Coney Island Creek
Coney Island Creek, once known as Gravesend Creek, is home to an assortment of ghost ships, rotting piers, and one stranded submarine. One comes across this strange and haunting sight by walking through a thicket at the southern edge of the little used Calvert Vaux Park. It was reported that Vaux, the celebrated co-designer of Central Park became depressed later in life from lack of appreciation of his work. On a foggy morning in 1895 he visited his son, who lived in the area, went for a walk along Coney Island Creek and was later found floating. It is unknown whether he took his own life or became disoriented in the fog and lost his balance.
Coney Island Creek is the only remaining creek in the vicinity that was not filled in as Brooklyn developed. It was originally a small meandering waterway ending in marshlands. Ambitious plans for transforming the area into a thriving port – a Brooklyn rival to Manhattan’s Seaport – inspired Thomas Stillwell and Associates, descendant of early landowners in the Coney area, to canalize the creek connecting it with Sheepshead Bay, making what was at the time Coney Hook into an actual island. The developers referred to the newly expanded creek as the Gravesend Ship Canal. Though wider and deeper the canal was still difficult for ships to navigate, and when the boroughs consolidated in 1898, the plan was abandoned. By 1929 sections of it were filled in to enable rail and car transportation.
During Prohibition, Coney Island Creek was a frequent stop on Rum Row, a watery pathway for schooners smuggling illegal liquor from Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe. Part fo the New York City operation was run by big time mafiosos like Frank Costello , boss of the Luciano crime family, “Big Bill” Dwyer, one time owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and other sports teams, Joe Masseria, boss of the Genovese family, and Frankie “the Undertaker” Yale. In the 1920’s rum runners could often be seen with the Coast Guard in hot pursuit.
From the 1890’s to the 1950’s Brooklyn Borough Gas leeched pollution into the creek. Excavated debris from the building of the Verrazano Bridge as well as other unmonitored dumping added to the murk. No one knows exactly when the ghost ships began appearing near the mouth of the creek, but local residents remember playing on them in the 1950’s when they were still floating. Some of them are said to be old whaling ships whose owners did not want to pay to have them properly disposed of. They would haul them here and burn them down to the waterline. The Army Corps of Engineers has identified abandoned ships in other parts of the city, but not here. The creek sludge is so toxic that disturbing the wrecks would release a litany of dangerous chemicals into the water and air.
Some ingredients of the unsavory soup:
NAPLs (dense and light non-aqueous phase liquids). Contained in fuel, oil, tar, pesticides, and other substances and have a broad range of chemical properties. The class of these considered to be more damaging to soil and aquatic food chains include PCB’s.
PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), mixtures of individual chlorinated compounds manufactured prior to 1977, often found in old fluorescent lighting, electrical equipment and appliances, plastics, oil based paint and more. Long-term effects include cancer and adverse effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine systems.
PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), mostly caused by the incomplete burning of carbon-based materials such as wood, oil, coal, and garbage. Long term exposure may cause lung and skin cancer, fetal defects, and damage to the lungs, liver, and kidneys.
“metals” barium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and silver. Some of which are found in batteries, petroleum, paint, and other materials. In particular cadmium, lead, and mercury can cause damage to the immune system leading possibly to rheumatoid arthritis and diseases of the kidneys, circulatory, and nervous systems.
CSOs — (combined sewer overflow) New York City’s very old sewer system is what is known as a combined sewer system. This system is designed to multi-task. It collects rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater all in the same pipe and delivers it to a publicly owned treatment plant. In the event of heavy rain or melting snow, the sewer’s capacity is exceeded and excess water, including raw sewage and industrial waste is released directly into rivers, streams, estuaries, and coastal waters. A full 10% of the CSO’s in the United States are in New York City.
One of the stranger sights amongst the strewn wreckage is a small, listing yellowish submarine. Jerry Bianco, a former shipbuilder constructed the Quester I from repurposed materials and bargain yellow paint. He planned to find the wreck of the Andrea Doria and its unclaimed treasures off the coast of Rhode Island. There were some initial problems, and before they were solved a storm tore the sub from its moorings and lodged it in the mud far from shore. The sub remains glued to the spot, decaying. She never had her maiden voyage.