Bay historian memorialized a simpler way of life now gone

Robert Jahn's love of Barnegat Bay was born when he was a small boy, sitting on the wooden porch of his grandfather's home on Mantoloking Road.

Author Robert Jahn in 1978, sailing down Barnegat Bay. This photo appeared in Jahn's classic "Down Barnegat Bay, A Nor'easter Midnight Reader." PHOTO BY TOM BARRY His grandfather would light his pipe, settle back in his rocking chair and tell Jahn stories of the bay from back in his boyhood in the late 1800s.

"Then the stories came and went, between puffs of pipe smoke and long moments of silence — stories of growing up along the bay, tales of fishing and sailing and gunning," Jahn wrote in his classic "Down Barnegat Bay, A Nor'easter Midnight Reader."

Jahn took the stories his grandfather told him, researched the rich cultural history of the bay, and turned out a book many consider to be the definitive tome on Barnegat Bay.

"What follows came out of those stories my grandfather told me and several years of research, tales of the bay and the sea — of sailboats, storms and shipwrecks — actual accounts of the usual and the unusual, from the pirates of Barnegat to ghosts of the dunes, as they once happened, a long time ago, down Barnegat Bay."

Robert Jahn, 62, died of lung cancer on Nov. 17 at Ocean Medical Center. The nurses on his floor played his beloved Bob Dylan quietly in the background as he slowly slipped away, said William deCamp, president of the nonprofit Save Barnegat Bay and a friend of Jahn's.

"He was no ordinary patient," deCamp said. "The nurses loved him."

Jahn was a descendant of one of the oldest families in Ocean County on his mother's side. Dorothy Brower Jahn was the Mantoloking postmaster for 25 years. Several generations of Browers farmed a homestead along Mantoloking Road, near Sandy Point in Brick.

Jahn lived in the South Mantoloking section of Brick Township. His book is a comprehensive history of the bay, chock-full of stories, legends, newspaper accounts, engravings, photographs and maps.

Here is a paragraph of Jahn's description of the wreck of the packet ship John Minturn, which foundered off the Barnegat shoals.

"Steering into the gale, the Minturn attempted to ride out the nor'easter and avoid being rolled over by the wind on her reach. Gusting sleet and snow attacked the ship. Her mainsail caught the wind but quickly split from top to bottom, and the ship swung out of control on the surging swells. The fierce gale ripped through her fore-topsail and headsails, leaving them streaming from their spars as the ship plunged toward the shore like a ghost."

"There's just never going to be another book written like his," deCamp said. "It's just fantastic. He memorialized the guys whose names weren't on the plaques in town halls."

Jahn's knowledge of Ocean County and Barnegat Bay will be hard to match, deCamp said. PHOTO BY TOM BARRY

"He had a profound understanding that history is so much more than the history of politics," he said. "He grew up in this culture. His area was his family's home. He could just point to anything, tell you who lived where and what was the original homestead. A tremendous knowledge of Ocean County history passed with him."

Brick Township historian Eugene Donatiello first met Jahn back in 1978.

"There was a house being torn down on Route 70," Donatiello recalled. "We were both looking for whatever we could find. The house was built from parts of ships that had washed ashore."

"He saved a lot and he shared a lot," Donatiello said. "He shared whatever he had, which was important, being from a family that had that information. He really covered the Barnegat Bay area and the northern Barnegat Bay area. It was kind of a specialty with him."

Jahn will be greatly missed, said Robert O'Brien, director of the New Jersey Museum of Boating in Bay Head.

"He was a very good author," O'Brien said. "He was a very good historian of Barnegat Bay and its environs. He attended every event we had at the New Jersey Museum of Boating and contributed significantly. His loss is going to be deeply felt by people who are interested in New Jersey Shore history."

Jahn's memorial service will be held at noon Dec. 5 at the Van Hise & Callagan Funeral Home in Point Pleasant Beach.