He’s a self-taught guy. I think he leads tours occasionally in the neighborhood. The topography really doesn’t lend itself to the two-mile theory (e.g., steep bluffs along Brooklyn Heights, marshes in lots of places). I think it’s possible that separated units may have disembarked at different places commandeering boats where they found them.
Well, that certainly makes more sense. But, it was Glover's Marblehead Regiment (made up mostly of fishermen) who went back and forth across the North (East) River ferrying the Continentals to Manhattan. However, as you say, some probably did commandeer boats in Brooklyn.