HMS Hussar

[whydahdiver]

Funny you mentioned this. I remember reading that Barry Clifford was poking around looking for it. Then that was it. Not another word on it. I guess it wasn’t the ship he thought it was.

What was the wreck you found?

By the way I think I have an approximate location of the wreck.

We never actually found a wreck, just junk.

 

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[BennyV]

We never actually found a wreck, just junk.

Interesting.

 

[Blak bart]

Many years ago I and Rob McClung dove a site near Riker's Island chasing down a target that Barry Clifford thought was the Hussar, of course it wasn't though. Filthy water and nasty currents, we had to get a bunch of shots as per the health department just to dive in that cesspool. We only saw 2 living things on the bottom: black eels and black crabs neither of which were originally black. We went to Chinatown for dinner and there was a restaurant specializing in seafood, lo and behold what was in the giant tank you ask? Needless to say we didn't eat there!

WD

OMG...thats a nasty dive....think I would rather brave the sharks in the 50 ft. Mud bottom in the hawk channel down here in the keys. I cringe when I get the call to dive, cause I know they can't find anyone else willing to dive the zero vis mud and sharks !! Some things are lost, and lost real good. Don't eat the black crabs !!

 

[Blak bart]

Sounds like the claw that whitey keevan used on el cazador would be the way to go....or maybe a large suction dredge could be used. Shouldn't be any sensitive corals or wildlife, and you would be doing the environment a favor by removing the toxic mud/sludge....headlines would read...."environmental clean up nets gold coins from HMS Hussar" got to pitch the whole treasure hunt to the state of New York as environmental clean up !! Liberal tree hugging government might love the idea.

 

[whydahdiver]

Sounds like the claw that whitey keevan used on el cazador would be the way to go....or maybe a large suction dredge could be used. Shouldn't be any sensitive corals or wildlife, and you would be doing the environment a favor by removing the toxic mud/sludge....headlines would read...."environmental clean up nets gold coins from HMS Hussar" got to pitch the whole treasure hunt to the state of New York as environmental clean up !! Liberal tree hugging government might love the idea.

Great idea, I'll ask the honest government!

 

[BennyV]

Great idea, I'll ask the honest government!

Too busy fighting over masks

 

[whydahdiver]

Too busy fighting over masks

Not dive masks either for sure. We used full face masks, twin 80's and almost 80 pounds of lead to stay on the bottom. While hanging on the line to decompress the current strung me out like a kite in a gale. I'll take the Whydah any day even with the sharks1

 

[Blak bart]

Yikes....that some scary chit !!

 

[BennyV]

Not dive masks either for sure. We used full face masks, twin 80's and almost 80 pounds of lead to stay on the bottom. While hanging on the line to decompress the current strung me out like a kite in a gale. I'll take the Whydah any day even with the sharks1

How deep was that wreck?

My charts show this wreck in 80ish feet

 

[whydahdiver]

How deep was that wreck?

My charts show this wreck in 80ish feet

It was 80-90 feet of crystal clear water! We had to get shots including oral polio, tetanus and a few others. I got my first and only ear infection, our suits had to be rinsed off with Clorox and water. We used Viking dry suits. We hired a private 35 foot boat with a captain and deck hand. Once we anchored in the spot, we had to radio the tugs hauling garbage scows to tell them we were diving, I can't repeat what those tug captains had to say but use your imagination: lots of F bombs!

 

[njcommercialdiver]

Many years ago I and Rob McClung dove a site near Riker's Island chasing down a target that Barry Clifford thought was the Hussar, of course it wasn't though. Filthy water and nasty currents, we had to get a bunch of shots as per the health department just to dive in that cesspool. We only saw 2 living things on the bottom: black eels and black crabs neither of which were originally black. We went to Chinatown for dinner and there was a restaurant specializing in seafood, lo and behold what was in the giant tank you ask? Needless to say we didn't eat there!

WD

never did any work up that far, but did many many hours over the years under the pier doing pile surveys and repairs at Con Edison Farragut station across from pier 36 and next to the manhattan bridge. and in Newtown Creek at Hugo Schnitzer by the pulaski bridge

 

[BennyV]

It was 80-90 feet of crystal clear water! We had to get shots including oral polio, tetanus and a few others. I got my first and only ear infection, our suits had to be rinsed off with Clorox and water. We used Viking dry suits. We hired a private 35 foot boat with a captain and deck hand. Once we anchored in the spot, we had to radio the tugs hauling garbage scows to tell them we were diving, I can't repeat what those tug captains had to say but use your imagination: lots of F bombs!

Ha welcome to NY!

 

[BennyV]

never did any work up that far, but did many many hours over the years under the pier doing pile surveys and repairs at Con Edison Farragut station across from pier 36 and next to the manhattan bridge. and in Newtown Creek at Hugo Schnitzer by the pulaski bridge

I’m sure you saw some stuff down there.

Wouldn’t be surprised if that whole river becomes a superfund site one day.

 

[njcommercialdiver]

I’m sure you saw some stuff down there.

Wouldn’t be surprised if that whole river becomes a superfund site one day.

oh, many many times. we would see floaters all the time, so much, we got used to it, when we would go into work in the morning and occasionally there was one nestled up next to the barge. its new york what else could you say?. call the coasties and nypd, i didnt really feel like diving today so we would sit there and watch the show

and all the coney island whitefish floating in the dock slips, sometimes it was like a mass migration on the outgoing tide

i was doing a job in linden at the Kinder morgan / ST services dock and went down to the base of the piles and when i touched bottom, i could smell literally smell shit inside my sealed Kirby morgan helmet, thats how strong the smell was

alot of times, we would hook a loopless sling onto the crane and i would climb into it and they would raise and drop me into the water to wash the unknowns off me, then after a half dozen times, climb onboard and unsuit, then rinse down with water from the hydrants

 

[UnderMiner]

I regularly hunt the waters of NYC, been doing it intently as of late. Find all sorts of artifacts including intact crockery. New of a guy who would regularly go out looking for artifacts from the Hussar. He claimed to have found the wreck site - or at least the debris field left from the wreck, he says it's located off the shore of some land currently owned by an oil company. I saw pictures of things he pulled up from the site, can't say for sure if they're Hussar artifacts, but they're definetly old.

