It might help to know which version of Wget you're using ("wget -V"), and on which system type you're running it. Adding "-d" to the wget command line might give you more clues as to what it's trying to do. Seeing the debug output might save considerable code tracing, as I, for example, don't have access (so far as I know) to an FTP server which acts that way.
1.9 going from Solaris 9 to a Windows server. Probably useless guesswork: Does it help to add a trailing "/" to the URL ("ftp://...:...@<site>/<myDir>/")? Same behavior with "-r"? In fact, adding the trailing "/" solved the problem completely. Thank you! Craig