PortSide 2020 review - 1st installment

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PortSide NewYork is a living lab for better urban waterways. We bring WaterStories to life.  Our programs serve New York City (though we get national and international responses to our virtual museum Red Hook WaterStories and social media); and we have a hyperlocal focus on our neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn. You can support by donating here.

Very personal end-of-year messages from our founder & ED Carolina Salguero

2020 is a ravaging year. We’ve been so busy, we haven’t written blogposts for months! I am writing some personal ones for the end of the year, one a week in December. Stay tuned! PortSide’s 2020 reminds me of a WWII slogan from Red Hook’s Todd Shipyard that Hank Dam shared in his oral history: “the difficult we do every day, the impossible takes a little longer.” Actually, that applies to PortSide’s history as a whole.

This year PortSide tackled questions such as “how to program when our pier is shut and our ship not accessible? When interns and volunteers become unavailable due to the pandemic? When I have Covid? How do we maintain the ship with those people gone and our union partners District Council 9 not running training programs? How do we program when we still lack building space and the ship interior is too small to socially-distance school groups and tours? How best to serve the community during these times? How do we do it with our funding slashed and costs of marine insurance set to rise 25% to 100%? (That’s due to the the insurance industry paying out for all the recent hurricanes and also for Covid.) Money is tight, so if you can donate, we deeply appreciate it.

Can you remember 2020 before the pandemic? I can’t. 

I remember the pivot day, Thursday, March 12, when I decided that having PS 676 1st grade visit the next day was too much risk. I had early insight into Covid from relatives in Spain, both of them frontline doctors.  I canceled the weekly 1st grade field trip scheduled for the next day and shut the ship to the public. The Mayor and Governor announced their shutdowns sometime later.   

March 6 visit by ps 676 1st grade. they respond to the bells and jingles and write down how the ship would move according to those commands.

March 6 visit by ps 676 1st grade. they respond to the bells and jingles and write down how the ship would move according to those commands.

We have not seen the PS 676 1st grade in person since the visit above. Subsequent virtual experiences were heartbreakingly remote in terms of emotional engagement, and it took months before most students in that class received the DOE digital devices. In June, they were still struggling to master the mute and un-mute functions.  In these trying times, how do we teach our youngest and the most disadvantaged such as these young public housing residents? These are questions that we as a society need to be asking — and answering — better during the pandemic — and always.

All this has hardened our resolve to focus on creating after-school and summer programs to provide the educational enrichment and personal support that will enhance the future of such youngsters. Please donate now to help bring such plans to life.

Our 1st Covid mutual aid work - recruiting medical help for Red Hook

Covid triggered PortSide’s hurricane Sandy recovery muscles, work that earned us a White House award, plus our years of experience working on Red Hook resiliency plans since Sandy. After the coronavirus hit NYC, one of the first things I did was recruit medical assistance for Red Hook. I called Dr. Matt Kraushar to ask if he was willing to re-engage with our neighborhood. The answer was YES! Eight years before, after Sandy, he created a medical response team that helped Red Hook NYCHA residents and earned him the knickname “Medical Matt.” In regular conversations I updated update him about Who’s Who in Red Hook, current issues, etc. He teamed up with a local non-profit RHI to create a Covid response plan and worked with senior City officials at NYCs Health and Hospitals. Here are Matt Kraushar’s links to his Covid19 work:

COMMUNITY COVID CHECKUP CLICK HERE

MEDICAL VOLUNTEERS CLICK HERE

MOST RECENT STATS CLICK HERE

Governor Cuomo’s first lockdown order closed our pier to the public. Our ship was suddenly inaccessible. We had no building space. I had Covid by early April and quarantined until the middle of May (with Medical Matt as my remote doctor on daily calls). These conditions prevented PortSide from pivoting like some other Red Hook nonprofits to become food pantries and frontline responders, so we went all-digital.   

Our curator and historian Peter Rothenberg curated a deep list of virtual WaterStories programs from around the world.   

We pumped out a heavy stream of social media posts with WaterStories content. This Facebook page is the most active. 

We created a summary of Covid resources in Red Hook.  

We hosted, for three months, the weekly zoom call for Ready Red Hook, helping revive a dormant resiliency group founded after hurricane Sandy. Our board member Natasha Campbell and I pushed for the group to be more inclusive with more Red Hook public housing voices and more of our Black and brown neighbors.  I called for greater collaboration with all parts of Red Hook saying “resiliency is a team sport not an exercise with star athletes playing exhibition ball.”

I was busy on and off other Red Hook weekly zoom calls for nonprofits, for businesses, for planning new outdoor open space for Red Hook since the spaces of so many local nonprofits were closed due to Covid, and Red Hook faced an open space crisis. More on our response to that in our next newsletter about creating and programming PortSide’s Pandemic PopUp Minipark.

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Sunsets - sharing our harbor view to fight Covid isolation stress

I saw panic about the impending government-mandated, coronavirus lock-down, people’s fear of isolation on top of all the economic and medical anxiety. The PortSide team learned to cope with isolation during the 10 challenging years we were stuck inside the Red Hook Container Terminal while looking for a publicly-accessible home. In 2020, PortSide had what most shut-in New Yorkers lacked: a big sky view, a vast long view of the harbor. I decided to share that via livestreams of the sunset, creating a completely new program.

Looking back over the 150+ sunsets I have streamed, the thousands of views they represent, and the effusive feedback they triggered, I can say that the sunsets, grey or sunny, became a beloved ritual for New Yorkers and people far away. A time of calm, a respite from the pandemic. I talked about ships, tides, weather, birds, marine life or was just quiet. My voice, slowed by the exhaustion I felt while I had Covid during April, proved soothing. I now remind myself to use “sunset voice” when talking. A small group watched live, chatting in the comments. Most watched late at night before bed.

Sunset-watchers called and emailed sharing their life stories, talking about the health issues that kept them inside or the illness of their spouses. I heard from people blocks away, from Virginia, California, Ibiza, Istanbul, Sarajevo.  The sunsets were bedtime stories for adults, a soothing end-of day voice with stories, familiar ones after a while. Familiarity is soothing too. Most sunsets have 200-400 views. Some have over 1,000.  

streaming sunset in the rain

streaming sunset in the rain

Other virtual programs based on the MARY A. WHALEN

200503 Michael Arthur illustration of Kings Country fundraiser concert.jpg

Illustration by Michael Arthur of @Inklines

The band Kings Country peformed two virtual concerts on the ship to help us fundraise to get a vintage engine from Kennett, Missouri. Click the drawing to hear one concert. More about the engine in the next newsletter! Michael Arthur, a local illustrator of live performances, was thrilled to see one after weeks of lockdown and gifted us this drawing.

Another virtual program was a live interview with photographer and filmmaker Thomas Halaczinsky, creator of the book “Archipelago New York.”

Please donate now to support our work.

virtual program broadcast live from PortSide NewYork this year, Thomas Halaczinsky, creator of book Archipelago New York

virtual program broadcast live from PortSide NewYork this year, Thomas Halaczinsky, creator of book Archipelago New York

It takes many hands

Below are photos from before the pandemic showing high school and college interns and adult volunteers working on projects as diverse as our virtual museum Red Hook WaterStories, a harbor video game, assessing the restoration needs of our engine, sewing a custom cover for our winter water tank, restoring parts of the MARY A. WHALEN, repairing a signboard.

