​Early iceboating action began today on the Toms River between Pine Beach and Toms River yacht clubs as a deep freeze continues along the Jersey Shore.

Conditions for iceboating sometimes only appear along our shores once a decade. Luck is with the happy sailing enthusiasts as it has been just one year since the river last froze over enough for the sport.

This weekend we offer a new feature that presents a bit of our local maritime history alongside contemporary internet links to more insight, information and photos.

The Mount Holly News
August 23rd, 1898
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Sea Side Park.
The week just passed has marked the high water of seashore travel and seashore life and it is probable that with the exception of the coming Labor Day and the Saturday and Sunday that precede it nowhere along the shore will there be so many guests as there have been on the past two Saturdays and to-day. While there have been crowds all along the beach Sea Side Park has had its share. For three Saturdays and Sundays there has not been room for all the guests at the Manhasset, and during the week the hotel has been filled completely.

LINK: Jersey Shore Land Speculation (featuring Seaside Park) - from DiscoverSeasideHeights

Bathing seems to be indulged in by almost everyone here, the few who do not take the daily dip accompanying their friends to the beach, and by their bright costumes adding to the gayety of the scene. Bathing costumes are rarely gay here, mostly of the conventional black and blue. One lady was noticed this week garbed in a bloomer costume, of unpretentious black brilliantine, and so full in its folds that it looked almost as a skirt.

Judge E.T.R. Applegate, of Hightstown, was high hook of the entire bay last week. With his two sons, Thomas and Edward, he made a day's catch of 425 weakfish.

LINK: Edward Taylor Riggs Applegate @ FindAGrave

John Gray, of Forest Grove, Pa., made three catches of weakfish on three successive days last week of 100, 110 and 135. Another good catch was by Charles Webber, E. Totten and F.C. Manners, of Newark, who caught 152 in one day, and 235 in two days.

LINK: John Gray @ Bucks County PA GenWeb

R.G. Ferguson, a Lakewood inventive genius, claims to have perfected a scheme by which a yacht can sail into the eye of the wind without tacking, by a simple arrangement of her sales. When he gets his idea on the market, every Sea Side Park and Barnegat Bay Yacht will have it, if it works.

The Great Sedge Island, at Barnegat Inlet, formerly owned by Dr. L.W. Warner, of Herrick's liniment fame, has been purchased by Captain R. B. Gowdy, of Toms River. The island is a favorite resort for gunners.

LINK: Herrick's 1894 Almanac @ Ol' Tales of Barnegat NJ Facebook Page by Giovanni Rawley
LINK: Sedge Island Trip @ Berkeley Striper Club
LINK: Tale End: Sedge Island Magic @ The Fisherman
LINK: Sedge Island: A Trip Back in Time @ Herb Segars Photography Blog

A guest who is spending a pleasant vacation at the Manhasset is A.L. Horner, of Dublin, Ireland, who is a prosperous barrister, and the Queens attorney.

Down at Forked River, where Tammany politicians gather to catch fish and discuss New York's political situation, the "croaker" has been rechristened the "Tammany fish," in honor of the apparently invincible Sachem, Richard Croaker.

LINK: Tammany Hall @ Smithsonian Institution Libraries
LINK: Richard Croaker @ American Aristocracy

The lover of a quiet day's salt water fishing, who doesn't care for the motion of a boat - though they are few who get sick in a Barnegat Bay Yacht - can get what he wants at Barnegat Pier, fishing from one of the little platforms which the Pennsylvania Railroad has built on the east side of the draw for that very purpose. Perch bite voraciously, and some big weakfish have been caught there even within the past week. Once in a great while someone is lucky enough to hook a sheepshead, but that gamy fish, once so plentiful in Barnegat Bay that dozens of families were supported by hook and line fishermen in the sheepshead fisheries, was almost completely annihilated by net fishermen a few years ago.
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LINK: Barnegat Pier/Pennsylvania Railroad @ OCTrainGuy

Captain R.C. VanVliet, a regular army officer, wounded at Santiago, and home on sick leave, has been enjoying Barnegat Bay fishing from Forked River.

LINK: Robert Campbell Van Vliet @ Wikipedia