By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Relic.
Kayaking around New York Harbor, we pass many relics of its maritime past—
— Major General William H. Hart
— the Yellow Submarine, Quester I
— and, of course, the celebrated Graveyard of Ships
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
 | CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
 | Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on The First Leg! |
 | Marilyn Albright on The First Leg! |
| CurlsnSkirls on The First Leg! |
| Johna Till Johnson on Looks Like They Made It! |
 | Pit on Looks Like They Made It! |
| Johna Till Johnson on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| CurlsnSkirls on Halfway There! |
 | Larry Jensen on More Scenes From the Nort… |
| Johna Till Johnson on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
 | Frank Winters on R2AK: Scenes From the Northern… |
| Johna Till Johnson on Halfway There! |
| CurlsnSkirls on Halfway There! |
| Johna Till Johnson on And They’re Off! |
Wind Against Current 
The boat in your first photo must have been a beauty in its heyday.
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She was indeed! Here‘s her history, and here are some shots by Tugster of her opulent interior when she was still relatively intact…
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I always love things of the sea. Great captures.
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Thanks!!
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Some really interesting wrecks Vladimir and some great photos! :-)
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Glad you like them—thanks so much!!
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Wow, what a great site to go on a photo expedition. Wonderful shots. Very haunting.
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Thanks, Ali!!
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The sinking wrecked ships are classic! Get shot :)
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Thank you, Stephanie! :-)
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Pingback: Deserted Relic ~ Weekly Photo Challenge | In Da Campo
That one still seems in fair shape, actually!
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They are all seriously deteriorating—quite visibly, after every storm, every time we paddle past…
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Wonderful. They all look like drunkards who cannot manage another single step, so fell where they lrelics.
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My response should have ended, ‘…they lie where they fell; relics of relics.’
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Unfortunately so. They were of course upright when they were abandoned in these out-of-the way places, but that’s what happens to old ships…
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What a somber scene the graveyard of ships. If they could tell stories…
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Fortunately we have people around who are intensely interested in finding out those stories. Some of the really decayed wrecks can no longer be identified, but for those that can, there’s a lot of detail now available, on the internet, on the histories of these ships. And they do have stories to tell! It’s surprising, for instance, how many of the even quite small ships participated in WWI and WWII, sailing across the Atlantic, taking part in the Normandy invasion… Some ships with such histories are actually still sailing around the harbor as tour boats :-)
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That’s so great Vlad. Must be fascinating to be paddling by them and know where they have been.
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It adds another dimension :-)
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Cool.
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Thanks! :-)
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Terrific haunting photos. We were out at a beach that we heard had old wrecks there, but didn’t see any, this really make up for that :-) !
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On an exposed beach they go fast. These are tucked away in corners of the harbor and survive often for many decades…
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Reblogged this on Locating Frankenstein's Brain.
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Thanks!
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Terrific relics that no one else will be photographing and posting!
Nice.
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Well, we don’t have any medieval saints… :-)
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Wow, very eerie! Great shots.
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Thanks, Celia!
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Eerie,,, even though I notice Celia has beet me to it that was my first impression so I’ll stick with it. However, I’d love to visit and get a few photos as well!
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You need a boat for the best shots, in many cases for any shot at all…
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Great images Vladimir. If I ever get back to NYC I’d love to go see them for myself …. Does anyone run a boat out there ?
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Not really—you’d have to hire one specially.
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Thanks Vladimir – Wes
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Always sad to see a ship that has had its day. Nice shots.
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It is indeed. Thanks, Sandra!
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What a great image, I love the reflections, the sense of decay, and then that ultra modern backdrop. Beautiful
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Yes, the modern city has plenty of interstices in which bits of history hide, on land as well as on the water :-)
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What fascinating relics, and what stories they must hold. Hard to believe these can legally be abandoned to become trash.
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Well, especially today, perhaps not legally. But what has often happened is that these boats were not actually abandoned, at least not at first. Rather, they were moored at someone’s dock, often even with the intention of being brought back into service in one way or another (in the case of Binghamton, for instance, as a floating restaurant). But then plans fail, storms come, the person dies or the company that owns the boat ceases to exist… and ten or twenty years later, the boat has decayed so much that perhaps it is not even afloat, and nobody is really responsible for clearing the wreck away…
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Creepy enough —
Fifth from the top, perhaps Yellow Submarine Quester in silhouette? looks like a monster, kayaking.
(Or just my overactive imagination.)
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Yes, both photos 4 and 5 show the Quester. Very much a monster! :-)
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wow. what a lovely collection of photos you have! Wonderful clicks. May be its a floating museum. Any thoughts.
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None of them is floating any more, unfortunately…
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Hmmm…..
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Sitting on the bottom, stuck in the mud—too far gone…
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Ohhh…:(
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Really cool…I can’t believe they are all still there like that…That’s a sight I would love to see…
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They’ll be around for a few more years… ;-)
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Deux? : )
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? :-)
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I saw the General Hart, wonder why they keep them a float?
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Not afloat any more, unfortunately…
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the decaying ships are kinda creepy…it would be a great setting for a scary movie!
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wow. that yellow submarine is awesome
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It’s a fascinating story, one of many of NYC’s fascinating stories, and, like most of them, little known. I was in New York for years before I came across it…
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