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jeremiason · 11-10-2013, 08:19

Sometimes there are chart notes indicating what is on the bottom, but mostly the maritime charts only indicate this so you don't drop anchor there and snag or active a bomb or other ordinance.

Here is the Chart 1 link to the Restricted Areas

It could have been a Airplane Bombing, Gunnery range or a place the military got rid of old ordinance (Anything from bombs to bullets). Really anything is possible since most of the ocean dumping was really not regulated until about 35 or 40 years ago.

You can also usually search the internet with the areas local name and will find answers to your questions about what might be there.

Cheechako · 11-10-2013, 08:22

I've seen those several times on charts... it must be quite common!
Dont feel bad, we have active torpedoe testing areas in Puget Sound!

scoobert · 11-10-2013, 08:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Dont feel bad, we have active torpedoe testing areas in Puget Sound!

glad i am fiberglass now, lol

Paul L · 11-10-2013, 10:11

It is also a less than subtle suggestion to not bottom trawl in the area.

DeepFrz · 11-10-2013, 10:19

There was some concern a few years ago about chemical weapons dumped off of Newfoundland. I don't know if the site was ever cleared up or is still there.

A rather chilling map...

http://cns.miis.edu/stories/090806_cw_dumping.htm

MarkSF · 11-10-2013, 10:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snore

Okay seriously. This could be from WWII when Floyd. Bennett and Idlewild were training airports for air crews.

How exactly does one go about training an airport? Are they fast learners?

**hpeer** · 11-10-2013, 11:16

In the late '60's early '70's I worked on clam draggers out of Barnegat Light. It was common for us to dredge up old hand grenades. Was always told that they were WWII surplus.

Never heard of anyone getting hurt by one, even back then.

**hpeer** · 11-10-2013, 11:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

There was some concern a few years ago about chemical weapons dumped off of Newfoundland. I don't know if the site was ever cleared up or is still there.

A rather chilling map...

Chemical Weapon Munitions Dumped at Sea: An Interactive Map | CNS Feature Stories | James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS)

Interesting, looked at that site and there a LOT of dump areas of NJ not shown.

Maybe someone should share our charts with them!

DeepFrz · 11-10-2013, 11:43

Quote:

Interesting, looked at that site and there a LOT of dump areas of NJ not shown.

Are you talking "Chemical Weapons Dump Sites" or just weapons dump sites? I have never seen a chart declaring Chemical weapons dump site.

**hpeer** · 11-10-2013, 13:04

I always just assumed that some of what was down there WAS chemical.

I mean, if they are just jettisoning the stuff I kinda doubt that they will be selective.

BTW....bored on a 5 hour conference call....I googled up this treasure.

SPECIAL REPORT: The Deadliness Below - dailypress.com

hellosailor · 11-10-2013, 13:18

"ok, so we are talking WW2 then? yeah, i would say they are useless at this point. "

Scoobie, you didn't see the TV Nooze clips of the USCG blowing up a classic WW2 horn mine that rolled in this summer, after Hurricane Sandy disturbed things last year?

Those explosives are very often still perfectly explosive. About 20 years ago an archaeology team near DC was excavating some Revolutionary War artifacts and brought a vintage cannonball out of the mud. Made by E.I.Dupont Denemours & Company, no less. Guess what? They washed it off, stuck a fuse in it, and IT BLEW UP. And that was just plain black powder.

Back around 1990, the Suffolk County police (Long Island, NY) got called in by someone who said his neighbor was a scuba diver, had a couple of 4" shells he was using as fireplace andirons. The neighbor said sure, he got them off a wreck, but they were harmless. Guess what the bomb squad detonated? Both shells. Live and well.

When the chart says DO NOT ANCHOR, that's usually sober advice. This stuff happens pretty much every year.

There are many dumping areas, bomb and torpedo practice areas, and similar zones marked off the coast. Yes, you can expect there are still live munitions in all of them.

Cormorant · 11-10-2013, 15:06

This thread reminded me of a bit from Joseph Mitchell's (nonfiction) story "Dragger Captain," about Ellery Thompson, a fisherman out of Stonington and New London back in the 1930s and 40s and 50s.

". . . All these grounds except the Mouth were entered a number of times during the war by enemy submarines, and Army and Navy aircraft dropped hundreds of aerial depth bombs in them, particularly Mussel Bed. Some of the heavier bombs, mostly six-hundred-and-fifty-pounders, stuck in the mud and did not explode, and are lying there still. They will be a menace for years, like the German mines in French farm land. There are suspect areas in the Hell Hole and the Mussel Bed that are shunned by draggermen and spoken of as the bomb beds. In the old days, when a winch creaked and backfired as it began to hoist a net off the bottom, indicating an exceptionally heavy haul, crews were elated and someone always shouted, "Money in the bank!," but nowadays the noise of a straining winch makes them uneasy; the net might be heavy with flounders or it might have a bomb in it. Five draggers--the Carl F., the George A. Arthur, the Gertrude, the Marise, and the Nathaniel B. Palmer--have brought up bombs in their nets. The first four had their nets on the deck before the bombs in them, hidden by fish, were discovered. Rather than attempt to dump them back, each went cautiously to the nearest dock, to which Navy bomb disposal officers were summoned. The bomb caught by the fifth dragger, the Palmer, was plainly visible, but it exploded shortly after the net hove out of the water, while the crew stood staring at it, wondering what to do. It blasted the dragger and three of the four men in the crew to pieces; the fourth man was freakishly thrown clear."

(pp 541-42 in "Up in the Old Hotel")