Norwegians, being master mariners, arrived in New Amsterdam on ships in the early 1600s. In the 1820s and 30s, they began emigrating in groups and rapidly established a "Koloni" in Red Hook. They were ministered by a floating church, then a church...
Strike Busting: Swedes and Norwegians willing to work for less at Finlay's Stores, Atlantic Dock, 1885.
On Saturday March 14, 1885, workers at Finlay's Stores were told that they hourly rate would be cut to 20 cents an hour, down from twenty-five. They refused to work for less pay and the company replaced them with about fifty Swedes and Norwegians....
Tin City' Folks Gird For Dreariest Winter, 1932
The area between Erie Basin and Columbia Street was home to a makeshift shantytown community known as Tin City, made up largely of unemployed and under-employed maritime workers in the 1920s and 30s. In the winter of 1932, the Brooklyn Eagle...
Inhabitants of the Squatter Camps Trying to Pull Through the Winter. 1933
The area between Erie Basin and Columbia Street was home to a makeshift shantytown community known as Tin City, made up largely of unemployed and under-employed maritime workers in the 1920s and 30s. In the winter of 1932, The New York Sun ...
Featured Article: Norwegians
See the feature article on Norwegians which covers their story in Brooklyn's Red Hook from the 1600s to the modern day Topics include, the mid-nineteenth century church ship BETHELSHIP and the missions established to help Norwegian and other...
Seaman's Handbook for Shore Leave, 1920
Seaman's handbook for Shore Leave , by United States Merchant Marine’s Social Service Bureau. Custom House, published in 1920 listed sailor’s homes – places were sailors could get a bed and sometimes a meal for a night - from...
Rowing to Europe in record time, 1896
On June 6th, 1896 George Harbo and Frank Samuelsen departed from New York's Battery in an 18 foot rowboat destination Europe. Their vessel The FOX, was an 18 foot surf boat was built on the New Jersey Shore, only powered by oars. It took the two men...
Ørkenen Sur, music video for Norwegian documentary, 2015
Published on Dec 17, 2015 "Mange nordmenn dro til Amerika for å skaffe seg et bedre liv. For noen endte drømmen på en søppelfylling i New York." (Many Norwegians went to America to acquire a better life. A few ended the dream in a...
Ørkenen Sur - Norwegian Documentary, 2015
[Links to the video below] Ørkenen Sur. A Norwegian documentary made in 2015 about the shanty town that existed int Red Hook from the early 1920s to the mid 1930s. Known by names including Ørkenen Sur (the bitter desert), and Tin City. It was home...
Ørkenen Sur images
In the early 1920s, the international freight trade collapsed leaving as many as 1,000 Norwegian seamen unemployed and unable to get back home. With little to no income many of them made shelters on a large area of landfill and rubble just north of...