In my quest to avoid sitting quietly with my dumb thoughts all summer, I ventured to the Staten Island Shipyard last week with Roger Kisby. It’s a fairly easy place to get to, it’s address pops up on a google search, but mild trespassing is still unavoidable. But “mild trespassing” is the same as “open” in terms of exploring so really, anyone can go. All photos by me, unless otherwise noted.
We went through the backyard of an abandoned house, where we found this little house thing that I assume was part of a boat?
The Shipyard is a pretty big expanse of space of rotting wood, houseboats, tugboats, steamboats and tankers.
Old boats used to be brought here to be scrapped, however now that the river in this area is undergoing a clean up after years of pollution, the boats are being hauled away and sunk so this won’t be around for much longer.
It can get really muddy when the tide is out so you have to scamper along a mud shore. Wear boots. Actually, wear those fishman wading boots if you have ‘em, then you can get closer to the ships. (Photo by Roger Kisby)
After this section, it looked like there was another section over the ridge, but by this point we both were getting sun madness and had to turn back.
this rotted houseboat is where I want to go to die.
(photo by Roger Kisby) See what I mean about wearing boots? I’m not kidding. My exploring shoes are Clarks Orinocco Dip boots. Actually all my boots are Clarks but these ones are the best. They’re super comfortable and I’ve had them for over 3 years now and they’ve gone to many an abandoned site, overseas twice (meaning lots and lots of walking/exploring) and on countless cross country trips. Clarks should sponsor me HINT HINT
A scale inside of the shack behind the abandoned house we snuck through.
This little bird laid her eggs in a pile of garbage and did that thing where she pretended like she had a broken wing to distract us from her trash babies. I totally fell for it.
There’s a section of the shipyard that we didn’t get to on account of not knowing about it, but I’m going back for round 2 later this summer. In the meantime, if you want to visit this place, just google Arthur Kill Shipyard and the address and directions pop right up. In the mean time, I have more photos on flickr
Also, if you live around here, or in any city I might travel to, and know of awesome shit to explore, you can always drop me an email at juliajwertz@gmail.com or tweet it to me. If I can explore it on my own, I’ll probably do that, but if I need your help, fine, just promise not to do a murder on me or get me all stabbed up and stuff because I just don’t have time for that racket.
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Living and working so close to people all day like I do, breathing stale shared air, it must be wonderful to get somewhere no longer burdened with voluminous humanity.
I fall for that broken wing thing all the time, too. With birds. And with people.
I’d like to see you release a book of these explorations.
The bird is a killdeer. Nice photos!
Muzition, a killdeer? No wonder it “did that thing where she pretended like she had a broken wing to distract us from her trash babies.” From Red-Tails in Love : A Wildlife Drama in Central Park by Marie Winn,
“…But the broken-wing display is not the only trick in the killdeer’s bag. The bird has a repertory of dramatic numbers, choosing one or another depending on the type of predator it encounters. If a big beast like a cow appears out of nowhere and is about to step on the killdeer’s nest or stumble on its young, there’s no time for Method acting. In this case it produces its ‘ungulate display.’ As the cow approaches the parent bird positions itself directly in front of the animal, all the while flashing its wings and making a big racket. This startles the cow. It stops in its tracks and doesn’t take that fatal step. In the ungulate display, the killdeer is not pretending to be sick or injured; as it flies and flashes its wings in the very face of a big and dangerous animal, it might be said to be feigning insanity!…”