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# Diver Finds Explosives Spilled Under Verrazano
- URL: https://bklyner.com/diver-finds-explosives-spilled-under-verrazano-sheepshead-bay/
- Published: 2010-10-25T14:57:31.000Z
- Updated: 2010-10-25T14:57:31.000Z
- Author: Ned Berke
- Tags: #API-Imported

Will Discovery Channel sign Gene Ritter up for a series already? The man is quickly forging the title of “Celebrity Diver,” so if we can’t do Discovery, there’s always Lifetime. (I mean, [they’ll buy anything](/brighton-beach-show-needs-to-grow-a-pair/), right?)

Following up on his amazing[ 2009 recovery of the historic brass bell](http://gothamist.com/2009/09/02/coney%5Fbell.php?ref=bklyner.com) from Coney Island’s Dreamland Park, Ritter and his team last week came across a stash of World War II-era munitions believed lost more than 50 years ago. And the live ammo sits just 20 feet under water beneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, in spitting distance of shipping routes.

While diving to photograph a few small shells they found last year, Ritter and company found eight artillery shells and 1,500 large-caliber machine gun shells designed to explode on contact.

Experts are saying the ammo likely came from a stockpile was lost to the waters during a military accident in 1954\. The U.S.S. Bennington was moored off Fort Lafayette with the munitions on a barge tied to its side. A violent storm overturned the barge.

[According to the NY Post](http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/diver%5Fhas%5Fblast%5Fwith%5Fhistoric%5Fdiscovery%5F35u7bDihiAEdrrHIcNPJbJ?ref=bklyner.com), the find is now creating a dangerous situation demanding attention from the city. Attempting to move the explosives could set them off. And since they’re packed in air-filled canisters, dislodging them could send them drifting into shipping lanes or beaches – not to mention the nearby oil depot.

Additionally, Assemblyman Colton is sounding the alarm about dredging in Gravesend Bay, about a mile away, fearing it may affect the explosives. Of course, the dredging is for a [waste-transfer station that Colton is staunchly opposing](http://www.nydailynews.com/ny%5Flocal/brooklyn/2008/01/15/2008-01-15%5Ffear%5Fover%5Fgravesend%5Fwaste%5Fstation%5Fplan.html?ref=bklyner.com).

The Navy appears to be disavowing responsibility, leaving cleanup efforts to the city.