The Staten Island Ferry Disaster Memorial
September 25, 2016 5:11 AM   Subscribe

"...Adding to the tragedy, is that this disaster went almost completely unnoticed by the public as later that day another, more “newsworthy” tragedy would befall the nation when beloved President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. The Staten Island Ferry Disaster Museum hopes to correct this oversight by preserving the memory of those lost in this tragedy and educating the public about the truth behind the only known giant octopus-ferry attack in the tri-state area."
posted by jenkinsEar (49 comments total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
New York Post:
There aren’t really giant octopuses here — are there?” asked Nicole Welsh of Melbourne, Australia, casting a wary eye over the seemingly placid waters of New York Harbor last week.

Glossy fliers touting the nonexistent Staten Island Ferry Disaster Memorial Museum began popping up in downtown Manhattan and on Staten Island three weeks ago. They promise an octopus petting zoo, historical exhibits and a “Ferry Disastore” gift shop. It includes directions to a fictitious shoreline address across the street from the Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

Workers at the center, which houses dozens of cultural groups, have been running into confused visitors wandering around the sprawling grounds looking in vain for the ferry-disaster museum.
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:43 AM on September 25, 2016 [12 favorites]


the only known giant octopus-ferry attack in the tri-state area.

"Attack" is a very judgemental word. Couldn't they have called it something like "giant octopus-ferry greeting" or "giant octopus-ferry friendly embrace"? Something neutral.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 5:49 AM on September 25, 2016 [38 favorites]


I looked over the site and can't really find any evidence that it was an octopus. Given what we know of the behavior of large cephalopods, I think a squid is a far more likely culprit.
posted by TedW at 6:00 AM on September 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


Bah, don't be silly there are no octopi or even that the largest giant squid seen in the wild could not do this.

It is proof that the Kraken is alive and coming for us all.
posted by sammyo at 6:14 AM on September 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


That's brilliant!
posted by hwestiii at 6:15 AM on September 25, 2016


It is proof that the Kraken is alive and coming for us all.

I have a Kraken and mostly she just wakes me up at four in the morning to eat.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 6:18 AM on September 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


Loved this. Gotta admit, I was suckered for a minute.
posted by widdershins at 6:39 AM on September 25, 2016 [17 favorites]


From 2011: Octopi Wall Street
posted by otherchaz at 6:41 AM on September 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


Are the shirts real? I might want one. For reasons.
posted by papayaninja at 6:46 AM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Love this so much I am thinking of going to staten island. Yes, THAT much.
posted by Busithoth at 6:53 AM on September 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


Dude, the t-shirts are apparently real. Seriously considering getting one, although I would never be able to explain it.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:58 AM on September 25, 2016


the only known giant octopus-ferry attack in the tri-state area.

I like that they are leaving the possibility of unknown giant octopus-ferry attacks open.
posted by srboisvert at 7:00 AM on September 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


What is the normal size range for octopus-ferries?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:03 AM on September 25, 2016 [7 favorites]


I was just reading (again) the wonderful post on the discovery of the HMS Terror and spookiness thereof, so this post is a very fitting chaser.
posted by fight or flight at 7:09 AM on September 25, 2016


The legend lives on from Manhatten on down
of the big Bay controlled by the Port Authority.
The Bay, it is said, never gives up her dead
when the skies of November turn squirmy.
With a load of 400 Staten-ites more
than the Cornelius G. Kolff weighed empty,
that good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
when the "Octopus of November" came early.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 7:24 AM on September 25, 2016 [45 favorites]


Waitaminnit...these monsters are good at camouflage, right? What if the 'grassy knoll' wasn't really just a hill? Connect the dots, sheeple!
posted by sexyrobot at 7:33 AM on September 25, 2016 [8 favorites]


"Attack" is a very judgemental word. Couldn't they have called it something like "giant octopus-ferry greeting" or "giant octopus-ferry friendly embrace"? Something neutral. - posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl

I'd feel more convinced of your neutrality on this issue if it weren't for the many years of stories of cars disappearing from the Washington Bridge and being found abandoned later with their roofs scrunched up, all the glass broken, and no sign at all of their erstwhile occupants. Just how big is your wingspan anyway?
posted by ambrosen at 7:34 AM on September 25, 2016 [10 favorites]


I suspect Chris Christie might somehow have been involved.
posted by Postroad at 7:38 AM on September 25, 2016 [15 favorites]


Surely an octopus-ferry would be some sort of water-filled conveyance capable of carrying commuting cephalopods over inconvenient stretches of land, while the cunning creatures await the drowning of the Surface World?
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:56 AM on September 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


Wait, the NY Post revealed this to be a hoax? Kettle, black.
posted by AugustWest at 7:58 AM on September 25, 2016


Staten Island politicians have been wondering for years how to attract tourist dollars from Manhattan. Who knew it would take a fake octopus attack to do so? Hee hee. (Although, maybe the artist is on to something with that octopus petting zoo...)

Well, in real life, the Cornelius G. Kolff was used as dormitories for Rikers Island Prison, and later sold for scrap in 2003.
posted by Soliloquy at 8:01 AM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Never forget
posted by cazoo at 8:17 AM on September 25, 2016


I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see
An octopus' garden with me
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus' garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around
Because we know we can't be found
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade

Clearly The Beatles had something to do with it.....
posted by grimjeer at 8:33 AM on September 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


Finally, an 11/22/63 conspiracy theory I can believe in!
posted by kozad at 8:55 AM on September 25, 2016 [6 favorites]


When word of the attack reached President Kennedy, his head exploded in sheer amazement, much to the chagrin of Lee Harvey Oswald/the Mob/Cuban Intelligence/The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy/The Greys/Free Masons who wasted a whole day in that stupid warehouse.
posted by dr_dank at 9:19 AM on September 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


damn it I am so gullible
posted by Hermione Granger at 9:30 AM on September 25, 2016 [7 favorites]


This is wonderful. And I need that shirt.
posted by Mchelly at 9:51 AM on September 25, 2016


Along with the T-shirts, I wonder if he is still selling any "Jaws"-themed baby cribs.
posted by mephisjo at 9:53 AM on September 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


[scrolls allll the way down]

Copyright Super Fun Co.