Volunteer help disappeared once the pandemic hit and underline our need for a larger budget to have more paid staff. Donating now will help make this happen.

Thanks, in the order they appear, to Elizabeth Alton, Sam Ebersole, Elena Kalvar, Arsenio Martinez, Engineer Bill Bailey, Johnathan Palma, Raffaela Battiloro, and Joanna Zabielska, a visiting artist from Poland.

During difficult 2020, despite deep funding cuts and drop in personnel caused by the pandemic, PortSide did a lot. We have great plans for 2021 and beyond and ask for your support to enable us to sustain and grow our impactful work. Thanks in advance for your support! Please donate now. Stay tuned for three more blog posts covering our 2020 work.

And with that, here are some images for you to enjoy.

perfectly intact seahorse found on deck. #redhookismagic as our boardmember maria nieto says

perfectly intact seahorse found on deck. #redhookismagic as our boardmember maria nieto says

view through mary a. whalen porthole

view through mary a. whalen porthole

chiclet chilling

chiclet chilling

PortSide NewYork Hyster eligible for National register of Historic Places - updated 6/3/20

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karry krane logo.jpg

2020 update

Have you got experience repairing a 1941 Hyster Karry Krane? We could use your help! We expect to get a 1941 Fairbanks Morse engine from Kennett, Missouri in July, so we are interested in repairing our 1941 Hyster Karry Krane in order to have a crane to use to lift parts off that engine preparatory to bringing them aboard our ship MARY A. WHALEN. We will be using parts from the 1941 Kennett engine to restore the 1938 Fairbanks Morse engine in the MARY. Below is an edited version of our 2013 blogpost about our Hyster.

Our manual for the 1941 Hyster Karry Krane is here.

Another triumph!  Another historic item for Red Hook! Our Hyster crane (built in 1941) has been deemed eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places! and in record time~

What triggered this accomplishment

In just two days, our Historian/Curator Peter Rothenberg researched the history of our 1941 Hyster and the history of this "Karry Krane" model, submitted an application to SHPO (the NYS Historical Preservation Office) to see if it was eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and got that application approved! 

We profusely thank the staff at SHPO for reviewing our application in just hours, and we also profusely thank Jenny Bernstein of FEMA who told us about the grant that prompted us to focus on the Hyster. The Hyster was flooded by Sandy, and the grant is for Sandy damage to historic and cultural resources. 

PortSide-NewYork-DOE-1941-Hyster-Karry-Krane.jpg

PortSide applied for funding to reverse Sandy damage to the Hyster and to the replacement parts for MARY A. WHALEN's engine which were in the shed. The grant does not cover damage to historic documents which were flooded by Sandy. 

We applied for for the Hyster, and for damages to MARY's engine parts we would use. (The grant would not cover damage to those engine parts we planned to sell to support the restoration of the MARY A. WHALEN's engine.)  Earlier this year, we applied for FEMA Sandy recovery funds for Sandy damages, but we do not yet know if we will get funding.  We did not apply until May 2013 because we were told in a November 2012 funding workshop that we were not eligible; that was corrected in May, at which point we immediately sought Sandy recover funds. 

Crash course into the National Register of Historic Places

In short, getting on the National Register of Historic Places is a two-stage process: being "deemed eligible" and actually being listed. PortSide did the MARY A. WHALEN in two steps.  For something to be on eligible or listed, it has to be deemed historical significant in some or all of the following ways:

Is it associated with an important person, event, or movement in history? Does it represent a significant design or technology, or is it a special example of a particular style? Is it the work of a recognized master? Could it yield important archaeological information about our past?

Here is our full application to SHPO in two parts.

Determination of Eligibility (DOE) for listing on the National Register

Supplemental History of Michael Cowhey

SHPO's response was "Thank you for pulling together this very compelling and fascinating history of the "Karry Krane"  in such a short amount of time!  Both myself and my colleague, Kath LaFrank of our NR Unit, have reviewed your submission and, based on the information provided, the Hyster "Karry Krane" is eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places.  The only other somewhat similar type of property in NYS that we've called eligible is a historic steam shovel in LeRoy, NY. "

We copy excerpts from our DOE application below.

Todd Shipyard boomed during WWII. There were mobile cranes like ours in use at Todd. We have yet to check if the grain terminal used them.

The successor to our 1941 Hyster are the many forklifts used all over Red Hook.

History In brief

The “Karry Krane” name was first used July 14, 1941. PortSide’s Crane is from 1941. PortSide’s crane is both one of the original Karry Kranes made and, while once common, is now one of the last of its kind.

This crane type was developed by Hyster during WWII and was very significant to the war effort here and overseas. It was used in shipbuilding facilities, in ports for cargo handling and for rebuilding after the war effort. It was such a useful vehicle that Hyster produced it overseas when it opened its first plant outside the USA in 1951. It became an international workhorse. We find documentation that shows it was used in New Zealand in addition to Europe.

This particular Hyster crane was last used by Cowhey Brother Marine Hardware in Red Hook which closed in 2005 and donated their final inventory to PortSide NewYork. The Cowhey family was in several forms of maritime business in Red Hook for about 140 years when three Cowheys wound down the business.

Cowhey’s bought the crane from the Staten Island Bethlehem Steel shipyard when that closed in the 1960s. We presume that the crane was new when purchased by Bethlehem Steel when that yard boomed during the war effort.

Physical description of the crane

The crane dimensions are:

Body length 12’ 4”
Length of boom 10’ 1”
Overall length 22’ 3”
Height of body 3’ 3”
Height of boom 10’ 8”

1940: By experimental use of tractor frames, an advanced type of mobile crane is developed, later named the “Karry Krane."

1952: Hyster opens its first plant outside the USA, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The Hyster 40” and the Karry Krane are the first machines to be assembled there.
Criteria for evaluation.

This 1941 Hyster Karry Krane meets the following National Regsiter criteria:

(a) that are associated with history of a prominent Red Hook family and business. It is the last sizeable artifact of that business. It is related to a collection of other artifacts we have for that business. This particular crane is related to maritime history of NYC (two sites, one in Red Hook, one in Staten Island). And the crane model is particularly related to WWII history everywhere this crane became a major workhorse
(d) that have yielded, or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. It is a means to tell stories related to the Cowhey family and business in Red Hook, the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Staten Island, WWII and reconstruction operations in civilian and military applications.

History of the Hyster company

This is a 2.5 ton Hyster,the most popular World War 2,dock, lift and carry crane.they first came over on lease lend in 1941.

COLLECTION HYSTER KARRY KRANE MOBILE CRANE USAF USNAVY WWII

Establishing Willamette Ersted Co.
The company that would be known as Hyster Co. was founded by E.G. Swigert in 1929 under the name Willamette Ersted Co.[2] Initially, this company was established to manufacture logging winches for the forestry market in the Pacific Northwest, with headquarters in Portland, Oregon.

