In gratitude of his service and sacrifice, the Westhampton Free Library paid tribute to William Matthews, a Westhampton Beach Navy veteran, at a ceremony on February 16 as part of its Hometown Heroes initiative.

The library’s latest yearlong installment of its Hometown Heroes initiative aims to honor local veterans from the Arthur Ellis Hamm American Legion Post 834 on a monthly basis, with a culminating ceremony scheduled for January 2020. It comes on the heels of the preceding Hometown Heroes program in which the library recognized veterans associated with Westhampton Beach VFW Post 5350.

“It is so important to honor our local veterans,” said Westhampton Free Library Director Danielle Waskiewicz. “They made many sacrifices and deserve to be thanked.”

During the ceremony, held at the Westhampton Beach Fire Department and attended by fellow Legionnaires, library representatives, family members and public officials, Matthews was presented with proclamations and an American flag.

William Matthews, born March 9, 1931, grew up in Lindenhurst and attended Lindenhurst High School, from which he graduated in 1949. Prior to graduation, Matthews was unsure of his next move in life, but a teacher urged him to explore free college options since his grades were superior at both Lindenhurst High School and the Catholic school in the Rockaways that he attended for a brief period.

“She told me I was capable of doing so much more and that I have to go to college,” he said.

Matthews took her advice and applied for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. He was accepted and enrolled in the marine engineering program, on track to become a chief engineer.

“We had to know everything – pumps, boilers, shafts and all the machinery needed to make a ship function,” he explained. “We had to know the ship inside-out and upside-down.”

Upon graduating from the academy, Matthews entered the U.S. Navy as a chief engineer. He spent a short time in South Carolina before receiving orders to head to Boston, where his ship, a minesweeper called the Jacana, was being built.

He recalls walking up to the gate of the shipyard as a young man and the guard wisecracking that there were no minesweeper ships in the yard and that he was in the wrong place. Eventually, he was led to a basement, where he received his orders.

For several weeks, Matthews spent his time sorting, storing and loading new equipment for the new ship before it launched for the first time and he met the captain.

“I didn’t get along with the captain at first,” he said. “I was from the North and he was from the South, but we turned out to be great buddies after a while.”

 He recollected the last time he set foot on the ship that came to mean so much to him. During a training in North Carolina, his ship was charged with sweeping mines so the landing crew ships could get through. He was standing at the control when the fire alarm went off. He quickly ran down to a smoke-filled engine room to find the starboard engine seized. He worked diligently with the crew in an attempt to make repairs, but it was determined that the engine needed to be sent to a shipyard for repair.

“That was the last time I saw the ship,” said Matthews.

Without a ship, Matthews had the option to go back to school, and he decided to attend submarine school. The decision was one that surprised his captain, but Matthews said he had long been fascinated with submarines. During one training, where his minesweeper played the target, he watched as a submarine launched torpedoes.

“I saw them flying right at us,” he said. “They were impressive.”

He shipped out to New London, Connecticut, where he was trained on a sub. The captain taught Matthews how to use the sub’s scope to calculate the speed of target ships, as well as their direction, by constantly and consistently calculating the angle of their bows. 

“I was training, training, training, then I got it all down and started to get bored,” he said.

It was about that time that his stint in the Navy concluded, and he was discharged honorably.

Upon discharge, Matthews headed back to Lindenhurst, where he worked as an insurance adjuster before starting his own business, Admiralty Marine Surveying. He married his wife, Carol, in 1962 and together they had four children, Tara, Sean, Mary and Carla. It was also during this time that he volunteered for the Lindenhurst Fire Department. 

It the late 1980s, Matthews and his wife decided to move to Westhampton Beach, where they have lived for the past 30 years. It was then that Matthews joined the American Legion, for which he served as commander for several years. In addition, he worked as a trail guide for the Westhampton Beach School District’s adult education department.

Now, he spends much of his time at the Westhampton Free Library, where he enjoys reading books and magazines. 

Photos courtesy of the Westhampton Free Library