Aha!
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:53 AM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


the facebook page for the museum A++++
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:01 AM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


In the first draft of My Neighbor Totoro, the kids ride on an octopus-ferry.

Then the screenwriters realized the running time was only three minutes and reconsidered.
posted by zippy at 10:20 AM on September 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


My process.

Read the post headline : 'Ha ha some sort of spoof joke."
Clink the link: " ...wait, what? This look sorta real."
Reading more " Okay this does look real and you know what I WANT TO BELIEVE cause this is cool"
Allows self to believe for a bit in my outer brain even though my inner brain is whispering. "Ok come on you know it's not real but I'll play a long for a few cause GIANT OCTOPUS AND FERRY!"
Inner brain says enough is enough.
Me: "Sigh. Oh well it was fun pretending for a bit."
posted by Jalliah at 10:23 AM on September 25, 2016 [5 favorites]


I'm pretty sad that there's only a memorial statue. A fake exhibition would be amazing.
posted by ambrosen at 10:29 AM on September 25, 2016 [2 favorites]



"Attack" is a very judgemental word. Couldn't they have called it something like "giant octopus-ferry greeting" or "giant octopus-ferry friendly embrace"? Something neutral.


400 killed and a noble ferry boat destroyed, and you can't pick a side?

Fuck neutral. Giant Octopi are bastards and it's us or them, so crew the harpoon cannons!
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 10:35 AM on September 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


I've picked a side, it's just not your side.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:39 AM on September 25, 2016 [16 favorites]


I spent 5 months in 2012 just before Hurricane Sandy living and working on Staten Island for an archaeology project. We lived out of a Hilton hotel, and saw parades of hairdos and fashions the likes of which have not been seen on the mainland for 25 years.

We ate at the many delicious diverse restaurants, like Enoteca Maria, Bayou, Jade Island tiki bar, Sri Lankan, Central American food galore, we shopped at Western Beef and rode the ferry on the weekends into the city. We grew to love that grimy little time capsule island like we loved our grimy home island, Lil' Rhody.

A historically overshadowed kraken attack on the SI Ferry and a present-day memorial is so f*ing Staten Island. God bless and keep the Island of Shaolin.
posted by Queen of Spreadable Fats at 10:46 AM on September 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


In the historical documents edited by MeFi's own Cstross there has been no mention of this incident. Had the Old Ones done such an act we would have read about it there. I'm calling shenanigans.
posted by Ber at 10:51 AM on September 25, 2016 [2 favorites]


Ooh, Staten Island Ferry post, here's where I can post my only semi-famous ancestor story - my great-great grandfather was the captain of the ferry during this earlier disaster that led to NYC taking over operation of the ferry.
posted by waitingtoderail at 11:22 AM on September 25, 2016 [6 favorites]


Suckers.
posted by etherist at 11:56 AM on September 25, 2016 [4 favorites]


Fake, because a memorial depicting the tentacles/attack would be inappropriate and retraumatizing.
posted by polymodus at 12:27 PM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thanks, Obama.
posted by Sebmojo at 12:53 PM on September 25, 2016


I suspect Chris Christie might somehow have been involved.

few people know it, but he used to be a 90 pound weakling - in 1963 ...
posted by pyramid termite at 1:07 PM on September 25, 2016


Clearly The Beatles had something to do with it.....

Well one of them was a walrus.
posted by octobersurprise at 1:48 PM on September 25, 2016


I did a little bit of Wikipedia research and found that Spider-Man comics were only about a year old in November 1963, but the first appearance of Spidey's enemy Doctor Octopus was in July 1963, just a few months before the ferry disaster. Now THERE is an Octo that could take down a ship!
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:45 PM on September 25, 2016


His hoax “is not malicious,” he said, “but I guess some people are agitated about it.” One hoodwinked woman tracked him down and berated him over the phone. “How can you get so bent out of shape?” he said. “It’s a joke.” from NY post link.

I get bent out of shape because I'm tragically gullible and as a result of being hoodwinked by stories other people would automatically dismiss, I am incredibly and unsucessfully cynical. But despite this, it didn't occur to me that showing the tentacle moment in the monument was of such bad taste it couldn't be real. I felt sad for the families who never had their pain publicly acknowledged because of JFK's death at the same time (totally believable to me), and how much they must feel alienated when there is public mourning for a national tragedy. I wouldn't ring the artist to complain though.
posted by b33j at 3:03 PM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


I think C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley were on that ferry.
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:25 PM on September 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


I thought the title of this post was announcing a new Sufjan Stevens song.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:47 PM on September 25, 2016 [3 favorites]


Finally, an 11/22/63 conspiracy theory I can believe in!

Not just that one...
Here's a picture of the S.S. Cornelius G. Kolff with the World Trade Center in the background. At least 7 years after it disappeared! And then it's conveniently 'sold for scrap' shortly after the WTC attack...
posted by MtDewd at 11:13 AM on September 26, 2016


Mrs. Pterodactyl: "Attack" is a very judgemental word. Couldn't they have called it something like "giant octopus-ferry greeting" or "giant octopus-ferry friendly embrace"?

"I Crush Everything..."
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 12:25 PM on September 26, 2016


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