The Newtown Pentacle

Today’s post wonders what it is that may eternal lie.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Maritime Sunday is a time for reflection and appreciation of the working harbor of New York and New Jersey and all the ships at sea, but nagging suspicions that there may be something lurking beneath the surface torment.

Down in the weed choked mud, can there be some form of alien consciousness whose revelation would engender the start of a new dark age? In some subaqueous sepulchre, does some phosphorescent madness wait which may not be dead, but actually lies dreaming instead? The question reduces a humble narrator into a horrible jelly of panic and paranoid fanaticism, frozen with hysterical paralysis at the implications of a dire future suggested by the very idea.

Can anyone perceive that which lies beneath the ocean waves and discern all there is, that might be hidden in the icy darkness?

If there is – trust me, the United States Government is on top of it- and they’ve got the gear.

from wikipedia

The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island (including the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn) from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland. In reference to its connection to Long Island Sound, it was once also known as the Sound River. The tidal strait usually reverses flow four times a day.

The strait was formed approximately 11,000 years ago at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. The distinct change in the shape of the strait between the lower and upper portions is evidence of this glacial activity. The upper portion (from Long Island Sound to Hell Gate), running largely perpendicular to the glacial motion, is wide, meandering, and has deep narrow bays on both banks, scoured out by the glacier’s movement. The lower portion (from Hell Gate to New York Bay) runs north-south, parallel to the glacial motion. It is much narrower, with straight banks. The bays that exist (or existed before being filled in by human activity), are largely wide and shallow.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

An American Palantír – gaze in wonder upon – the Ship.

It can be said that the ship you see was once a Navy vessel, the USNS Capable. Capable was a Stalwart Class Ocean Surveillance vessel, originally tasked with the collection of acoustic data as part of the anti submarine force. It launched in 1988, had 1,600 HP engines, and was 224 feet long with a 43 foot beam. It left the service in 2004, whereupon it was transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA launched the refitted vessel in 2008, christening it the Okeanos Explorer.

from oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, “America’s Ship for Ocean Exploration,” is the only federally funded U.S. ship assigned to systematically explore our largely unknown ocean for the purpose of discovery and the advancement of knowledge. Telepresence, using real-time broadband satellite communications, connects the ship and its discoveries live with audiences ashore. Visit the NOAA Marine Operations Center Okeanos Explorer page for operations and crew information.

Since the ship was commissioned on August 13, 2008, the Okeanos Explorer has traveled the globe, exploring the Indonesian ‘Coral Triangle Region;’ benthic environments in the Galápagos; the geology, marine life, and hydrothermal systems of the Mid-Cayman Rise within the Caribbean Sea; and deep-sea habitats and marine life in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Mapping activities along the West and Mid-Atlantic Coasts have furthered our knowledge of these previously unexplored areas, setting the stage for future in-depth exploration activities.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Images and video captured by the Okeanos Explorer suggest vast versimilitude to certain blasphemous paintings of dream landscapes, which were last displayed in the salons of Paris shortly before the second World War, which were said to cause viewers to note strange parallelisms and draw mystified conclusions. Perhaps the ship has already visited that nightmare corpse city (spoken of only in hushed whisper by cultists and madmen alike) in the southern Pacific, found at S. Latitude 47°9′, W. Longitude 126°43′, and have decided to keep their findings private due to an abundance of caution and the desire to protect the world from knowledge of the thing. Who can say?

At any rate, a squamously squirming and loathsomely redolent Maritime Sunday greeting is fearfully offered to the crew of the Okeanos Explorer at this, your Newtown Pentacle.

also from oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

From July to August 2013, a team of scientists and technicians both at-sea and on shore will conduct exploratory investigations on the diversity and distribution of deep-sea habitats and marine life along the Northeast U.S. Canyons and at Mytilus Seamount, located within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. The 36-day expedition is composed of two cruise ‘legs.’

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-

Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.

13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.