Ira S. Bushey & Sons
1 Ira S. Bushey
The tanker MARY A. Whalen, flagship of PortSide NewYork was built for Ira S. Bushey & Sons.
Ira S. Bushey started his work life driving mules on the Erie Canal in the latter half of the 19th Century. After trying various jobs, he returned to…
2 The Ships of Ira S. Bushey & Sons, 1907-1966
Ira S. Bushey & Sons'was a shipbuilder and oil company based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Remarkably, the company combined three different endeavors: a shipyard, a fuel terminal, and a fleet of vessels that moved fuel. Busheys built around 200 vessels…
3 How Ira Bushey Built up his Ship Building Plant, 1920
Starting out as a caulker of wooden ships, Ira S. Bushey, by dint of hard work, was the owner of the biggest wooden ship construction yard in the country 1920 - located in Red Hook's Erie Basin. Ira S. Bushey was the first builder and operator of an…
4 Ad: New York Tug Boat Exchange
In 1920, the New York Tow Boat Exchange represented 34 independent tow boat companies. In their advertisement in the Port of New York Annual, the Exchange boasted that their fleet of 200 boats could handle anything "from the docking and shifting of a…
5 Ira Bushey Vs. USA (1968)
In Ira Bushey vs. USA (1968) the US Government was held liable for the conduct of a drunken sailor. After returning to the United States, a sailor on the Coast Guard cutter TAMAROA, then docked in a floating drydock in Bushey’s shipyard, turned some…
6
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 of working on ships. His…
7 The Sinking of the TAMAROA, 1964
Jim Perkins recounted his experience of working on the TAMAROA, a Coast Guard cutter located in the Bushey Shipyard in Red Hook in an article published on the (now gone) website Jack's Joint, which called itself an unoffical Coast Guard Library. The…
8 Brooklyn: Court Street - Bryant Street
Court Street, from Bryant Street to Gowanus Canal, showing in the background the Ira S. Bushey and Sons boat building plant.
October 8, 1937.
P. L. Sperr.
Note: Ira S. Bushey was more than a shipyard. They also were a fuel terminal. The fuel tanks…
9 Super Tanker at Ira S. Bushey's Gowanus Oil Terminal, 1955
In 1955, the ESSO NEW YORK, became the first American super tanker to navigate the Gowanus Creek Channel to deliver oil to the Patchogue Oil Terminal, a subsidiary of Ira S. Bushey & Sons, at the foot of Court Street. The dredging of the…
10 Vane Brothers
Vane Line Bunkering (sometimes called Vane Brothers) at the foot of Red Hook’s Court Street in the Gowanus Bay, occupies part of the site of the former Ira S. Bushey & Sons facility. The property is owned by Buckeye who also owns and operates the…
11 The MARY A. WHALEN
A PDF guide to MARY A. WHALEN inEnglish,French,German,Spanish,Italian
The oil tankerMARY A. WHALENwas launched May 21, 1938.The ship is PortSide NewYork's ambassador to theBLUEspaceand site of our offices and many programs.
Why she is…
12 Ira S. Bushey sign on building
13 Deck work doesn't wait for weather.
Photograph of an able-bodied seaman working in snow flurries at Ira S. Bushey and Sons' old shipyard. The end of the line he is working on has been folded back and braided into itself to form a loop. He is inspecting and tightening that splice.…