Utility green, calf-high dockside boots – “Daddy’s boots,” as Barnegat Light Historical Society President Karen Larson knows the sight – were the launch step into gripping stories of two local legendary captains and families who started the now-flourishing Viking Village commercial dock enterprise on a shoestring and a need to keep a town’s industry alive.

Larson family members, including Barnegat Light Mayor Kirk Larson, tell tales of humor as well as hazard. (Supplied Photos)

The tribute program at the Barnegat Light Museum on Sept. 14 centered on the dock’s development by her late father, John Larson, the late…