Brooklyn By The Bomb-Bay

Dredging plans in Gravesend Bay to develop a Brooklyn waterfront waste-transfer station just took an unexpected trip down to Davey Jones' Locker. Assemblyman William Colton (D-Brooklyn) learned that back in 1954, a barge unloading live ammunition from the aircraft carrier Bennington capsized in the bay. Sunk to the bottom went 219 tons of munitions. The barge turned up the next day but over 15,000 shells failed to turn up with it. The Navy said that by 1955, it had recovered all 15,003 shells. Let’s hope they recovered each and every one of them. Let’s hope too that should dredging proceed, all precautions will be taken … just in case the Navy's shell count was wrong … intentionally or not.