Many local New Yorkers rarely think twice about the Staten Island borough. Unassumingly, there lays an inconspicuous pocket of water between Staten Island and New Jersey which holds what first appears as mangled garbage that has collected along the coastline. However, right along the edge of the Arthur Kill waterway actually lies decades of boats put to rest, leaving their maritime lives behind them.
Their final resting spot is known as the Tugboat Graveyard or the Witte Marine Scrap Yard, a place that attracts history buffs and the curious alike.
The scrapyard was originally founded by John J. Witte in the 1930s and at one point housed up to 400 boats. Witte had a slight fixation that such boats were not to be taken apart. Once his son took over in the 1980’s, the number dramatically diminished to less than 30 boats, ferries and other nautical vehicles. Many served their former lives as local city ferries or barges for transporting goods, such as coal or large shipping containers.
It is not uncommon to see an obsolete boat that has been gutted and forgotten, allowing the elements to transform its former glory into a coat of rust and sombrely left askew on the water to decay.
Although the graveyard is not open for public, noted with explicitly visible signs that say “No Trespassing” and “Beware of Dog,” it is a popular site amongst fans and photographers. Many visitors can take a glimpse of the skeletal remains of the wreckage by kayaking by the site, or hiking around the marshy grounds for an opening onto a boat.
There is something captivating about the realization that many things are not timeless. Like the numerous ships permanently at bay at the Tugboat Graveyard.
Note: We try to be as accurate as possible but make no guarantees. Please use this information at your own risk.
Sources:
Photo courtesy of Joseph Kranak without change via Flickr (https://flic.kr/p/9imsj)
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tugboat-graveyard
http://www.wnyc.org/story/99670-the-witte-boneyard-different-kind-graveyard/
https://appropriatelyfrayed.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/tugboat-graveyard/
https://www.wired.com/2014/07/graves-arthur-kill-ship-graveyard/