Swinburn Island is one of the most remote places that I can find on a map that is still technically within the city limits of New York City.
It’s miles away from any landmass, outside the protected harbor, almost out to sea,
but pretty close to the South Beach Boardwalk on Staten Island,
which is why I left from there with Erin Allen and Blake McDowell on an almost too windy morning in August.
We could see the Verrazano as we crossed the channel,
first to Hoffman Island.
I was a little worried about getting too far out with the wind so strong,
but from Hoffman Island, it would only be another mile, and we could tell the tide was pushing in the direction we wanted to go.
“Should we try it?” I asked,
and we did.
We landed in a protected cove,
a breakwater held back the waves and wind.
It seemed made of stones but drew closer, there were many other things; pieces of iron, massive gears.
The island was constructed from debris, so the symmetrical shape and protected harbor now all made sense.
We walked into the interior.
It was a strange and ghostly place, so different than the lush and varied habitat of Hoffman Island. It seemed mostly cormorants living there, and the remains of ones who had lived there before,
nests,
bones,
shells from a crab feast.
What must it be like to live in a nursery, a toilet, and a graveyard all at once?
From a distance, I wondered why all the structures on the island were painted white,
but up close I realized it wasn’t paint at all, but a ghostly layer of cormorant guano
making the whole island seem even more bone-like and mysterious.
We watched two identical container ships pass each other as if disappearing into a gigantic mirror.
Luckily Blake caught it all on film. (16mm Bolex, H5 reflex)
We let the wind push us back, away from Swinburn,
back past Hoffman Island,
Back to the beach at Staten Island
Later that day Erin sent me a link to something, a possible match for a creature that we’de seen on Swinburn island. An enitre pool of them, actually, each several inches long, swimming in an abandoned sewer drain.
and if you want to have nightmares tonight, look it up.