Sunday, December 27, 2020

Tip of the Ship

While driving around Cape May down the Jersey shore,
this blogger once stumbled upon a curious sight just off the shoreline in an area known as Sunset Beach. It appeared to be the rusted portion of some kind of structure poking up straight out of the water at high tide. As the people in the vicinity paid little attention to it, I concluded that whatever it was, it had been there for a while.

Later, I learned this haunting anachronism I accidentally encountered was, in fact, the wreck of the S.S. Atlantus, one of an elite few concrete ships built for World War I’s Emergency Fleet circa 1918.

The Atlantus was actually launched a month after the end of the war, built by the Liberty Ship Building Company in Georgia to serve as a transport for returning U.S. troops. They radically opted for concrete as an alternative to steel which was in short supply during the war. The availability of steel soon saw the decommissioning of the concrete ships after the war had ended.












In 1926, while awaiting a new role in a ferry operation in Cape May County, the Atlantus broke free during a storm and ran aground 150 feet from the coast where the eroded hull still peeks above water today. For a time, a painted billboard hung on the wreckage advertising boat insurance.

We will inevitably see less of the historic shipwreck as years go by, epitomizing the temporary nature of history itself. Perhaps it symbolizes our perspective in the overall scope of history where the salty waters of time continue to slowly wash away that which remains of the past.

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Christopher Robinson

Sunday, December 20, 2020

There She Stands, So Grand Near the Sand

She’s nearly 65 feet tall, 140 years old and can put away more peanuts than they pack at the Planters factory. Sound like anyone you know?

Built in 1881 by James Lafferty, Jr., Lucy the Elephant is an instantly recognizable building and National Historic Landmark located in Margate, New Jersey.

Much like the iconic Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, Lucy was erected to attract visitors to a nearby area of real estate, viewable from her observation ‘howdah.’

Created primarily out of tin and wood, the 90-ton monstrous mammal sports a spiral staircase within her hind leg leading to quarters that house a gift shop, museum and offices.

Originally the first of three such oddities, Lucy soon weathered and deteriorated but was spared from destruction in the 1960s through the locals’ ‘Save Lucy’ campaign and survived a hurricane and even a lightning bolt!

Her ill-fated younger cousins who kept watch over Coney Island, Brooklyn and Cape May, New Jersey, respectively, are now but ‘elephant’s memories.’

Inquiring cryptozoologists can visit Lucy for guided tours which are given continually during her daily open hours. She can even be rented on Airbnb... but I suppose, in the words of Groucho Marx, “that’s entirely irr-elephant.”

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Christopher Robinson