Tidepieces by Alan Winick - Charles Island - Navy

Product Features

• Exclusively available only from Mellow Monkey
• Handcrafted by local artisan, Alan Winick, this tide clock has the image of the shore of Charles Island with a sailboat and gull in the background - and the harbor and Long Island Sound tide that rises and falls as the actual tide in your location goes from high to low.  Unique to this clock is that when the tide is low, a legendary treasure chest believed to have been left on the island by Captain Kidd is exposed.
• Charles Island is a 14-acre island located roughly 1//2 mile off the coast of Milford, Connecticut, in Long Island Sound.
• Charles Island is accessible from shore via a tombolo (locally referred to as a sandbar), which is exposed at low tide. According to early local histories, the Sachem Ansantawae resided there during the summer months. European discovery of the island occurred in 1614 when Adriaen Block sailed through and mapped Long Island Sound
• Originally known as Poquehaug, after the area was settled by the English in 1639 the island was referred to as Milford Island. After Charles Deal bought the island in 1657 it became known as Charles Island. Deal made a failed attempt to raise tobacco on the island – one of the first such efforts in Connecticut.
• The WPA History of Milford indicates that Captain William Kidd visited Milford in 1699 when he was en route to Boston (where he was subsequently arrested for piracy and murder). Before Kidd’s arrival in Boston, he off-loaded and buried treasure on Gardiners Island off the eastern tip of Long Island. The treasure was retrieved after his arrest but questions remain as to whether all the treasure was in that cache and whether he may have buried more of it along Long Island Sound and possibly Charles Island.
• In 1835, the first permanent residence was constructed on the island by John Harris. After his death the island was owned by several different owners and in 1852 it was purchased by Elizur Pritchard of Waterbury, Connecticut who turned the large house into a summer resort known originally as Charles Island House and later as Ansantawae House.
• After the Civil War the resort closed and the island was leased to the George Miles Company as a base for their fish fertilizer operations.
• After the Miles Company left the island it was relatively unused until the 1930s when the Dominican Order opened a religious retreat on the island. The Aquinas Retreat consisted of a chapel, small cabins for the retreatants, a central dining hall and religious shrines located along paths throughout the island. The retreat closed in the late 1930s and some remnants of it remain on the island.
• The State of Connecticut now owns the island and it is part of Silver Sands State Park. It is designated a Natural Area Preserve for the local bird population of herons and egrets. White-tail deer were common, but the estimated 16 deer on the island were hunted by the Department of Environment Protection (now the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) in February 2011 to protect the nesting birds.[3] The waters around the island have bluefish, snapper blues, sand sharks, and horseshoe crabs.
• The waters west of the island have been a site for oyster farming  since 2013, in an area of approximately 3.4 acres

• Bottom of clock provides the traditional tide clock showing current tide. Dial provides hours to high tide and to low tide.
• Top of clock is what makes this time piece truly unique.  A mechanically animated display of the waterline of Long Island Sound rises and falls as the tide goes from high to low.
• Clock measures 11-in H x 6-1/2-in W x 2-in D
• Can be displayed free standing or on a wall.
• Construction: Wood frame, plastic, paper and metal housing.
• Uses one AA battery - not included.
• Ships in a gift box with instructions. 
• Artisan limited warranty: 3 years
• See the complete Tidepieces Collection