Do you remember the tragic ferry accident that happened in New York back on November 22nd, 1963? The Staten Island Ferry Disaster when many people lost their lives after the ferry was attacked by an octopus? You probably remember the date because that’s the day that JFK was assassinated. If you are racking your brain wondering why you can’t remember the ferry disaster, don’t worry because you aren’t alone. It didn’t really happen. Artist Joe Reginella created the event and said it’s “part practical joke, part multimedia art project, part social experiment.” There is a website remembering the event along with a video and Reginella and his team have been handing out several flyers as well. They even created a fake monument at the site where the ferry is said to have left from. Even though locals know that the event didn’t actually happen, there were plenty of visitors that thought it was real. The Post found a family that was visiting from Australia that actually thought the event took place. Tamara Messina said, “The brochure sounded very intriguing.” She added that her three sons “seemed a bit more concerned that it may happen again as the family rode the ferry.” See below for some pictures and a video documentary of the event that never took place.Several brochures of the event were made and contained a lot of photos of the ferry that supposedly went down.
The brochures also had details of how the fake event unfolded on that tragic day.
A monument was created to honor those that lost their lives on that horrible day. Several people stopped by to read it and honor those that lost their lives.
People that were going on the ferry saw the monument and read the plaque and felt sad for those that had died.
This picture was posted with a caption of “Never Forget.” It shows the monument close up. It really is great work and the design is awesome.
Plenty of people that were in the area stopped to read what the monument said. Lots of them were also left trying to figure out why they never heard of the event.
Like any tourist does when they see a part of our country’s history, they took plenty of photos of the monument. They obviously had no idea it was fake.
Families brought their children to see it and explained to them what happened that day. I wonder if any of them actually thought that they remembered the event happening.
As you can see, people were so touched by the monument that some of them left tributes at the foot of it to honor the dead.
This is the supposed ferry that met its fate back on November 22, 1963. Here it is seen making its way along the usual route without a worry in the world.
All of the people that boarded the ferry that day thought it was just going to be another regular, boring ferry ride. They had no idea what was in store for them that day.
Not many people survived the tragedy that day and several people witnessed the horrible event from the shore. There was nothing they could do to help as the octopus dragged the ferry under the water in a matter of minutes. But not really.
Just like there are photos of the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie, there were photos that captured the octopus that allegedly destroyed the ferry. But both are fake and don’t really exist.
Those that were alive that day can remember where they were when they heard the news about JFK. But can you remember where you were when the news broke of the Staten Island Ferry Disaster?
Did anyone read any other headlines that day? Not many read the stories below the main one. That’s why not many people can recall the ferry disaster. Well, that and the fact that it never really happened.
**In this video documentary of the tragedy, you can hear eyewitness accounts about the event that never happened.**