The Early Products
1934 saw the development of the straddle carrier with forks, which was one of the company’s earliest forklifts. Following this was the development of the BT, a forklift with a cable hoist system, able to lift 6,600 pounds (3,000 kg).[3] By 1940, the company began to manufacture its first piece of mobile lifting equipment, a mobile crane on a tractor frame, first known as a Cranemobile, later to be renamed Karry Krane. The Karry Kranes would prove to be very profitable for the company, as these lift trucks were used for loading and unloading massive cargo ships for importing and exporting purposes. In 1941, Willamette Ersted began recognizing a need for a smaller lift truck, and designed a new smaller model known as the Handy Andy. The following year, the Jumbo was introduced as the company’s first product to use pneumatic tires and a telescoping mast.

Operations in Peoria
In the company’s early years, one of its prominent customers was Caterpillar Tractor Co. Caterpillar held an exclusive contract with the company, whereby Willamette Ersted Co. would manufacture specialized winches for Caterpillar’s logging tractors. In light of this, the company decided in 1936 to open a warehouse and distribution center in Peoria, Illinois, where Caterpillar was headquartered. By 1940, Willamette Ersted Co. had begun full-scale manufacturing of products at its Peoria location.

For more info check out...  http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Hyster_Co.

 

History of the Cowhey family and their business in Red Hook

The story of this business is a means to cover several topics: how an immigrant family rises in stature, the growth of a marine business from “speculator” (eg, the maritime version of the scrap collectors with shopping carts today, someone who collected scrap metal by going boat to boat in the harbor), to a purveyor of nautical antiquities to the wealthy, then a marine hardware supplier and the operator of a port in Albany.
The Cowhey family grew in prominence in Red Hook from their speculator days in the 1860s, and at the peak of the business, they owned most of a block in the vicinity of their final outpost at 440 Van Brunt Street.
In 2005, as the business wound down, the Cowhey family operated a terminal in Albany of Federal Marine Terminals http://www.fmtcargo.com/.
Chronology of Cowhey family in Red Hook (for more, see attached history about Michael Cowhey)

John Cowhey started his business about 1862 [1937 obit says business started about 75 years ago]

By the time his son Michael Cowhey was running it, the business, John Cowhey Sons at 400 Van Brunt was a ship wrecking and salvage firm. The company was well known to decorators looking for nautical articles.

John Cowhey was famous for purchasing in 1911 the RELIANCE a racing yacht which one the America’s cup, dismantling her and selling her fittings and scrapping her parts. The 110-foot mast went to the Federal Baseball League park.

Michael Cowhey. d. 1937 had a wife Regina [or Margret according to a different source], a daughter Regina and two sons Thomas and John.

Thomas M. Cowhey in 1990 was the title holder to 440 Van Brunt which was built c. 1931, altered in 1957.

A Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 20, 1931 article describes John Cowhey as "one of the influential citizens of Red Hook" in his day.

The same article tells that Michael had in his yard several large old church bells that he had bought for scrap but had decided to hold on to. The bells rang eerily in the night but:

"If some one suggested that the ghost of an old Bailing ship skipper might be behind the tolling, he would nod solemnly. Then he would ask if his questioner had ever heard how in 1880 the wind blew so hard that Red Hook was white with scales, blown clean off the harbor fish, and how all the houses on the Hook had to be held in place by anchors. And how once it was so cold that he, Michael Cowhey, was able to walk barefooted over the ice to Staten Island. "

eWaterStories experiences selected by PortSide for the pandemic era

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Sunset seen from the deck of portside’s flagship, the mary a. whalen, in red hook, brooklyn

Sunset seen from the deck of portside’s flagship, the mary a. whalen, in red hook, brooklyn

For you! Specially selected #eWaterStories, virtual maritime and marine life programs for the COVID19 period, to educate and entertain while we all do our part at #socialdistancing and staying inside to flatten the curve. There is an ocean of resources out there produced by a wide variety of marine science organizations, museums, aquariums and educational sites. This is a growing list of selections I made to provide programs during the coronavirus era.

I list the organization websites first, and then break out the offerings such as virtual tours, live cams, games, and educational material into their own headings.

PortSide has our own virtual museum RedHookWaterstories.org, full of oral and written histories, anecdotes, maps, photographs, and other water stories (from cats to quarantines) related to Red Hook, Brooklyn on land and water.

Please check back for updates, and if you have something good to recommend, please let me know.

Peter Rothenberg
Curator, PortSide NewYork

Index

General websites

PortSide NewYork's own offerings – some quick links

  • portsidenewyork.org

    • PortSide NewYork's African American Maritime Heritage program's website, a jumping off point for exploring the waterstories of African Americans;stories of black achievement, struggles against the sea, struggles against racism, and aspects of daily life and work. It includes short synopses and links.

    • PortSide NewYork's blog

  • redhookwaterstories.org
    PortSide's virtual museum full of written and oral histories, anecdotes, maps, photographs, and other water stories (from cats to quarantines) related to Red Hook, Brooklyn on land and water. Updated often.

  • facebook.com/portsidenewyork
    Live streams of the sunset, from the top of the MARY A WHALEN's wheelhouse, looking out on the Atlantic Basin with the Statue of Liberty in the distance every evening starting around 7:30 by PortSide's Executive Director Carolina Salguero. These have turned into a conversation and harbor tour.

  • youtube.com/user/PortSideNewYork

  • Audio Tour of PortSide NewYork’s MARY A WHALEN
    https://redhookwaterstories.org/items/show/1738

Audio

Coloring Books (with a story to tell)

Children's Books – downloadable

Children's Books Read-a-loud (YouTube videos)

Education

Games

Graphic Novellas, Comic Books and Illustrated E-books

Google Expeditions

Designed to viewed on a phone with VR (virtual reality) glasses using the app but can also just be used on a computer screen, or phone screen. [Google Cardboard viewers were sort of a thing in 2014 and information about on how to make them or buy them are available on line.]
https://edu.google.com/products/vr-ar/expeditions/
Google’s spreadsheet of Google Expeditions (Google doc): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uwWvAzAiQDueKXkxvqF6rS84oae2AU7eD8bhxzJ9SdY/edit#gid=0

Here are some marine related ones

  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Explore an artists interpretation of the underwater world created by Jules Verne in 1872.
    “Join Pierre Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land as they inadvertently embark on an underwater journey on board the submarine Nautilus commanded by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. A voyage covering 20,000 leagues in a submarine years ahead of its time, you will feel part of the action journeying through realistic underwater scenes. Jules Verne himself would surely recommend bringing his wonderful novel to life using the magic of virtual reality.”
    https://poly.google.com/view/c2BA_10LmWW

  • Alice Austen: Early American Photographer
    Dr. Doty and the Quarantine
    ”In the early 1890s, 500,000 immigrants per year were sailing past Clear Comfort into New York Harbor to Ellis Island. If there were signs of infectious disease on the boat, the passengers and goods abroad and the vessel had to be inspected and sanitized. In the late 1890s, Austen was asked by a Public Health Service doctor, Dr. Alvah H. Doty, to document the quarantine stations located on Hoffman and Swinburne Islands close to the Austen family home. Austen continued to travel to the islands for over a decade to document advances in technology and conditions at the quarantine stations. She processed these photographs in this darkroom.”
    https://poly.google.com/view/fsGxNPolkGj

