A mariner finds her land legs

Future director of the Historical Society Pat Mundus.

Pat Mundus should be right at home as the Shelter IslandHistorical Society’s newest director. With such a vibrant andcolorful history of her own, she’ll fit right in helping preservethe multi-faceted story that has made the Island what it istoday.

Ms. Mundus grew up in Montauk in the late 1950s and 60s, a placethat at the time was still a very small, salty fisherman’s town.Many people will recognize the Mundus name – she’s the daughter ofFrank Mundus, the famous shark fisherman on whom Peter Benchleybased his book, “Jaws.

Her experience growing up was unusual, to say the least: “Therewas not a single sort of normal day in my childhood because myfather was a shark fisherman, and that involved a lot of promotionand spectacles. It was fun. She said that most of the aspects ofher father’s portrayal in the book and film were inaccurate”theatrical devices, but once the film became such a huge success,Mr. Mundus felt the urge to promote how wild shark fishing was. “Hedid that with all kinds of crazy antics ¦ it was likeHalloween for him.

She recalled one time as a young girl when her father took herand the severed head of a mako shark in an airline bag to a localbar, Salazar’s: “the quintessential dock-side tavern, she calledit. “I mean, it was a bar.

She could barely get up on the bar stool to order her ShirleyTemple. “My job, when it was quiet, she explained, “was to takethis little airline bag to the ladies room, put it in the toiletbowl, and line it up so it was peeking out of the toilet [with itsjaws open] and close the lid. She looks back fondly on that sort oflight-hearted pandemonium she and her father stirred up.

After graduating from high school, she decided a life in Montaukwasn’t for her, but the interest in life on the water persisted. “Ifeel that life ashore is filled with too many unessential things,she said. “Too much junk mail, too many phone calls, too manypeople worrying about things that don’t really matter¦ I booked it – bought a plane ticket to theCaribbean and started working on charter boats. She fell in lovewith the emerging fleet of classic wooden sailboats in Antigua.

She worked on yachts for about three years, when she started tofeel the first inklings of feminism. “I felt huge injustice thatany time something hugely important was going on the boat, theywould stick me on the wheel and take one of the young fellows upforward. So she went to Fort Schuyler, a military academy, whereshe spent four years to get her ship officer’s license so she couldtake charge.

She spent her next 17 years piloting oil tankers across theworld. Those boats were a far cry from a fishing boat or a woodensailing vessel – the last ship she piloted was 987 feet long, 166feet wide and drew 64 feet fully-loaded.

“We loaded mostly in Egypt, Yemen or Saudi Arabia. If the Saudisfound that they were working for a woman, they would go on workstrike ¦ I had to wrap my hair up under a hat andwear baggy clothes and pretend I was a guy.

She eventually had to quit about 12 years ago when the lingeringeffects from an undiagnosed bout of Lyme disease in her childhoodhospitalized her, and she became too weak to stand watch.

She soon recuperated and returned to the East End where sherekindled her love of classic wooden boats. She helped found theEast End Classic Boats Society, a nonprofit group now based inAmagansett. There she’s taught classes on boat building,restoration and navigation and played a key role raising $300,000to build a genuine timber frame boatyard.

Her time on Shelter Island has centered on this interest inwooden boats – of which Coecles Harbor had many. “It was a bigwooden boat center before the Billy Joel thing started, she said,and she visited often. Still, her connections to the Island began”before I could even walk.

Her father would often bring her to the Island to buy bait, andshe regularly ran into the Island locals: “A lot of Shelter Islandguys worked for my father: Stan and Stevie Lenox ¦Rolly and Wendy Clark had a boat right next to my father’s. Sheeven recalled going to Skip Tuttle’s pig roasts when she wasyounger.

More recently, she ran an organic gardening business out of EastHampton that specialized in deer-proof gardens. She had a lot ofIsland business, but “wouldn’t take a gardening job unless they hada dock, she said with a laugh.

She moved to Greenport two years ago, where she keeps a 42-footyacht that she and her husband, Earl Vorhees, fully restored. She’sbeen involved with the East End Seaport Museum, where she helpedorganize this fall’s Maritime Film Festival and an exhibit abouther father.

Her love of things old-fashioned carries on to land, too. Sheand her husband took apart three 200-year- old barns located inupstate New York, “labeled them, photo-documented them, took themapart, restored them, put them back up in East Hampton exactly asthey were.

She’s not an Island native, but rather than seeing people asresidents of a particular town, Ms. Mundus takes a more holisticview towards the geography of the East End: “I’m one of the superslim minority that happens to believe that Shelter Island is notseparated from the two forks by a body of water. I’m a mariner, Ibelieve that we’re joined by bodies of water.

Seeing water as a boundary, she explained, is a relatively newphenomenon. “People feel that way because of cars, because theydrive everywhere. Before the train came here in 1844, everybody hada boat, it was like having a pickup truck or an SUV.

She’s excited to begin her new job as Historical Societydirector. “The person who finds work that they love and ispassionate about it is a lucky person. You don’t find that anywhereelse except small groups like this, non-profits. I love theenergy.

She also has a deep respect for the power of local history:”It’s a big part of who we are, she said. “The people who live herewant to understand themselves, they want to understand where theycame from ¦ they want to understand what their makeupis, their cultural building blocks. And local history, of course,is the answer to that.

The Island is lucky to have her to help preserve thathistory.