Stove coal on the beach in Atlantic city

I dont even know if anyone could answer this, but I am as curious as they come. I totally forgot to ask this last winter. 2 summers ago at one of my beach volleyball tournaments, i found a bunch of stove coal on the beach. I had enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. (I had all my vball player friends putting it aside for me if they found any throughout the day) (Yes, they all thought i was crazy ) Of course I burnt it the following winter, and it burned pretty damn good. My question is Why the hell was it there? It wasn't all in the same place, it was scattered sporadically all over the beach. Was there a shipwreck carrying coal that i never read about? Maybe someone here has an explanation. Any clue?

It's been a long time since I beached it,but as a kid we had a place on Long Beach Island---I know after Hurricane Hazel in the 50's they trucked a lot of sand in from who knows where & I'm sure only God knew what might have been in it---mostly sand though---I was thinking that coal would mostly sink & maybe the under-tow would bring a little bit up---who knows

Could it be it was dredged up from off shore and deposited on the beach due to beach reclamation projects? They pump off shore sand onto the beach to rebuild it. If so, you're both onto the source!

From an older topic: Beach Coal

Damn, I'm like an elephant.

just went there---damn you're right

Richard S. wrote:From an older topic: Beach Coal

Damn, I'm like an elephant.

Wow, Alot of good info Richard, what a surprise that you had that old thread!! Im just going to have to go down there with a huge strainer,lol. It was anthracite, heavy, and burned very clean.

Coal barge and steamship wrecks have left tons of coal along the coast...
Some of it gets brought up onto the beach by storms and dredging...

And you have no idea how much washed down the Schuylkill River. Dredge spots in Auburn and Philly just full of coal.

I grew up in AC as a kid, and one year I was a bad boy. I mean a realy bad boy. Well that Christmas morning I ran downstairs to not to a bunch of toys but to a stocking full of coal hung on the fireplace mantle. My younger brother Robby got all the toys and as usual didn't share. Well that Summer I grabbed the socking full of coal and took my younger brother to the beach. We went to the boardwalk and to the very end of the pier. Well it was there I threw all my stove coal into the Atlantic ocean peice by peice and it was my turn not to share. Little Robby ran home crying all the way telling mom that I didn't share . When I later got home that day I got a beating so bad that today a parent would get locked up for child abuse. I don't know if the coal you found could have been mine because that was 40 years ago.

Heres a pic of my little brother Robby in his Fire Truck he got for Christmas that year, my stocking is on the mantle in the background , he's still a spoiled little brat today

As unfortunate as it is, many a collier was sunk by u-boats early in the war. This may be the reason for your coal.

After WWII we often went to my Uncle's place for vacation at the Jersey shore.When we came out of the ocean we walked across the road to the back of Uncle Van's place.There he had a 55 gallon drum of kerosene up on sawhorses.Out came the rag soaked in kerosene to remove all the oil globs stuck to us kids.We were told it came from all the allied shipping that fell to the u boats right off the coast.You can be sure that tons and tons of coal spread all over the ocean floor at that time. MIke

And all along I assumed this had something to do with Boardwalk Empire, just hadn't figured out the connection yet.