  • USS Midway Museum, The USS Midway was the largest Navy ship in the world for a decade after it was commissioned in 1945. She is also the longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century (47 years)
    https://poly.google.com/view/1u1aO9S1sYW

  • Titanic Belfast . Stand in a spot and look around the SS Nomadic. “Built in 1911 as a luxury tender, she ferried 1st and 2nd class passengers to ocean liners moored off the French port of Cherbourg, which was too shallow to accommodate the big ships. (Her sister ship, SS Traffic, carried the 3rd class passengers.) In her lifetime, Nomadic served as a minesweeper, a tugboat, and a restaurant and nightclub. Nomadic has survived over 105 years of turbulent events to make it back to Belfast in one piece.
    https://poly.google.com/view/6tjWCUFYtjK

Knots

Maybe now is a good time to learn some handy knots, knowing a few good ones can be useful and satisfying.

Live Cams - Nature

Live Cams - Port Views

Live Cams - Other

On-line Collections

Photographs, artifacts, sound and ephemera that one can browse through or search by keyword. Lose yourself meandering through thousands of items.

On-line exhibits

  • The Ben Franklin - Grumman/Piccard PX-15 Submersible - 50th Anniversary of the Gulf Stream Drift Mission:
    https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/646/
    Related video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10849

    • “At 8:56 P.M. (EDT) July 14, 1969, Grumman Aerospace Corporation's research submarine Ben Franklin slipped beneath the surface of the Atlantic off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida carrying a crew of six comprised of engineers, oceanographers and a former Navy captain. In addition, NASA sends along one crew member whose job it was to evaluate the use of the Ben Franklin as a space station analogue.
      The Ben Franklin's mission was to investigate the secrets of the Gulf Stream as it drifted northward at depths of 600-2,000 feet; to learn the effects on humans of a long-duration, closed-environment stressful voyage; to demonstrate the engineering-operational concepts of long term submersible operation; and to conduct other scientific oceanographic studies.
      This longest privately-sponsored undersea experiment of its kind ended more than 30-days and 1,444 nautical miles later, when the Franklin and its crew surfaced some 300 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, at 7:58 A.M. August 14, 1969”

Photographs

Amazing sea creatures, oceans and related images

Video - Created for Kids

Video - Science & Sea Critters

This list is just a sampling, mostly from marine research institutions and aquariums
(see also ‘Live Cams’ and ‘Video - Documentaries” ) .

Videos – Documentaries

  • After the Fire, It's Happening, Oregon Public Broadcasting, 1967 - “Here's a duffy little tugboat”

    Includes a short segment on moving a raft of logs (8:30). [Red Hook was once a destination for such log rafts.]
    “Here's a duffy little tugboat. A rugged little machine built out of solid steel, has a powerful engine and the operator on it is very much like a cowboy rounding up cattle as he pushes and shows and noses these logs away from the point where they're dropped into the water into the rafting area. There are some rather skilled workers walk around with their calked boots on top of these logs and push them into the arrangement that they would like to have.

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_153-91fj71x1#at_575.759_s

  • American Fisheries, Telemark Films, 2008

    “Explores both the transformation of the living ocean and the embattled fishing industry. Bringing to light one of the most significant environmental disasters in history, it nevertheless raises hope for the future.

    https://vimeo.com/194707359

  • Around Cape Horn, 1929

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=114&v=9tuTKhqWZso&feature=emb_logo

    On the Peking – Dramatic footage.

  • Around the World in a Square Rigged Ship, 1939
    Outward from Copenhagen to Australia by way of Cape of good hope in 91 days and returning via Cape Horn to England in 98 days. Four masted ship PASSAT
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96cRjLkIKlE

  • Black Journal, WNET New York Public Television. 1969

    Includes a section on blacks working in a shipyard in New Orleans

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_512-7659c6sv19

  • Ferryboats of the Connecticut River, Telemark Films, 2017

    The history, heritage, controversy and uncertain future of the last remaining ferryboats on the Connecticut River.

    https://vimeo.com/235225805

  • Filter Feeders. A look at the oyster restoration movement in New York City, as its concerned citizens work together to improve the water quality of New York Harbor and Flushing Bay. Made in 5 days concept to finish for the Project Earth Documentary Challenge hosted by The Audience Awards and Fusion Network.
    https://vimeo.com/183121528

  • Following the Seas, Journeyman Pictures, 2017
    Bob and Nancy Griffith made twenty ocean voyages over two decades, fulfilling a dream of freedom and adventure in their 53-foot sailboat
    https://vimeo.com/ondemand/followingseas

  • History of Tugboats
    Late 1990s documentary
    https://youtu.be/vux2zpwawMU

  • Lamu New Year’s Dhow Race, Kenya

    “Every January 1, on the island of Lamu off the Kenyan coast, crews of local watermen gather on Shela Beach for the most prestigious race of the year. The traditional Arab dhows, unchanged for centuries, are made by hand from local mangrove wood and fabric.”

    https://vimeo.com/156870692?fbclid=IwAR0VIWun4ZxIrkFrOCF7iFnaDir5Mj7jfvbTKJSfydQbAn6l9ZTrxWuBuwM

  • Lightship Overfalls (6:40)

    A visitor's tour of the Lighship OVERFALLS

    “Lightships were permanently stationed at fixed locations off the coast where lighthouses could not be located. GPS has made them obsolete and none remain in service. When I was young I fished with my father near Scotland Lightship outside New York Harbor. This is an inside tour of one such ship.”

    https://vimeo.com/261710445

  • Microplastic Madness (trailer)
    Cafeteria Culture worked with Red Hook's PS 15 5th grade to make the movie, PortSide’s Carolina Salguero has a cameo.
    https://vimeo.com/361115158

  • New York in the mid 1930's in Color!
    Compilation that includes several harbor views, including the SS Normandie and RMS Queen Mary
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpXnEvW0XD0

  • New York Voices, #302, Thirteen WNET. 2002 “Is Red Hook, Brooklyn the New Bohemia?”

    Starts off with Sunny, Greg O'Connell, Nick FeFonte,

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_75-343r26zx

  • New York Voices, #324, Thirteen WNET. 2003
    History and changes on the water front. Includes last days of the Fulton Fish Market, Kenneth Jackson opining on the changing use of the waterfront, Sal Catucci of American Stevedoring talking about the

    Red Hook Container Terminal (13:40), discussion of Brooklyn Bridge Park (not yet built) and the City's changing views on an industrial waterfront.

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_75-31cjtb40

  • New York Voices, #502, Thirteen WNET. 2005

    Topics include the rezoning of a major portion of North Brooklyn's old industrial waterfront and Hidden Harbor Tours – with some footage of Erie Basin before Ikea (12:40).

