Joe Biden is vacationing in the Hamptons next week, and sources said the Secret Service, citing national security concerns, ordered local residents to halt a ferry running in honor of a former slave and important figure in US history.
But the Secret Service denied it was their agency that put the kibosh on the ferry, and a source said local authorities made the call.
The vice president and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, have rented a house for a week on picturesque Lake Agawam in Southampton, sources exclusively confirmed to Page Six.
Locals were planning on running a ferry on the lake next week to honor the 200th birthday of Pyrrhus Concer, a freed slave who became an important figure in the community after he started the Agawam Ferry, sailing passengers from Southampton Village to the beach in the mid-1800s.
Concer, born a slave in 1814, was freed and went on whaling expeditions as part of a crew that saved stranded Japanese sailors. He returned to Southampton and ran the ferry up until his death in 1897. Concer’s buried in Southampton’s North End Cemetery, and his tombstone reads, “Though born a slave, he possessed virtues without which kings are but slaves.”
A source tells us: “Locals hoped to start running the ferry on Lake Agawam on Aug. 20, to honor this great man. But they were told Biden would be vacationing there, and putting a boat on the lake in view of the house he is renting would be a matter of national security.”
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told us his agency didn’t request to cancel the ferry. “There are no restrictions as far as I know,” he said. “A request was made, but not by us.”
Another source said that the local police canceled the boat ride. A rep for the Southampton police department didn’t return calls.
Local rumors are that Biden’s renting the house of Walter Noel, a former business associate of Bernie Madoff, on First Neck Lane. Meanwhile, locals hope the ferry, dubbed the SS Pyrrhus Concer, will launch on Aug. 27 and give tours of Lake Agawam once Biden’s stay has concluded.