Opinion

Watery grave

Gowanus Canal may hold more than toxic chemicals and dead mobsters — it keeps numerous artifacts from its industrial past, according to Environmental Protection Agency archeologist John Vetter, who is leading a study to determine what’s stuck in the muck.

Sonar readings taken along Brooklyn’s filthy 1.8-mile waterway have already uncovered several sunken boats, including the 60-foot-long hull of a wooden working vessel, a small fiberglass boat, the hulls of 126-foot-long and 110-foot-long square-ended barges, a tree, large containers, and even a mysterious 7-by-3-foot “U-shaped object” of unknown composition, according to the agency.

“There are some things we don’t know of yet within the sediment,” Vetter said.

The man-made waterway was built in the 1860s. Before that, it was a tidal creek.

In its heyday, the canal was a vital maritime and commercial artery on which raw materials and goods were transported to and from the array of chemical, paint and ink factories that dotted — and eventually polluted — the waterway.

Much of the brownstone used to build homes in tony neighborhoods such as Park Slope and Cobble Hill made their way to their destinations on barges floating up the canal.

“That was the highway,” said David Sharps, founder of the Brooklyn Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, whose home is a travelling barge. “It was used for general merchandise and taking goods back to market.”

He said the barges now resting in their watery grave likely hauled an array of items, with the covered vessels carrying perishables like grain, vinegar and nuts, and uncovered vessels transporting construction material, such as bricks or lumber.

Manufactured-gas plants, which converted coal to a form of fuel that helped ignite the Industrial Revolution, were also heavily dependent on the canal for materials. Today, their byproducts, a toxic sludge called coal tar, continue to haunt the waterway.

Finding flintlocks and arrowheads is a stretch — but centuries-old ephemera is not. “Things fall off boats and get buried in the sediment,” Vetter noted.

EPA officials recently detailed their findings from an investigation into the laundry list of pollutants lurking in the Gowanus, confirming that the canal, named a Superfund site last year, is one of the most wretched bodies of water in the country.

The toxic avengers will spend the next decade on a $500 million cleanup, which will include removal of the objects. As per federal law, anything deemed to have archeological significance must be preserved.

Urban archeologists such as Jack Fortmeyer, a retired fireman who lives in Gowanus, is glad to let the feds do the dirty work.

“There could be stuff down there, but I wouldn’t dive for it,” he admitted.

And it’s not just because of the pollution.

“I heard a story once that they started pulling out cars in the canal, and every one had two or three bodies in it,” he recalled. “They’d throw them in the trunks of cars.” There are still some down there: At least two cars remain submerged, sonar readings show.

Experts speculate that the vessels they’ve found are older than expected. “This was an active waterway 50 years ago — you wouldn’t get away with sinking a boat. It would have obstructed traffic,” said Norman Brouwer, a maritime historian, who said some of the barges might date to the 19th century.

Vetter was more conservative, only saying that some of the vessels were at least 50 years old. But historians such as Brouwer said anything salvaged could prove valuable. “Whatever is found is part of the history of water transport,” he said. “It’s another piece in the huge puzzle.”

Locals already have plans for the booty.

“We need a museum here,” said resident Linda Mariano. “The artifacts are for people to observe and enjoy. They’re part of our heritage.”