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_75-72p5j143#at_1151.49_s

  • Replacing Z-Drives Onboard the Coast Guard Cutter BARBARA MABRITY, 2013

    Coast Guard Industrial Production Facility New Orleans renews two thirteen-ton Z-drive propulsion units onboard the Coast Guard Cutter Barbara Mabrity at their dockside facilities near New Orleans East, March 11, 2013. The Barbara Mabrity, a 175-foot buoy-tender, has since returned to their home port in Mobile, Ala

    https://vimeo.com/62447518

  • Saving Jamaica Bay – THIS IS A LIMITED TIME NO COST OFFER
    Watch the award-winning documentary, Saving Jamaica Bay. Follow the residents of Jamaica Bay as they battle against government and natural disasters to protect the rich ecosystem of the bay. http://www.jbrpc.org/video Worksheet for students
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AhTz7lJgvYOs0slyYNfcPMtqQfWXAKn2G_HlQ2OkAEc

  • Sea Rescue. Full length documentary
    https://youtu.be/Wa1NrfNQxWM

  • Shipyard Tools Tour, Mystic Seaport
    https://stories.mysticseaport.org/shipyard-tools-tour-digital-museum/

  • Sludge, The Robert MacNeil Report, 1976
    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_507-9c6rx94090#at_904.679_s

  • Tanker Turning on the KVK (4:19)

    McAllister Tugs turning an oil tanker from the berth at IMTT Bayonne NJ and out to sea.

    https://vimeo.com/89970249

  • The Charles W. Morgan, Telemark Films, 2014
    Story about America’s last wooden whale ship and the incredible saga of the first global industry dominated by America.

    https://vimeo.com/194231226

  • The Fight for Maritime Unity, National Maritime Union ca. 1947.
    NYU Preservation YouTube channel
    Starts with an introduction by the head of the National Maritime Union, listing the goals of the union and a call for unity among all the unions in the industry. References to the merchant marines during WWII; longshoremen loading bulk cargo; chipping, scrapping and painting; heroes yesterday, bums today, the broken strike of 1921; “getting my coffee and doughnuts and praying in the mission”; “shipping crimps” (racketeers who controlled access to shipping jobs, often operated out of rooming houses – the seaman often ended up with a job but no pay to keep at the end of his stint); the shape up “a nightmare of intimidation and insecurity”; industrial unionism; 1934 West Coast waterfront strike; Marine Federation of the Pacific; victory; rotary hiring system; the need for greater unity to maintain and expand gains. Music by Pete Seeger and Joe Jaffe,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XIthhMpDc0&feature=youtu.be&mc_cid=7ac6d0e550&mc_eid=48691e2a2e

  • The Old Tugboat That Still Can, NYC Lens (Columbia University) ca. 2012
    “The only thing that's changed about the 54-year-old steel tug Thornton Bros. is the crew that guides her through the choppy waters of New York Harbor”.

    https://vimeo.com/41218823

  • The Real McCoy, Telemark Films (56 minutes)

    The story of Bill McCoy, the pioneer rum runner of the Prohibition era, who fuelled the Roaring Twenties by transporting over 2 million bottles of "un-cut" alcohol to the Speakeasies of New York. McCoy never broke the law or diluted his alcohol, earning the name “The Real McCoy.” - Winner of 5 Emmy® Awards.

    https://vimeo.com/144350191

  • The Revolutionary River, Telemark Films, 2009

    The story of the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, known as “The Revolutionary River” due to its involvement in the American Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Environmental Revolution.

    https://vimeo.com/194247881

  • The Salvage Prince, 1979 (22:22)

    “This is a documentary short filmed in 1979 about my parents, Jock, and the late Suzanna Brandis. I was told it was unavailable for purchase after so many years, so I wanted to share it with friends and family. Three intrepid individuals undertake the restoration of an old tugboat destined for the scrapyard. Through great inventiveness, they slowly rebuild it from recycled and scavenged materials.

    From a rusted hulk, it becomes a home, albeit without the luxuries. This documentary is as much an account of their life on and around the tug as a lyrical record of how they restored its battered hide.”

    https://vimeo.com/36329670

  • Timelapse videos of wharves, beaches and containerports by Keith Loutit, Sydney Australia

  • Traditions: Curtis Creek Ship Graveyard, Human Being Productions.(1:48)
    Archaeologist documenting a ship graveyard in Maryland
    https://vimeo.com/307756699

  • Traditions: Tugboats On The Harbor. Human Being Productions.

    “Drinking a beer at Ó Flynn’s on Hanover Street is where we met Captain Mark Stephen Rooney of McAllister Towing of Baltimore. There, he started to tell us all about his life growing up near the Port of Baltimore and the path that led him to becoming a Baltimore Tugboat Captain.”

    https://vimeo.com/237977283

  • Tugs. By Jessica Edwards, Narratively, 2011

    Profile of Millers Launch, includes footage of the annual Tugboat Race

    “The waterways are the city's sixth borough, with history, industry and recreation that are largely overlooked by most New Yorkers. Profiling the humble tugboat was my way of showcasing this unheralded part of the city.”
    https://narratively.com/tugs/ and https://vimeo.com/50619799

  • US Army Divers’ School, 1957
    https://vimeo.com/408430168

  • Using the Standard Deep Sea Diving Outfit - US Navy Training Film MN-9915c, 1966

    https://vimeo.com/399435619

  • Workhorses of the Harbor, ca. 1940

    Tug dispatchers in NY 1940s
    https://vimeo.com/113807700

  • Yacht Building; Maine Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting, 1983
    The making of a fiberglass yacht

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_245-60cvdw1w

Video - Just for Fun (just a few random ones)

Virtual Tours 360°

These tours allow one to look around in all directions. Some have points to click on for more information while others are just unguided explorations. They can be viewed on a computer screen or on a phone, some with differing effects. [Also see the related Google Expeditions section.]

Virtual Tours (other or more than 360° tours)

  •  Virtual Erie Canal, Tugster: A Waterblog
    scenes from the sixth boro and gallivants beyond by any and all the crew
    ”    My information and photos result from working on the Canal for five of the past six years, returning there with a camera and drone in the off season, and lots of reading and conversation, all making an ongoing accretion of familiarity.” https://tugster.wordpress.com/virtual-canal-guide/

Other – These don't fall into the existing categories

Unveiling of Atlantic Basin Sandy High Water Mark sign & Red Hook Sandy Flood Map

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Camille Casaretti, President of the Community Education Council 15 (CEC15), stopped by to see how the sign and map could be used for educating school groups. She was greeted by PortSide Executive Director Carolina Salguero dressed as Bio Luminesence…

Camille Casaretti, President of the Community Education Council 15 (CEC15), stopped by to see how the sign and map could be used for educating school groups. She was greeted by PortSide Executive Director Carolina Salguero dressed as Bio Luminesence and PortSide Historian and Curator Peter Rothenberg.

