2008-08-03

Urban Spelunk: Boat Graveyard (Episode 1)

The Witte Marine Scrap Yard, also know as the Arthur Kill Boat Yard, or colloquially the Staten Island Boat Graveyard is a region of the channel between Staten Island and New Jersey harboring the scuttled and deteriorating remains of hundreds of marine vessels from the early 1900s to the present. Destined for repurpose, salvage, or destruction, the ships sit marooned in the mud of the harbor until they are bought and refurbished, dismantled for parts and scrap, or deteriorate and sink.


One fine August morning a band of amateur urban spelunkers gathered together some makeshift floatation devices and swam out to (a part of) the site to explore.