" A modern port is made up of many things, one of the most important besides the fact that a good port must be a good natural harbor for ships, is the vast array of manmade contrivances for the physical handling of...
A Spectre that Seems to Preserve the Good Ship Belfast, 1897
Docked at the German-American pier, at the foot of Ferris Street, in May of 1897 was the clipper ship Belfast - known as a ghost craft in the British Merchant Marine. The World newspaper reported that: "Seamen Burke and...
Bell and Jingle: Questions, Answers and Remembrances on Facebook.
A cheat sheet for the bell and jingle code hangs in the fidley of the MARY A. WHALEN. It can be seen in the related entry Bells are Direction, Jingles are Speed which lays out the system. The bell and jingle code was used by the captain...
Red Hook Towing Company/ Dalzell Towing Company 1925
The Dalzell Towing Company purchased the Red Hook Towing Company in 1925 to expand their operations into Brooklyn. They then moved their offices to the Erie Basin breakwater (the man-made protective pier that encloses the basin) from...
Gowanus Bay Improvement Plan, 1892
Improvement of Gowanus Bay, New York Harbor, N.Y: a 1892 map showing Red Hook, Gowanus Creek and Bay Ridge Channels as well as Atlantic Basin, Erie Basin, and a proposed basin.
Irish first Mate never gets off His Ship, 1951
In 1951 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran a human interest story about Thomas Dunne, an Irish sailor on a comercial vessel who traveled the world but when docked in Red Hook, Brooklyn would not get off the boat for fear of getting lost in the city. Text...
Gary Shiflett about Bushey, 2016
Oral History
Gary Shiflett, currently a fleet manager, used to work for Ira S. Bushey and Sons and Eklof Marine. In 2016, while standing in the galley of PortSide NewYork's MARY A. WHALEN - a "Bushey boat" - he told of some of his memories...
Captain Nels Helgesen of the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company
Captain Nels Helgesen during his long career which began in 1918, commanded every ship of the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Line. The home port of the steamship line was in Red Hook's Atlantic Basin. Starting around the 1920s their ships...
Atlantic Basin: Where Puerto Ricans Landed in NY, 1906 to 1928
Red Hook's Atlantic Basin was the main port of entry for early Puerto Rican migrants. They traveled on the ships of the NEW YORK & PORTO RICO STEAMSHIP COMPANY" (aka, PORTO RICO LINE). Jose Mendez is quoted in Place Matters , a joint...
PS GENERAL SLOCUM - Disaster and Memory
The GENERAL SLOCUM ended service as a sinking fireball June 15, 1904, killing over 1,000, most of them women and children. 1,300 were aboard. That made the SLOCUM famous. Her fame was then forgotten and re-remembered by most of the City over the...