On the 7th anniversary of hurricane Sandy, October 29, 2019, PortSide NewYork unveiled a Sandy High Water Mark sign at the pedestrian entrance to Atlantic Basin/NYC Ferry/Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

PortSide’s role in the creation of the Sandy High Water Mark FEMA/OEM program

Creating Sandy high water mark signs was a PortSide proposal at the White House event where we received our Champions of Change award for Sandy work. The structure of the award event was to put all the honorees on a panel and pepper us with questions to harvest ideas. The senior Federal Disaster Recovery team sought a follow-up with PortSide and come to meet us for many hours aboard the MARY WHALEN. According to Ken Curtin, the Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator FEMA for Sandy in NY (see his video below), PortSide was the first to propose such a sign program. FEMA executed the idea and created the Sandy High Water Mark program, and NYC Emergency Management is now involved in the program.

PortSide also unveiled a banner with a map of Red Hook Sandy flooding made by a local cartographer Jim McMahon. See a copy in our e-museum here.

Carolina Salguero, Executive Director of PortSide NewYork, articulating the message from Bio Luminescence, a costume worn for Red Hook Barnacle Parade, commemorating Sandy, as well as the unveiling of a sign marking Sandy’s high watermark. The parade followed shortly after.

Assistant Commissioner Christina Farrell, NYC Emergency Management speaks. October 29, 2019.

Ken Curtin, recently retired FEMA Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator speaking. He explained the backstory that led to the creation of the program that makes these signs, citing PortSide’s role in that story.

Carolina Salguero, Executive Director of PortSide NewYork (and Bio Luminescence for Red Hook's commemorative Barnacle Parade), speaks. October 29, 2019

PortSide NewYork's unveils a sign marking the high watermark at Red Hook's Atlantic Basin during hurricane Sandy on its seventh anniversary. Natasha Campbell, Founder of Summit Academy and PortSide NewYork board member, speaks. October 29, 2019

Unveiling the Sandy High Water Mark sign and a Sandy hurricane flood map of Red Hook by cartographer by Jim McMahon.

Dan Wiley, Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez's District Director of Southwest Brooklyn, speaks. October 29, 2019


Copied below

Press Release Unveiling of Atlantic Basin Sandy High Water Mark sign Red Hook Sandy Flood Map


Tues 10/29, 3:15-3:45pm

Unveiling of Atlantic Basin Sandy High Water Mark sign Red Hook Sandy Flood Map

Pedestrian gate to Atlantic Basin/NYC Ferry/Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
West end of Pioneer Street at Conover Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Followed by 4pm Barnacle Parade which musters at Pioneer and Van Brunt, one block away. 

On the 7th anniversary of hurricane Sandy, October 29, 2019, the nonprofit PortSide NewYork will unveil a Sandy High Water Mark sign at the pedestrian entrance to Atlantic Basin/NYC Ferry/Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn. This sign is an official program of FEMA and NYC Emergency Management.  Sandy’s surge was 5.75 feet high at this location. 

PortSide will also unveil a banner with a map of Red Hook Sandy flooding made by a local cartographer Jim McMahon. See a copy in our e-museum at https://redhookwaterstories.org/items/show/919.  

Immediately after the unveiling, joins us in Red Hook’s Barnacle Parade that kicks off at 4:00pm half a block up Pioneer Street and proceeds to pass the new signs. This parade is the way Red Hook memorializes Sandy since 2013 on the “Sandyversary” of 10/29.  

Carolina Salguero, Founder and Executive Director of PortSide says “After riding out hurricane Sandy on our ship to protect her from the storm, I and our Historian/Curator Peter Rothenberg came ashore to Red Hook. I was heartbroken to find the condition of our community.  I told the PortSide crew that we’re going to try and help. Our first move was to set up a pop-up aid station at Realty Collective which we ran the month of October.  PortSide has worked since that time, in many ways, to help Red Hook recover and become more resilient and to help foster resiliency for New York as a whole. Understanding the potential of our waterways is the crux of PortSide’s mission, and Sandy amplified our mission to include understanding marine weather and the destructive potential of water.  This year, PortSide’s resiliency work includes the installation of this Sandy High Water Mark sign, and next to it, the Red Hook Sandy flood map created by Jim McMahon that shows where Sandy flooded Red Hook and land elevation around our beloved but vulnerable peninsula. I hope that these signs will help educate students and adults and help them prepare for future floods.”  

The unveiling of these signs sign is another phase in PortSide’s recovery and resiliency planning work since hurricane Sandy.  PortSide received a “Champions of Change” award from the Obama White House for Sandy prevention work (protection the MARY A. WHALEN) and Sandy recovery work for Red Hook.

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/champions/hurricane-sandy/carolina-salguero-(portside-newyork)

 The New York State Senate also honored PortSide for their Sandy recovery work.

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/resolutions/2013/j2531

PortSide founder Carolina Salguero was appointed by the Governor’s office to the NY Rising committee (the precursor to Resilient Red Hook) that created a resiliency plan for Red Hook.  For further information about Sandy and resiliency planning, visit PortSide’s e-museum Red Hook WaterStories (RHWS) www.redhookwaterstories.org  

Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY):

“Today, seven years to the day Superstorm Sandy hit, we remember the damage our entire community endured and how we came together to help one another. This high-water mark sign sends a message that we must all continue to build community resiliency and fight climate change. I would also like to recognize PortSide NewYork’s role in Sandy recovery for which it received the White House ‘Champions of Change’ award in 2013. PortSide dreamed up a project like High Water Mark Initiative which FEMA created and NYC Emergency Management has been implementing here and around the city. This program helps alert residents and visitors alike to the dangers of storm surge and the need to be ready with a plan for the next storm. For my part, I will keep working with officials at all levels of government to promote Red Hook and our City’s resiliency and sustainability.”

New York State Senator Velmanette Montgomery says, "The Barnacle Parade represents the strength of Red Hook in the wake of super storm Sandy and serves as a reminder to all of us how climate change impacts our communities more and more each year. I am proud to represent Red Hook residents and organizations like PortSide New York who took this as a call to action and have been working tirelessly to build a more resilient community."

Councilman Carlos Menchaca says, "Red Hook’s water mark sign is a reminder of our community's resilience and how much more is needed to prepare for the next storm. The symbolic gesture must force us all to take seriously the urgency of this moment, and to do everything in our power to protect our most vulnerable neighbors from the worst effects of climate change. Thankfully, we have organizations like PortSide New York to keep us laser focused on this threat while celebrating what we've accomplished."

NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell: “This High Water Mark sign is a reminder of the life-threatening risks associated with storm surge. It also highlights the strength of the Red Hook community, and serves to educate individuals about the importance of preparing for a coastal storm,” said NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell.  “Through this and other initiatives, we remain dedicated to working closely with community leaders to build a culture of preparedness through stronger, more resilient neighborhoods.”

Ken Curtin, formerly of FEMA says “I was the FEMA Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator for Sandy in NY. We came to meet the PortSide team in Red Hook since we were impressed with the recovery and resiliency ideas that they shared at the White House ceremony where they won a Sandy recovery award. Their ideas were practical, actionable and common sense, except that common sense is not so common any more. PortSide proposed that signs be installed to mark Sandy flood levels to help communities prepare for future floods. I’m glad that this program was implemented by FEMA and then adopted by NYC Emergency Management.”  

