The 8 Weirdest Things Found In The Waters Around NYC

Rob Grams • September 27, 2016

Much of the worlds oceans remain unexplored, most of the underwater world is still a mystery. In contrast, here in NYC, our waters have had more than their fair share of exploration, and more than their fair share of macabre discoveries. Here we highlight the 8 weirdest things found in the waters around our city. Enjoy:

A giraffe corpse

If you were thinking of things you might find in the waters around NYC, an African land-mammal probably wouldn’t be at the top of the list… but it IS at he top of this list. The Army Corps of Engineers found a dead giraffe in Lower New York Bay. According to New York magazine, sometime in the early 1980s, the poor animal jumped into the water attempting to escape from a circus ship.

Antique dining table

A commercial diver called Lenny Speregen who has seen the old dining table told New York magazine. “It’s standing upright, totally free and clear. It makes me want to go down there with teacups and set it up.”

Ice cream trucks

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation dumped a fleet of Good Humor ice cream in the waters near Atlantic Beach In 1969. Don’t panic, this wasn’t illegal dumping, this was part of a plan to create an artificial reef.

1,600 silver bars

In 1903, a barge carrying 7,678 silver ingots capsized in the harbor between Staten Island and New Jersey. 6,000 of the bars were eventually recovered but there are still 1,600 ingots worth about $26 million today underwater somewhere.

A robot hand

No, this isn’t the plot of a new Terminator movie. Deep in the menacingly named Great Kills Park beach in Staten Island a mysterious robotic hand was found underwater… somewhere in Staten Island is a robot from the future looking for Sarah Connor.

Dead bodies

Ever heard the phrase “Cement Shoes?” The waters around NYC are littered with dead bodies. The photo above is of a body discovered in Brooklyn.

Cement-eating creatures

Lots of animals call the waters around New York City home. They range from the relatively mundane fish and common water-life, to the crustaceans known as Limnoria tripunctata. Pictured above, they gnaw on concrete and are the cause of a lot of degradation along the coast of NYC.

A shipwreck on a shipwreck

There are hundreds of shipwrecks in the lower Hudson River, but maybe the strangest is a pair of shipwrecks near Yonkers, New York — a cabin cruiser lying on top of the wreck of a much older ship, which was likely a 19th-century sailing ship.

Featured image source [livescience]