Bahrs Landing

BAHRS CAM

Looking out of the restaurant window. A view of our marina, The Shrewsbury River, Highlands/Sandy Hook Drawbridge, and The Atlantic Ocean.

The Perfect Storm is Remembered at Bahrs.

On the wall at Bahrs, there is poster sized copy of the only photo taken at sea of commercial fishing vessel "Andrea Gail". Lost at sea in 1991 and made famous in the book "The Perfect Storm" by author Sebastian Unger, later made into the popular movie. The photographer, Les Nagy a local clammer and former longliner commercial fisherman, took the photo in 1988, 400 miles out in the Grand Banks off the coast of Nova Scotia. Les remembers "the boat that I was working on when I shot the photo of the Andrea Gail. She was called the "F/V High Stakes" and was from Montauk, NY."

Les, who keeps his clam boat at Bahrs Landing, (Highlands N.J.) takes his camera with him to work which has mostly been as a commercial fisherman. He took courses (when in port) in photography when he was younger, graduated with honors, top in in my degree classification and was also on the deans list from a 2 yr school, OCC, with the hope of professional pursuits. Someone once told him: "Save all of your negatives because someday you never know when a picture might become valuable." He started out on commercial fishing boats out of Point Pleasant when he was 17. He worked on lobster boats, surf clam boats, draggers, and eventually longliners. Because the longliners chased the swordfish all over the world, Les began taking and luckily cataloging all of his negatives. From Nova Scotia to South Africa, he crewed aboard several boats and took some tremendous photos, many of which he has sold to friends and acquaintances.

In the Grand Banks it is common for other boats to help each other out with gear, fuel, tools, supplies, etc... . When the photo was taken the "Andrea Gail" had borrowed light stick lures from the boat that Les was working on. As they pulled away, not knowing the tragic future of the boat and crew in front of him, Les took one shot and forgot about it. Then this past summer of 2000, Les started to hear the hype on T.V. about the blockbuster movie. So he decided to take some time and see the documentary by CNBC. He was not sure but he thought that maybe he had a negative and sure enough he did. He called around to Glouster, Maine and found out that he had the only known photo at sea of the "Andrea Gail" he was contacted by CNBC and they used it in the documentary. It was too late for the movie and he never read the book! He did donate it to "The Perfect Storm Foundation Web Site". They raise money for the families of fisherman lost at sea.