Gita Nandan, co-chair of Resilient Red Hook says, “We are thrilled about the installation of the high water mark sign. Having a physical marker in remembrance of Super Storm Sandy helps keep the memory alive of this turning point in Red Hook. As a waterfront community, Red Hook is on the forefront of climate change, and this will help keep us activated to ensure we build a resilient community for future generations.”  Resilient Red Hook is made up of concerned residents working together to steer the future of Red Hook. More at https://www.resilientredhook.org/ 

Michael Racioppo, District Manager, Brooklyn Community Board 6 says, “The high water mark high of Superstorm Sandy is something that should remind us throughout the year, not just during Halloween week, how scary the impact of climate change is.  Reminding us to be vigilant in order to maintain great waterfront, and great waterfront neighborhoods, is the continuation of the work PortSide does.”  

About PortSide NewYork www.portsidenewyork.org & www.redhookwaterstories.org
PortSide is a living lab for better urban waterways. PortSide connects New Yorkers to the benefits of our waterways and ports.  PortSide produces WaterStories programs on and off the historic ship MARY A. WHALEN in education, culture, resiliency and job training.

 

 

# # #

 

 

REPOSTING: PortSide NewYork Sandy Story Part 1: saving MARY WHALEN

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10/27/19 We are reposting this 2013 blogpost to foster flood preparation. The post describes four days of preparing for Sandy. Today’s gale and the approaching date of 10/29 is reminding us of Sandy - and we want you to know about PortSide’s event on 10/29/19 at 3:15pm, the unveiling of a Sandy High Water Mark sign at the pedestrian entrance to Atlantic Basin, Red Hook, Brooklyn, corner of Pioneer and Conover Streets. At 4pm, the Barnacle Parade kicks off up the block. The parade is the way Red Hook commemorates Sandy since the one-year anniversary of the devastating storm.

This is PortSide NewYork's hurricane Sandy story, installment one.  

Installment one is a personal report by Carolina Salguero, Director of PortSide, speaking as Shipkeeper of the MARY A. WHALEN.  This installment covers PortSide's time in port preparing for Sandy, riding out the storm on the tanker, assessing our damage. We think the ship-related segment of our Sandy story is important because it shows how the maritime community in the port of NY-NJ spent days preparing for Sandy.   The maritime community has something to offer inland neighbors in terms of understanding how to assess flood risks and prepare for them.

The second installment of our Sandy story will cover PortSide's effort to help inland Red Hook, Brooklyn recover from the storm. 

The third installment will cover lessons learned and ideas for the future.

What a difference four days can make

Thursday, 10/25/12, Sandy minus four, the PortSide crew is excited to be hosting an elementary school class aboard the tanker MARY A. WHALEN.  After finishing a TankerTour and jolly lunch for 30 on deck with the City + Country School and waving goodbye to their coach bus, Dan Goncharoff says “have you been looking at this storm coming up the coast?”

C + C School visit, Thursday morning

​

I check the weather websites. This looks like hurricane Irene plus some.  

We convene a crew meeting and start hurricane preparations. School docents become a Sandy prep squad. By end of day, the deck was cleared of anything that could blow, and I am calling and emailing around for crew to help prepare and to ride out the storm on the ship. 

Friday morning, after more info about the storm, I am trying to find a protected berth for the tanker MARY A. WHALEN.  Just days before, we received word that our application had been accepted; the ship was on the National Register of Historic Places! Since the MARY is not fully restored, she lacks some equipment that would help her in a big storm: a working engine (eg, the ability to run away), machinery to raise her anchors if dropped to hold us in place, and a winch to haul in docklines under load. Compensating for that involves some extra forethought. 

Despite our efforts, we can’t find a good alternate berth for the MARY outside of the Red Hook Container Terminal.  Hughes Marine says “We’re out of space. You’ll be able to walk across Erie Basin by the time this is over; it will be so full of vessels.”  A contact at a shipyard says “we flooded during Irene, and this one looks to be worse, you sure you want to be over here?” “No and good luck,” is my answer.

After more checking of the weather, I decide to move the MARY where she rode out Irene, on the other side, the north side, of our current Pier 9B. (The south side lines up with the end of Degraw Street). For non-sailors, here’s how this kind of calculation goes:

Winds were expected to start from NE, swing around to the East and end up SW, but this could always change. If rough weather were coming from anything west to southwest, our current position has us exposed to the wind from the southwest and the fetch (long stretch of water over which wind can build up waves) from Staten Island up the Buttermilk Channel. 

The fendering (the wooden cribbing protecting ship and pier) is not robust on this side. A big advantage to the north side are some pilings at the inshore end that stand much taller than the pier and which would help prevent the tanker from riding up onto the pier if the surge were really high. 

The north side would have us more exposed from winds at the start of the storm, but the hill of Brooklyn Heights and the pier to the north of us (even though it has no shed) would provide a compensating wind break.  

As the wind clocked around to the south, a wall of containers near the bulkhead would provide a windbreak to the east, and the pier shed would be an enormous windbreak once the wind went south of east.  

A final consideration was that in the extreme case of docklines failing while we were on the northside, the tanker had a chance of bouncing around inside the space between the two piers for a while, maybe long enough for us to get other lines out or call for help; whereas, on the southside of the pier, if our docklines broke, tide or wind could shove the ship up on the rocks nearby to the south (surely the death of the tanker) or shoot us down the Buttermilk Channel towards unknown risks. 

I began calling tugboat companies to request a tow. Everyone is busy with storm prep so getting a tug takes a while.  I have the tug turn the MARY around so her stern faces east, putting her heavier end towards the expected wind direction. Her light bow is my worry.

The tug’s crew helps us put out storm lines, more lines than we would normally use, and double and triple parted lines. (Instead of a line just going from boat to dock, a triple-parted line goes from dock to boat to dock to boat).  The lines are set with a lot of slack to allow the boat to rise during the expected surge.  During Sandy, Peter Rothenberg and I will go out in the wind and rain to ease the lines as necessary

From Thursday until Monday, a changing array of volunteers bang through a punch list: gangway lashed to the deck. Gas generator moved near entry hatch and tested.  Gasoline, food, and water bought. Weepy portholes caulked. PortaSan moved inside the pier shed so it can't blow away.  

More calls to look for crew... Commercial boats have paid crew, but most historic vessels rely on a corps of volunteers and; with so many boats to protect, available bodies were scarce.  Compounding that, due to the danger, some spouses do not allow their partners to volunteer on the historic ships during the storm. Danger is one thing for paid crew; as a volunteer, it's another.

I ask Peter Rothenberg, our volunteer museum curator, if he wants to be crew. Peter makes a speedy calculation, “I hesitated for a moment, thinking this may be really unwise, and then said yes, probably being more reckless (brave?) than normally, because I had just lost my mother, and thus she was unable to question my judgment.”  

Peter Rothenberg

Peter Rothenberg

The harbor is abuzz with chatter on phone, email, and texts sharing weather info, plans, moral support. Mike Cohen has info on the South Street Seaport ships. Mike Abegg is dealing with the Harbor School boats. I talk to tug captains and ask Jan Andrusky, Logistics Manager of Weeks Marine, if she can share weather and Coast Guard updates as she had during Irene. Answer, “yes!” Jan is responsible for floating equipment on the eastern seaboard, the Gulf of Mexico, and more, and has lots of experience and access to weather data.