New York State did an underwater side sonar survey of the waters of NYC, they never released the details of their finds to the public, but I know that they located so many wrecks (I think it was something like 4,000 of them) that they didn't have the resources to investigate them all. They didn't want private citizens "looting" these wrecks so kept the information private (which makes no sense since they used taxpayer dollars for their reserch).

One thing's for certain, there is a fortune of sunken artifacts in the waters of NYC, simply looking for the Hussar will likely lead you to finding something complealty unrelated but still valuable and historic.

I have personally discovered things in these waters that are breathtaking, shipwrecks on top of shipwrecks, artifacts everywhere. Hussar is down there with all of them, but it's like looking for a needle in a stack of needles. You'll find artifacts, the question just is from what wreck it's from or even if it's from a wreck at all a d not just trash dumped overboard by someone.

 

[BennyV]

I regularly hunt the waters of NYC, been doing it intently as of late. Find all sorts of artifacts including intact crockery. New of a guy who would regularly go out looking for artifacts from the Hussar. He claimed to have found the wreck site - or at least the debris field left from the wreck, he says it's located off the shore of some land currently owned by an oil company. I saw pictures of things he pulled up from the site, can't say for sure if they're Hussar artifacts, but they're definetly old.

New York State did an underwater side sonar survey of the waters of NYC, they never released the details of their finds to the public, but I know that they located so many wrecks (I think it was something like 4,000 of them) that they didn't have the resources to investigate them all. They didn't want private citizens "looting" these wrecks so kept the information private (which makes no sense since they used taxpayer dollars for their reserch).

One thing's for certain, there is a fortune of sunken artifacts in the waters of NYC, simply looking for the Hussar will likely lead you to finding something complealty unrelated but still valuable and historic.

I have personally discovered things in these waters that are breathtaking, shipwrecks on top of shipwrecks, artifacts everywhere. Hussar is down there with all of them, but it's like looking for a needle in a stack of needles. You'll find artifacts, the question just is from what wreck it's from or even if it's from a wreck at all a d not just trash dumped overboard by someone.

Lemme guess. Guys name is Joe Governale.

 

[UnderMiner]

Lemme guess. Guys name is Joe Governale.

I don't remember, the last time I seriously thought of looking for the Hussar myself was in 2017 when I spoke with this person last. He gave me an imagine of the map he made and everything. My oppinion is the wreck is still down there, and maybe the gold too, but because the ship was torn open when it sank the debris field is too scattered to positively identify artifacts as being from the wreck - not to mention the coastline has been filled in with landfill - meaning there is probably bits of the Hussar below dry land now in places. I know that in 1913 or so there was a massive amount of landfill put in the South Bronx turning water into land. The maps that show the old shoreline superimposed over the 1910's landfills are freely available online. I have used these maps to locate some pretty interesting places.

 

[njcommercialdiver]

I regularly hunt the waters of NYC, been doing it intently as of late. Find all sorts of artifacts including intact crockery. New of a guy who would regularly go out looking for artifacts from the Hussar. He claimed to have found the wreck site - or at least the debris field left from the wreck, he says it's located off the shore of some land currently owned by an oil company. I saw pictures of things he pulled up from the site, can't say for sure if they're Hussar artifacts, but they're definetly old.

New York State did an underwater side sonar survey of the waters of NYC, they never released the details of their finds to the public, but I know that they located so many wrecks (I think it was something like 4,000 of them) that they didn't have the resources to investigate them all. They didn't want private citizens "looting" these wrecks so kept the information private (which makes no sense since they used taxpayer dollars for their reserch).

One thing's for certain, there is a fortune of sunken artifacts in the waters of NYC, simply looking for the Hussar will likely lead you to finding something complealty unrelated but still valuable and historic.

I have personally discovered things in these waters that are breathtaking, shipwrecks on top of shipwrecks, artifacts everywhere. Hussar is down there with all of them, but it's like looking for a needle in a stack of needles. You'll find artifacts, the question just is from what wreck it's from or even if it's from a wreck at all a d not just trash dumped overboard by someone.

The sprague oil terminal is from 135th to 141st street, lots of sources have said its at 135th st, so that would jive

ive picked up a couple dozen roundbottom and torpedo bottles, plus oodles of milk bottles

 

[BennyV]

I don't remember, the last time I seriously thought of looking for the Hussar myself was in 2017 when I spoke with this person last. He gave me an imagine of the map he made and everything. My oppinion is the wreck is still down there, and maybe the gold too, but because the ship was torn open when it sank the debris field is too scattered to positively identify artifacts as being from the wreck - not to mention the coastline has been filled in with landfill - meaning there is probably bits of the Hussar below dry land now in places. I know that in 1913 or so there was a massive amount of landfill put in the South Bronx turning water into land. The maps that show the old shoreline superimposed over the 1910's landfills are freely available online. I have used these maps to locate some pretty interesting places.

I don’t think it is is where that would be an issue.

 

[BennyV]

Check this out.

Bronx shipwreck hunter scammed investor out of $100K: lawsuit

What a wreck. A Bronx man who has long hunted for a famed shipwreck in Hell Gate — and the fortune it’s rumored to contain — allegedly scammed an investor out of $100,000 by claiming to have …

nypost.com