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It Was a Smugglers' Cove, Too

By Bill Bleyer | Staff Writer

The early entrepreneurs of Musketa Cove took advantage of their proximity to the water for more than milling -- smuggling became the community's second industry. Lord Bellomont, the colonial governor in 1699, called Musketa Cove one of the four biggest smuggling ports on Long Island.

Smuggling then rarely involved gold or jewels. It meant trading with the occasional ship that carried goods to Musketa Cove rather than New York, where customs duties were collected. Because of the distance from the city, the illegal trading could go on in broad daylight."It was booze -- rum, particularly, because we were already producing whiskey locally -- chocolate, spices, silk," said Dan Russell, Glen Cove's city historian.

In 1693, a French privateer was spotted by British authorities at anchor off the town, probably to put goods ashore for illegal resale in New York City. A British frigate sailed from New York to capture the French bark and its crew but managed only to snag the captain. The British also arrested Nathaniel Coles for plotting to defraud crown and colony of customs duties. Officials released him several weeks later. When the Waltons arrived, they maintained local traditions -- trading in contraband, primarily to supply their hotels and taverns in the city and their large fleet of transatlantic ships.

In 1728, wigmaker Josiah Milliken published an unusual official declaration denying that he had tipped off customs agents to the Waltons' basement full of smuggled wines and brandies. Aware of the Waltons' clout, he feared the rumor might "turn to his Hurt and Damage."