1935 slot machine dump off Eaton's Neck

[PRR 5406]

They are certainly not terribly far off shore. I keep looking at the Eaton's Neck site only because someone refers to it in print and because the mayor traveled out there for publicity footage. Seems like an area close enough to get him back into NYC in haste. I'm uncertain the Army Corps of Engineers would have that information, but it's worth a try. It would only take some idiot to think these were still being chased after by Lucky Luciano, for them to just become silent or seal communications. It could also be that these machines were dumped in areas where munitions and guns were dumped. I would think that other divers would venture an opinion or relate what they may have heard over the years.
I may check with NOAA, too.

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I just checked the NOAA charts of the area and note a dumping area just north of Huntington Harbor and NW of Eaton's Neck. I recall both locations being mentioned in either one of the films or in some of the writing. There is also a notation that the bottom is scattered with wreck debris. The soundings are likewise, fitting to the historical information. These dumpings would have taken place in New York State waters, too, which means south of the Connecticut line in the middle of the Sound. I'd bet that's the target area.

 

[DennisS]

Mcallister Tugs may have owned the tugboat Manhattan, they have been around awhile. It would be worth checking for the log books.

This guy might be able to put you on the trail of the Manhattan

The New Yorker Festival: Tugboat Manhattan : The New Yorker


It sounds like a great project

 

[PRR 5406]

I checked with McAllister tugs today and was told those records were lost during the 1990's, if they were there at all. In other words, no go. On the other hand, apparently there was a designated dump area in the sound, specifically for this kind of material. I don't know if that warms the search, but perhaps somebody will opine?

 

[PRR 5406]

A book on the development of slot machines says the machines were dropped in 100' of water off Norwalk, Connecticutt. I would think that would take them out of NYC territory, but perhaps not.

 

[Rich Keller]

Site C is off Norwalk.

 

[PRR 5406]

Just curious, is anybody following up on this investigation?

 

[Gilldiver]

There is a gully just north of Eatons Neck that is 200' deep but is not shown on the charts. This area was popular for wreck dumping in the 1930's. Perhaps the most important wreck in the area is the Benj. F. Packard. The Packard survived till 1939 as a "Pirate" ship attraction at Rye Playland. Unfortunately she was damaged in the 1938 hurricane and Playland had her taken out to the deep gully and sank her. The early Mystic Seaport did get down to her beforehand and took her cabin out and it is now on display at Mystic Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea™ : Benjamin F. Packard Cabin and Sailing ships: "Benjamin F. Packard" (1883)

The last time I was down that way, she came up to about 160' on a 190' bottom.

A Nantucket researcher. Paul Morris, did a book on her, and he was on her as a boy in 1939 when she was taken out to be sunk, the book is "A Portrate of a Ship: The Benj. F Packard."

This complete cabin restoration of the Benjamin F. Packard is contained within its own building on the museum grounds. The original 244-foot square-rigged sailing ship, more than twice the length of the Charles W. Morgan and last survivor of her type, was built in 1883 at the shipyard of Goss, Sawyer & Packard in Bath, Maine, and named for one of the builders. She was typical of the superbly designed, finely crafted "Down Easters" or "Cape Horners" of the late nineteenth century built to carry cargoes around Cape Horn between America's Atlantic and Pacific ports. The "Down Easters" replaced the clipper ships as the economic demands called for less speed and more cargo-carrying capacity. During most of her twenty-odd years in the Cape Horn trade she was owned by Arthur Sewall & Co. of Bath, the largest firm of Cape Horn merchants at the time, and worked out of New York (though her official port of-registry was Bath). In 1908 she was purchased by the Northwest Fisheries Company of Seattle and was employed by them (1908-18), and later by the Booth Fisheries Company of Port Townsend (1918-25), as a "salmon packer," carrying fisheries workers and equipment from Puget Sound up to the Alaskan fish canneries in the spring and returning in the fall with the workers and the fish. After the degradation of one last "voyage" from Puget Sound to New York as a lumber barge in tow through the Panama Canal, she was retired in 1927. Subsequent efforts to preserve her as a museum having failed, she came to rest as an amusement park attraction in Rye, New York, where she was irreparably damaged in the hurricane of 1938. Before she was scuttled, some of the aftercabin paneling and interior furnishings were removed and brought to the Museum, where they were stored until the reconstruction was begun almost 40 years later.

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The area of the gully is also right in the shipping channel and tugs and barges don't like to give way to a dive boat. In the past we have been passed by both within 50' and we had to put a guy on the bow ready to cut the anchor line, it can be a bit scarry.

 

[PRR 5406]

Fascinating bit of information. The reference to the dumping site for slot machines may simply be based on the presumption of that site, being that the Packard was dumped in that location. The Norwalk dump site seems most likely, considering I'm an arm chair diver. Now I see the side scan of the Packard, but side scan wouldn't be likely to pick up a pile of old slot machines on the seabed. Dragging a magnetometer through the region might detect them, but also old boilers, railroad cars, automobiles. 200 feet is deep, too.
Perhaps these old pieces of gangland history are lost to eternity.

 

[marianne1882]

Hi Pete,

I read this post a while ago, and while I am not a diver I am a maritime historian doing a research project on the Benjamin F Packard and similar cargo carrying ships from the mid to late 19th century. I know this post is a bit old, but I was really hoping to get some information on the wreck of the Packard. I have found the location of the wreck on NOAA's AWOIS database, but I can't seem to locate the side scan sonar image. It sounds as if you have actually been diving on the wreck or at least in that area? If you have any source information on the side scan sonar image or have any personal info on the wreck itself that would be so great. Again, I know this post is old but I hope this message finds you well!

- Maria


Naval and Maritime Studies
University of Exeter

 

[sockferret]

Hello from the future, forum!

I’m no scuba diver, just a random internet person, but a rabbit hole led me to this post and captured my interest.

I came across the whole thing after watching an episode of the TV show “Drunk History”, which, for those unfamiliar, has comedians imbibing heavily and then retelling an abridged version of obscure historical events. One episode, titled “Games”, recounted mayor LaGuardia’s dumping of many pinball machines into the Hudson River as part of his anti-gambling crusade.

Curious about if any of these machines had since been recovered, I stumbled across this now-decade-old post in a similar vein. Reading through the responses, it seems like it may have ended in a dead end. Still, I figure it’s worth asking, were there any later breakthroughs?

Hunter