"New York is a city of well-known streets and blocks that ramble on and on, into our literature, dreams, and nightmares. We know the city by the byways that split it, streets like Broadway and Madison and Flatbush and Delancey. From those streets, peering down the blocks and up at the skyline, the city seems immense and endless." "But long before Broadway was a muddy cart track, the water was the city's most distinguishing feature and the rivers the only byways of importance.". "For people like William Kornblum, the city is shaped by the water and the people who have sailed it for goods, money, pirate's loot, and freedom. For them, the city is ever an island, and Kornblum - New York City native, longtime sailor, and urban sociologist - has spent decades plying its waterways in his ancient catboat, Tradition.". "In At Sea in the City, he takes the reader along as he sails through his hometown, retelling the history of the city's waterfront and maritime culture and the stories of the men and women who made the water their own."--BOOK JACKET.