March 28, 2006
Ghost Ship!
filed under: Idle ChatterI was randomly perusing Google Maps today, and discovered a very odd thing.
Up at the 50th Street Cruise Ship Docks, sure enough, there's a big cruise ship berthed. Makes sense, right? Here she is:
But then you zoom up closer, and look at this action:
What's going on here? Is Google Maps doctoring their images? Did the Andrea Doria berth at the West Side Docks?
Posted by rjt at March 28, 2006 03:28 PMI spoke to Dan Strasgaard, Deputy Portsmaster for NYC, and he said that what you see is a common trick of light that happens when photographing over water when the sun is between 10am and 2pm. So the water appears to float above the boat. As for the bow of the ship disappearing under the roadway, Dan explained that this is also a common phenomenon when a ship carrying the damned docks in NYC before the Solstice. Also, if it is a lost ship from the river Styx, one could see the souls of unrepentant sinners trapped behind the port-holes, if your camera could zoom in that far. If it is merely a corporeal manifestation of a group consciousness focused on a ghost ship or spirit ferry, then it would most likely also have a flag or series of flags.
I later tried to call the Deputy Portsmaster back with some more questions...and I was told Dan Strasgaard had been dead for thirty years!!!
Posted by: perj at March 29, 2006 01:21 PMside note, saw in the sunday NYT that the Queen Mary will be moving to a Brooklyn dock soon (she used to berth around 50th street)
amazing ship - very deep horn, which was a bit odd to hear inside of a basement apartment in hells kitchen
Posted by: frydry at March 29, 2006 01:34 PM