The Abandoned Marine

[CLKunst]

Ok Folks,

Just wanted to take a sec and say that this forum has really inspired me to go back and dig around in my "Art" folders for images I have done and put away because they weren't "work". As a photog who is often documenting someone else's event/life it has been a great diversion and renewal for me. Thanks!

I am working on one which I took earlier in the year just outside of New York City along the New Jersey Turnpike. Something which I have always glimpsed in my rear view mirror. If anyone has any information about it on a local history level I would love to hear about it as well.

I invite your comments.

[gahspidy]

Hey C.L Kunst I'm glad you find the forum has had it's effect on you. I think we all inspire one another here to do and see things in other ways and open up some more. As for your image, I can only think that this perhaps was a Ferry that operated between N.J and N.Y as there are many such ones, as well as Ferries that run from N.Y to statue of Liberty and Staten Island. Your angle and point of view here was not ideal as it appears like the structures in the bg are part of the ferry, and all the brush in front. For this particuliar vantage point, I think using a wider angle lens and seeing more of the wreck in it's surroundings would be more effective. But I understand that you were going for more of a shot in a documentary type way trying to get more detail and the name on the side perhaps for info about it. I do hope you are able to uncover some info about this and fill us in. Thanks

[Knight]

This link may put you on the right track, the photo you have posted here seems to be even older than the ones on this site

http://www.answers.com/topic/staten-island-ferry

[CLKunst]

Thanks for the link Knight. It does look a lot like an OLDer Kennedy class style ferry, but they didn't list anything about incidents invovling a ferry called "the Marine" so I'll have to keep digging.

Thanks Gary. Here is a panoramic crop of a wider angle done at the same time. I would love to cop a different angle out of this or better still get up to it some way. Living in Virginia I make this trip about once or twice a year to visit relatives and this "scene" is only accessible from the shoulder of the North bound side of the Jersey Turnpike just before or just after Weehawken, I forget which. Anyway, the boats are surrounded in a marshy backwater and it seems like this is the best angle I'm ever going to get without a boat. I've also sent an e-mail to the guy who does the history site for the town of Weehawken and I'm hoping that gets some answers. Ultimately, I think I like this old barge so much because I am just drawn to urban decay.

[VISUS]

The cropped shot is way more powerful for me, evoking emotion, versus just viewing a scene. The quality of the colors highlighted on the ship give the image a haunting tone.
This is a sight that I personally would consider more of an eye-sore; however your image captured the scene in such a way, as to force/challnged me (as the viewer) to see it in a new 'light.' kudos.

[gahspidy]

This cropped version is very good. Huge improvement. It sounds l**** a good idea in contacting someone about the boat, I think you'll get some answers. I was talking to a friend of mine who lives in N.J and she was telling me that there was a ferry accident in which a ferry ran up onto the shore somewhere in the last year or two.

[CLKunst]

My father gave me some better information about the true location of my rusty ferry boat and through some deduction and thanks to google, we have a weird little history about the abandoned ferry "The Mary Murray". Here's a link and thanks for the help all. I feel like I've completed a circle somehow.

http://www.abandonednj.com/exp/mmf/mmf.html

Actually, upon further review this boat seems to have something of a cult following.
And as an even weirder aside the "yacht" sharing the mud with her used to belong to the Shah of Iran, go figure! That's the urban legend anyway. There are also pictures from folks who got on board. http://www.funnelnet.com/darren/murray.html From the looks of it not highly recommended!! Now I know too much!

[gahspidy]

thanks for sharing the info. . .very interesting history.