On Fire Island Ferries, aging mariners seek successors

Capt. Ernie Villing watched with Dylan Molnar, an 18-year-old deckhand with Fire Island Ferries, as passengers and luggage filled the Fire Island Belle in August © Hilary Swift for The New York Times

With a smooth spin of the heavy iron steering wheel, Capt. Ernie Villing backed the Fire Island Belle out of its ferry slip and set course for a thin, gauzy strip on the hazy horizon across the Great South Bay.

Mr. Villing, a lifelong ferryman who is 70, has spent the past 55 years helping people reach that sandy Shangri-La known as Fire Island, on summer weekends.

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