IN MEMORIAM – CAPTAIN THOMAS A. MARCONI 1939-2006 CAPTAIN THOMAS A. MARCONI of the Sheepshead Bay party boat PILOT II passed away on August 27, 2006. Captain Tom began his party boat career as the first mate aboard the original PILOT II with Captain Harry Phillips. When his mentor retired in 1974, Captain Tom took over the operation and for three decades, the PILOT II name continued to be the premier Blackfish and bottom fishing boat at Sheepshead Bay under his command. Captain Tom will always be remembered as being the perfect gentleman to his fellow boatmen, the customers who sailed aboard the PILOT II and his many friends. "First Boat Out!" Captain Tom was quoted in an October 31, 2004 New York Times article as saying "Social distinctions typically disappear when customers climb aboard. Whether they make a lot of money or whether they make less than an average income is really of no avail out here." said Captain Thomas Marconi, who has been operating the PILOT II for 40 of his 58 years. "They're all equal when they come on my boat." Captain Tom is survived by his wife Nina and son David, and to them and the rest of the Marconi family, we wish you peace. Captain Tom is in our prayers. God grant that I may fish until my dying day. And when it comes to my last cast, I then most humbly pray, When in the Lord's safe landing net I'm peacefully asleep, That in his mercy I be judged as big enough to keep.