 18, 1942, when she received a telegram from her husband, Edward McGrath, who was on a layover in England before heading home on the troop transport SS Coamo. His message to her was short but very sweet,
ALL WELL AND SAFE MY THOUGHTS ARE WITH YOU FONDEST LOVE DARLING
She was still in Saranac Lake when she learned that his ship had been lost at sea; when Army Chief of Staff General Marshall sent her official condolences; and also on December 15, 1943, when Secretary of War Henry Stimson wrote advising her that a Purple Heart had been awarded posthumously to her husband, explaining:
The medal, which you will receive shortly, is of slight intrinsic value, but rich with the tradition for which Americans are so gallantly giving their lives. The Father of our country, whose profile and coat of arms adorn the medal, speaks from across the centuries to the men who fight today for the proud freedom he founded.
And she was still in Saranac Lake on November 23, 1948, when a letter came confirming that my grandfather died when a German U-Boat torpedoed the Coamo.
While my grandmother was dealing with her disease and the loss of her husband, my mother was in Islip Terrace being raised by her grandmother, Katherina Hubert, and her uncles, John and Ed. They also served during the war and John would return home seriously injured, walking with a limp and unable to use his left arm and hand.
My grandmother died before I was born, but John and Ed and their children and grandchildren were an important part of our family. In the late 60's and early 70's we spent our summer vacations visiting John and Ed in Islip Terrace. Some of the best times we had during those visits were trips to John's beach house in Fire Island Pines, which we reached by taking the Sayville Ferry. Although I didn't realize it at the time, we actually witnessed first hand the conversion of the Pines from a place with a sign that proclaimed "Welcome to Fire Island Pines — A Family Community" into the much more sexually liberated, tolerant and diverse community it is today.
There were no cars on Fire Island because there were no roads. Instead there were only boardwalks and everyone used red Radio Flyer wagons to carry groceries and beach chairs and towels. We were often joined by John's grandchildren and together the seven of us would fish for eels off the harbor dock or wade into the Great South Bay and shuffle our feet to find clams, which my dad would steam for dinner. I learned to body surf on the Atlantic side of the island and first read about the adventures of Ian Fleming's James Bond from paperbacks I found on the bookshelves that lined the walls of the beach house.
We were there in the summer of 1968 shortly after the musical "Hair" opened on Broadway and also in the summer of 1969 when Oliver's rendition of Good Morning Starshine became a hit. Sometime after that a decision was made to play the song over the loud speakers set up around the harbor every morning at 7:00 AM.
John's house was close to the harbor and that song served as our alarm clock, welcoming us each morning to the start of another amazing day on Fire Island with my mother and her Uncle John.
In Family, Geneology	Edward McGrath, Family, Family History, Genealogy, SS Coamo
Edward F. McGrath, the grandfather I never met
I visited Long Island this weekend to attend a wedding and remembered a conversation long ago with my late mother, Mary Ann McGrath Hoskins, about her father who had died in the North Atlantic during the early days of WWII. According to my mom, Central Islip renamed streets in honor of its war dead, and a street had been named for her father. Although I'd spent many summers on Long Island as a kid, to my knowledge we had never visited the street. On July 6, 2013, with the help of Google Maps, I found it after a five minute drive from the airport:
Lat. 40:47:31.86, Long. -73:12:1.01
Edward F. McGrath was born on April 24, 1912, in New York, the son of Andrew R. McGrath and Winifred M. Mulrooney. He was the fourth of six children. He enlisted on June 4, 1942, at Fort Jay on Governor's Island in New York. He had previously worked as an attendant at the Central Islip Asylum
Winifred was born in 1876 in the Irish Free State, and emigrated to the US through Ellis Island as a passenger on the ship Ethiopia, a British flagged ship built for the Anchor Line, which set sail from Londonderry in late July, 1899.
Forty-three years later her son, my grandfather, was lost at sea aboard the steam passenger ship Coamo, after it was torpedoed by U-604, while desparately trying to make it home to New York.
The Coamo was sailing as part of convoy MKF-3 and was about 150 miles west of Ireland when it left the convoy on orders of the British Admiralty and proceeded independently towards New York. At 10:18 PM on December 2, 1942, U-604 fired one torpedo from 800 yards at the Coamo that was traveling at 17.5 knots. The torpedo struck under the bridge and caused her to sink in about five minutes. The ship had eleven officers, 122 crewmen, 37 armed guards and 16 US Army passengers on board.
A few men were seen leaving the ship on rafts but they were likely killed in the gale that swept the area for three days beginning on December 3rd. This was the greatest single loss of a merchant crew on any U.S. Flag merchant vessel during the Second World War.
By my count, twelve families now live on McGrath Street in Central Islip. This is the story of how their street got its name.
1. Bud Shortridge,
http://home.comcast.net/~cshortridge/MERSHIPHIS/AMERSHIPL/SS_COAMO.pdf)
2. Allied Ships Hit by U-Boats, http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/2486.html
In Family, Geneology	Central Islip New York, Edward McGrath, Family History, Genealogy, SS Coamo, Winifred Mulrooney