The Red Hook Containerport Terminal, a joint effort by the city and state of New York and the Port Authority, opened for business, July 6, 1981. Located adjacent to Atlantic Basin, its first cargo was coffee.

Click here to see more about the Red Hook Terminal or keep scrolling to read about how the Phoenix newpaper told of the arrival of the Red Hook Containerports first vessel.

Text of : "Containership With Cargo of Coffee Becomes First to Unioad at New Red Hook Terminal" by Doug Tsuruoka THE PHOENIX, July 30 1981

Its sleek 600-foot hull had been incongruously painted bright orange for high visibility in bad weather, but when the MS Holstein Trader arrived here July 22, the sun was shining and the ship had the honor of being the first vessel to dock at Brooklyn’s new $54 million Red Hook Containerport Terminal at the foot of Hamilton Avenue on the South Brooklyn waterfront.

A modern containership of the Norwegianbased Ivaran Lines, the 12,000-ton Holstein Trader inaugurated the work of the recently completed facility west of Columbia St. shortly after 7a.m. Wednesday, as it began to unload its cargo of 71 box-like containers by way of the terminal’s 45-ton Paceco crane, which loomed over the vessel like some gigantic erector set on wheels. Moored near the foot of Carroll Street against a breath-taking view of the Lower Manhattan skyline, the Holstein Trader will visit the Red Hook Containerport about once every 50 days, says Lars H. Saltkjel, port captain for the New York office of Ivaran Lines. He added that the ship, which normally carries a crew of 26, had been loaded with a cargo of Brazilian coffee and other South American products for the trip, which is part of its regularly scheduled New York-to-bueno Aires run. As New York Harbor’s newest containerport, the Red Hook facility first opened its doors for business on July 6, and is run by the Universal Maritime Service Corporation (UTS). Although containerports along the New Jersey side of the harbor and the Sun-Belt states have attracted the lion’s the Red Hook Containerport Terminal has been hailed as an important step in the campaingn to att4ract more share of shipping to the New York side of the harbor. In all, New York harbor last year generated an estimated $40 billion in total commerce, countless jobs and more than $1.5 billion in taxable revenue for the state and local governments that border on the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Through its direct connection with metropolitan area roads, the new Red Hook facility is well situated for the over 500-foot long containerships that are often stacked three-high with up to 100 sealed “containers” or aluminum boxes the size of mack-trucks vans. On arrival at Red Hook and elsewhere, the containers are usually transferred directly to the flat-cars of railway shipping spurs, or hitched to the cabs of waiting trucks.

"We definitely expect two vessels a week starting in the early part of August,” said UTS terminal manager Carmine Pizzariello, who noted that the company’s second 200-foot tall Paceco crane would soon be in place. Pizzarello said that the company eventually planned to computerize its lifting and paperw ork systems, in order to complement the visual read-out capability they now have with cargo manifests. The arrival of the Holstein Trader may have been an important first for this new facility, but it was greeted without fanfare by the scores of hard-hatted dockworkers who treated the event as just another day’s work. By 5p.m., the containerport’s massive crane had shuttled the last container from the deck of the Holstein Trader to an asphalt-covered loading area alongside the ship. According to UTS vice-president Albert Termo however, a host of high-ranking city and state officials—including New York Governor Hugh Carey have been invited to attend the formal dedication ceremonies for the Red Hook Containerport when they are scheduled for sometime in August.

This Red Hook WaterStory was linked to a PortSide Facebook post about the anniversary of first commercially successful containership voyage,April 26, 1956.