This week marks the one year anniversary of the shocking tragedy which occurred in the middle of the Central Park dog pond. Last November, Max Seehause (9) along with his family took his brand new toy sailboat to the pond. In this great age of technology, no one thought it would be possible for the boat to sink, even in the windy conditions. In fact, the internet reviews of the boat made many boasts claiming the boat could not be sunk. The Seehause family bought into the hype, and ultimately paid dearly.
The winds were gusting between 30 and 40 miles per hour at the pond, but the Seehauses wanted to push forth, almost to prove that the mighty Mia would not fall to nature, but conquer her. The proud ship began its first voyage from the dock and almost immediately, it appeared things were not going as planned. The Mia listed right, listed left, and Max tried desperately to control the violent tipping. As the boat approached the middle of the pond, the family realized they were in big trouble and needed to get The Mia back to shore. But, alas, it was the perfect storm. The Mia was caught in a gale which pushed her from all directions, making steering impossible.
At that point, she began taking on water. They were still unable to steer the boat out of danger. Then, more water came over the bows. At that point, the Seahauses knew it was unlikely they would ever see the Mia again. In what is now considered the most heroic thing anyone has seen at the Stapleton dog pond, Robert Seehause, Max’s father, slowly made his way into the disease infested waters to try to save The Mia. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. The Mia sank into the depths of the middle of the pond before Robert was able to get there. There were no survivors. The Seehauses were unavailable for comment regarding the emotional incident, but other witnesses were willing to speak.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘isn’t a little too windy to be sailing that thing,’” recalls survivor Danny Bolsom. “Even though I was pretty sure it was going to sink, I was absolutely heartbroken when it finally went down. It was awful.” There are rumors that the Seehause family in coordination with The Discovery Channel and Titanic director James Cameron will be filming a documentary on the incident as well as sending a toy submarine down to take photos of the wreckage.
In the words of Gordon Lightfoot, “the lake it is said never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy.” ]]>