Historical society members are getting to work on Sept. 15 in hopes of finding a 19th-century monument in the sand near the Sixth Avenue beach.
Around 1893, James A. Bradley, Asbury Park’s founder, saw to the installation of a 12-foot-high monument to the 1854 New Era shipwreck, which took place off the coast of Asbury Park, according to a news release from the Asbury Park Historical Society [APHS].
The monument was placed on the boardwalk near Sixth and Seventh avenues, according to the release. The piece [pictured at right] included a large obelisk and large, metal chain links from the New Era’s anchor chain.
The year after its installation, though, a storm struck and the monument tumbled into the sand. It hasn’t been seen since.
Now, the APHS hopes to hire Ground Penetrating Radar Systems, Inc., based in Toledo, Ohio, to search the beach for the monument.
APHS member Don Stine, Allenhurst resident Richard Fernicola and Deal Borough Historian James Foley attended the Sept. 6 council meeting to seek permission to look for the monument.
GROUND-PENETRATING RADAR
The monument is “obviously out there somewhere,” Stine said. “We’re going to bring in a company that does ground penetration radar.”
The radar specialists will start in the Sixth Avenue beach area using their radar equipment, which can take readings 15 feet below the surface of the sand. The dig is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 15, at 10 a.m.
If they find the artifact, they will hire a contractor to dig it out, Stine said.
If the monument is found, Stine recommends the city place it in the northeast corner of Bradley Park, which is across the street from Convention Hall and boasts a lifelike sculpture of Bradley himself.
The boardwalk is about the same width — 30 feet — now as it was in the 1890s, Stine said, with the same eastern terminus. The radar will sweep the 20 feet of sand east of the boardwalk.
“We feel we have a shot and we want to take the shot,” Stine said. “It would be a huge find, and probably the only archaeological search in Asbury Park.”
The APHS will pay for the search, but will leave it up to the city to decide the monument’s future if it is recovered.
CITY APPROVAL
Officials advised Stine, Foley and Fernicola to conduct the search on Sept. 15 but not to dig up the monument until after they have consulted with the council once more. They can come to a council meeting four days after the search, city manager Terence Reidy said.
“I think this would be great,” Councilwoman Sue Henderson said. “We’ve lost so many historical buildings and artifacts in Asbury.”
Mayor Ed Johnson asked if there was a way to include students at local schools in the search or recovery.
Foley suggested having children search Asbury Park Public Library microfilm to find information about the wreck, the monument and the storm.
Also, students could watch the search process on Sept. 15, Stine said. Johnson said he would contact Asbury Park Superintendent Denise Lowe to tell her about the process.
MEMORIAL SERVICES
The APHS is hosting a memorial service this Saturday at The Showroom, 708 Cookman Ave., at 1 p.m., Stine said. There will be a special presentation on the New Era and Morro Castle shipwrecks.
“It’s truly out of Ripley’s Believe it or Not because these two accidents that changed the course of maritime history ended up on top of each other,” Stine said. “It’s a very graphic presentation because it was a grisly, grisly scene.”
Admission is $10 for the general public and $5 for APHS members. Proceeds will be used to offset the cost of finding the monument.
THE NEW ERA AND MORRO CASTLE
The New Era [pictured above] came to a demise that was “such a grisly and ghastly shipwreck, it changed maritime history,” Stine said at last night’s meeting.
The ship was en route to the United States in November 1854 with about 400 German immigrants, Foley said, when it was wrecked just off the coast of where Convention Hall now stands. The captain and crew used the lifeboats on board to save themselves and left 285 passengers to perish, he said.
Immediately after the wreck, there was great public outcry and the U.S. Congress changed legislation that required paid servicemen rather than volunteer lifeguards, Foley said, effectively forming what is now the U.S. Coast Guard.
The New Era wreck has been difficult to find, Foley said, and the associated monument “has as much mystery and allure as the wreck itself.”
Then, in 1934, the S.S. Morro Castle wrecked in the same spot where the New Era had in 1854. This, too, will be a topic of conversation at The Showroom on Saturday.
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[Photos provided by Don Stine, APHS]
