By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In 1846 when Hamilton Avenue Ferry service to Manhattan started it was the only mass transit option to and from Red Hook, Brooklyn. This was no longer the case in 1914, street cars and elevated subway lines crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, and the...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Aniello (Henry) D’Auria began working as a welder's helper at Todd's Shipyard in 1933-34. Learning on the job he became a skilled welder. D'Auria describes the working conditions in shipyards as poor, noisy and noxious. He witnessed an...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Mariners and those in the shipbuilding trades demanded higher wages and better benefits, in the years following WWII. In 1947, thousands who worked at the Todd Shipyard in Red Hook, Brooklyn went on strike. They were not alone. 67,000 workers,...
TODD SHIPYARDS FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. PROSPERITY of companies having contracts to build or repair ships is sharply brought out in the annual report of the Todd Shipyards Corporation, issued a few days ago. The report is the first issued covering a...
Gerard Rokosz is a man deeply in love with his former job as the last dry dock manager at Todd Shipyard. At the time of this 2005 interview, he was working for a marina and nostalgic about the shipyard: "seeing my old office collapsing makes me...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Women welders on the way to their job at the Todd Shipyard dry dock in Erie Basin. During the WWII, while men were overseas fighting, women of Brooklyn were contributing to the war effort, and their own financial needs, by making and repairing Navy...
Michael Gallagher, last General Manager of New York Shipyard, successor to Todd Shipyard, interviewed two weeks before selling the site to IKEA, talks about the shipyard, its history and final days. Gallagher represents the 5th generation of his...
John Gladsky is the definition of a colorful old salt. He is a marine salvor and the principal of Gladsky Marine and has an old-time Long Island accent. His oral history expresses nostalgia for the Todd Shipyard and criticism of public policy that...
When interviewed at a vigorous 82 years of age, Hank Dam laughs hard remembering the WWII slogan of Todd Shipyard “the difficult we do every day, the impossible takes a little longer.” Hank is clearly proud of the ingenuity and hard work of his...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Photograph of Erie Basin first graving dock, taken in 1866 its inaugural year. The ship in the graving dock with two tall masts as well as a chimney stack and a large side wheel is believed to be the MORNING STAR, a 2,000 ton liner of the New York...
