Snug Harbor Cemetery 1919 - Suny Maritime Digital Collection on permenant Loan from Sailors Snug Harbor
Sailor Snug Harbor provided a haven to decrepit and sick Seamen. Theodore Dreiser stated that after a hard life at sea, the sailors were able to settle down in their Harbor Home. They could “ walk on the lawn, sit in the sunshine, dream under the trees, and there was nothing to disturb. When they become weary and were laid to rest, a little cemetery whose white tombstones could be seen in the back of this pastoral abode received their bodies, and then they were left serene.” (Theodore Dreiser 1904 - French). To the Sailors at Sailors Snug Harbor, this was their final voyage. They were assured to be remembered by their messmates and what family they left behind outside Harbor Grounds. When the years had passed, and all the living that had known the sailors had gone to their everlasting rest, the sailors could be assured that a stone or a plaque would remind the living that they lived and were once seamen. Today that promise is only kept in records at Suny Maritime College. The grave markers of these sailors have disappeared long ago. Only about 12 graves are marked out of 1000s.
When Sailors Snug Harbor was first founded on Staten Island a burial ground was laid out for the sailors. This became known as the old cemetery.
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Cemetery Map Made 1900, Copy of 1848 Map - Suny Maritime, Sailors' Snug Harbor Archives
The old cemetery had streets and blocks where the old Salts were buried. The map above is the 1900 copy of the 1848 Map of the Old Cemetery.
A new Burial Ground was developed between 1867 and 1868 under Thomas Melville, Sailors' Snug Harbor Governor. This Burial Ground used a different numbering system for burials. The Snug Harbor Cemetery or new Cemetery was laid out for maximum use of the Burial Ground, unlike the Old Cemetery, where a lot of space was dedicated to cemetery streets which divided up the plots.
Nicefaro, Edward. Sailor Snug Harbor Cemetery Map- Prospect Ave-Lois PL, Livingston, Staten Island, N.Y., Map Location: Private Collection
Today the new cemetery or Sailors' Snug Harbor Cemetery is located in the back of Alison Pond Park on the fenced-in grounds. The Old cemetery where burials took place from 1835 to June 1868 may or may not exist anymore. This cemetery was located in front of the reservoir or today near Alison Pond; see maps below.
Map -Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library -Digital Collection
Google Maps - Sailors Snug Harbor Cemetery, 3/19/2021.
The question that remains, and only further research will answer it, is when Alison Pond Park was constructed and the neighborhood outside of the Park developed, was the reservoir redirected or moved? If answered, this question should indicate where the bodies of the old seamen, buried in the old cemetery, are located.