''Quester I'' is the name of a

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

built in 1967 by Jerry Bianco, a shipyard worker in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York City. Bianco built the submarine from salvaged metal, with the goal of either raising, or salvaging valuables from, the wreck of the Italian passenger liner , which sank off

Nantucket Sound Nantucket Sound_(geography), Sound is a roughly triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean offshore from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is long and wide, and is enclosed by Cape Cod on the north, Nantucket on the south, and Martha's Vineyar ...

in 1956 after being hit broadside by another liner.Kevin Walsh, Mike Olshan C
"The Yellow Submarine of Coney Island Creek,"
Forgotten New York, September 16, 2006.
"It was Wednesday, July 25th 1956. At 11:10 p.m. on a dark and foggy night, two great ocean liners, T/N Andrea Doria and MV Stockholm, collided near Nantucket, Massachusetts . . " Due to a protracted rescue effort, only 46 deaths occurred while 1160 persons survived the sinking.

Launch attempt

In 1967, after three years of part-time construction efforts, Bianco prepared to launch the submarine. While lowering it down with a crane, the vessel tipped sideways and became stuck in the mud. Bianco tried to recover the vessel, but was unable to raise sufficient funds for the effort. However, one source claims that the vessel was eventually unstuck and was sailed up and down the bay before sinking at its mooring in the bay. Another story explains that the launch failure was due to the crane operator's disregarding the builder's directions; since only partial ballast had been placed inside the submarine (to save money), it was unstable, and thus was to be held in position by the crane while the ballast would be properly repositioned. Placing it completely into the water, the unstable craft rolled onto its side. This story states that "Bianco later refilled the ballast and tethered the sub, but his backers' enthusiasm waned, and he could never return to the project. Eventually some of the sub's parts were stolen, and it got loose from its moorings in 1981."

Present day

As of 2024 the vessel was either largely or partly visible (depending on the tide) above the

Coney Island Creek Coney Island Creek is a tidal inlet in Brooklyn, New York City. It was created from a series of streams and inlets by land filling and digging activities starting in the mid-18th century which, by the 19th century, became a continual strait an ...

's water. It was painted bright yellow at launch; but it developed a sheen of orange rust. The cap, which always remains unsubmerged, retains more of its bright yellow color, from the

zinc chromate Zinc chromate, Zn Cr O4, is a chemical compound, a salt containing the chromate anion, appearing as odorless yellow powder or yellow-green crystals, but, when used for coatings, pigments are often added. It is used industrially in chromate con ...

paint used in its construction.

References

External links

The Yellow Submarine at Coney Island Creek - interview with Jerry Bianco by Charles Denson
''The Abandoned Submarine in Coney Island Creek'', Yahoo Voices

Young, Lauren, ''A Graphic Guide to All the Weird Things in New York City's Waterways'', Atlas Obscura (20 July 2016) Personal submarines 1967 ships Shipwrecks of the New York (state) coast Coney Island {{Coney Island