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The Staten Island boat graveyard is a marine scrapyard located in the Arthur Kill in Rossville, near the
The abandoned and decomposing vessels, mostly cargo ships and tugboats, come from "all decades of the 20th century". They sit in the mud and shallow water until they are dismantled or salvaged. Some of them are historic, so that the place has been called an "accidental marine museum". Vessels of historic interest include the submarine chaser , the first
Donjon Recycling
Wikimapia
{{coord, 40.555503, -74.215738, scale:3500, display=title Ship graveyards Ship disposal Port of New York and New Jersey Contemporary archaeology Maritime archaeology 1930s establishments in New York City Buildings and structures in Staten Island Tourist attractions in Staten Island
Fresh Kills Landfill
The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the New York City borough of Staten Island in the United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island.
The landfil ...
, on the West Shore of Staten Island, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. It is known by many other names including the Witte Marine Scrap Yard, the Arthur Kill Boat Yard, and the Tugboat Graveyard. Its official name as of 2014 is the Donjon Iron and Metal Scrap Processing Facility.
History
The scrapyard was founded in the 1930s by John J. Witte and managed by him until his death in 1980. It was then taken over by his son-in-law, Joe Coyne, who described it as similar to an automobilesalvage yard
A wrecking yard (Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian English), scrapyard (Irish, British and New Zealand English) or junkyard (American English) is the location of a business in dismantling where wrecked or decommissioned vehicles are brough ...
, with the boats serving as a source of parts to sell. It is now managed by John Witte's son Arnold. It contains about 100 boats and ships, down from an earlier high of 400.
Site
The abandoned and decomposing vessels, mostly cargo ships and tugboats, come from "all decades of the 20th century". They sit in the mud and shallow water until they are dismantled or salvaged. Some of them are historic, so that the place has been called an "accidental marine museum". Vessels of historic interest include the submarine chaser , the first World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
US Navy ship to have a predominantly African-American crew; and the New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...
fireboat
A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipme ...
'' Abram S. Hewitt'', which served as the floating command post at the 1904 sinking of the passenger ferry , a disaster that killed more than a thousand people.
The site is hard to reach and posted with "No trespassing" signs. Nevertheless, there are some visitors: marine historians explore the area via boats or kayaks, while the decaying ships are a popular subject for photographers and artists. Because of its eerie environment, the location has become a tourist attraction, despite its remote location and difficult accessibility via "a makeshift path of street signs and wood planks into muddy marshland and to the edge of the water where the boats are visible."
Media
A documentary, ''Graves of Arthur Kill'', was filmed in 2012. Scenes from the 2010 thriller ''Salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
'' were filmed on site.
References
External links
Donjon Recycling
Wikimapia
{{coord, 40.555503, -74.215738, scale:3500, display=title Ship graveyards Ship disposal Port of New York and New Jersey Contemporary archaeology Maritime archaeology 1930s establishments in New York City Buildings and structures in Staten Island Tourist attractions in Staten Island