Bobby Silva, captain of a Reinauer barge up in Albany sends a text: “wish I gave you my keys to move my truck. My baby will be a goner.”  Other Reinauer crew who have not been sent out of town on vessels moved their vehicles from Erie Basin to the second floor of the garage at the Gowanus Home Depot and all their vehicles survived.

About a day before Sandy hit, the word comes that the surge would be at least 8 feet. Time to lengthen docklines.  

A sign that things will be worse than Irene is that the port moves the stack of containers along the bulkhead. My windbreak to the east is gone.  We also hear that the Port Authority will evacuate the port and lock the gates at midday before the surge, so there would be no new help getting to us. I ask the Port Authority Police officer if he will leave port if it gets really bad, “no, I will just drive a dump truck on patrol” is his stalwart answer. 

Somewhere in all this, there is an announcement that subways would stop running in advance of the storm, and Mayor Bloomberg declares evacuation for Zone A areas, which include our neighborhood of Red Hook. An evacuation order is not changing my plans, though it could limit my getting help.  

My mother calls “you’re not staying on the boat during this are you?”  My responsibility is to protect the MARY A. WHALEN and to protect her from doing damage to the property of others. AT 172’ long and 613 gross tons, she is big enough to cause a lot of destruction if she breaks loose.

Sandy is due Monday night. Sunday night, I am one of many recipients of an email telling Red Hook people which bars will be open and what movies are being screened.  This makes me wonder: Is the community ashore prepping for Sandy? Has anyone evacuated? After that email, PortSide’s maritime world feels separated from our shoreside neighbors by more than six blocks and a fence. 

Monday day, the weather rachets up.  My weather station is set up in the galley.  A laptop, a clipboard with regular print-outs of NOAA marine weather, updates from Jan, the worst news highlighted in yellow.  Peter nabs the ship's cat Chiclet and locks her in. As the weather rises, Chiclet cleans herself incessantly.  

I read the shocking news that the HMS BOUNTY has sunk in the storm, at sea. I hear from Paul Amico, a dockbuilder advising us, “I just saw a Don Jon tug heading up the North River with waves breaking over the wheelhouse.” That means 18’ waves in the Hudson.

HMS BOUNTY sinks. Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard​

HMS BOUNTY sinks. Photo courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard

​

It gets colder and damper. I fire up the galley’s diesel stove, patented in 1918, as much to dry the air as to heat it.  As winds rise, Peter and out go out to add extra lines to the tarp covering the wheelhouse windows. After warming up over tea, I get word that the surge would be at least 12’ and would hit in about 5 hours, right at high tide. 

12’ is NOT good news. I am keen to keep the ship’s light bow from blowing or floating up onto the pier, my big worry during Irene, a risk to both boat and pier. The MARY’s stern is heavy and sits about 8’ in the water whereas her bow is actually up out of the water -- the forward engine room has been stripped, the forepeak has no ballast water, and she is carrying no cargo.  Paul Amico calls, “have you considered a preventer line?”  Yes. I turn to Peter, “time to go back out, time for a preventer line.”   

We run a line to Pier 9A, the pier 265 feet to the north of us.  We have a large collection of lightly-used docklines from tugboat friends. I bend together (that means tie together in mariner speak) two heavy eight-braid tug hawsers, and then add all our other dock lines.  To drag this through the water, we tie together an agglomeration of light line (rope) and hand-haul the collection around to the other pier.  

We are making the line off to a cleat on Pier 9A as the waters start to rise fast.  While heading back to the tanker, the waters crest the bulkhead and pool into the port.

The string piece of the pier is several feet higher than the port landmass, which gives us about 5 minutes to disconnect our shorepower cord, pull it up onto the boat, haul in the ladder, and start the generator. 

Somehow, between unplugging the shorepower from the shed and getting the cord onto the shed, our electrical system develops a short.  This means the generator turns off every time I plug in the shorepower cord. Peter then runs an extension cord to the generator to keep the laptop and mini fridge running.

So begins 35 nights, of relying on flashlights and one 15-amp extension cord, until our shorepower connection can be repaired.

The waters rise. The port’s exterior lights go out. A container lifts and bobs our way.  Humps appear in the water along the pier, like a long Loch Ness monster. I realize I am looking at all the tire fenders floating as high as their straps would allow. Somehow the overhead lights inside the shed stay on, and the windows in the doors afford the surreal view of an indoor sea.  

Peter and I watch orange bursts of light over Manhattan. “Probably transformer explosions,” I say.  Manhattan goes dark. I watch the water for several hours to make sure it isn’t rising and then sleep for several hours.

Lower Manhattan without power except at Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Jersey to the left, midtown to the right. Upsticking bolts show where head logs were ripped off the pier by Sandy.​

Lower Manhattan without power except at Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Jersey to the left, midtown to the right.
Upsticking bolts show where head logs were ripped off the pier by Sandy.

​

Tuesday’s plan is to shorten the docklines and get off the boat; but the wind is still so high that, even though the shed is a windbreak, the wind roaring over the shed is enough to grab the tippy top of the tanker and push us off the pier. The ebb tide pushes us back onto the pier, and we pull in a little line; then the wind blows us off again. Given how many lines we had out and that they were double and triple parted and since we don’ have a working winch, it takes us three hours of floating back and forth to shorten all the lines and get the boat to the pier.  

I get a few worried calls and emails asking us if the MARY is aground. Perplexing, until I learn that a similar tanker, the JOHN B. CADDELL, is aground on Staten Island, a cautionary tale of what can happen if a ship is not well tended before and during such a storm.

This is not us! Tanker JOHN B. CADDELL aground on Staten Island. Via Twitter​

This is not us! Tanker JOHN B. CADDELL aground on Staten Island. Via Twitter

​

At dusk, some volunteers make it in. Jenny Kane, Amy Bucciferro, Paul Amico after inspecting the damage at the DUMBO ferry dock.

I tell Peter that PortSide had historic documents stored in one room in the shed. 

Peter looks startled, then irked at me and, as he told us weeks later, “This was news to me and I scrambled to rescue what I could.  Unlike riding out a storm on a ship, dealing with wet paper artifacts I was familiar with.  I had worked in museums for years, with collections stored in leaky basements, and had rescued a lot of paper ephemera after 9/11.  Fearing fused wet paper and mold, I turned the tables on Carolina and charged her to get as many dry sheets and towels as she could find fast.”

PortSide's archive of historic documents is somewhere beneath all this.​

PortSide's archive of historic documents is somewhere beneath all this.

​

I kick in the door to the stevedore's lounge, and we all schlepp tables up the stevedore’s lounge (I find the height of the second floor oddly comforting after the flood).  Modern books we junk.  Peter begins a painstaking process of separating wet papers, blueprints and photographs, blotting them dry, interleaving them with sheets, weighing them down.  I am bushed and crash into my bunk. 

Peter works until 4 am, bringing things aboard and slowly toasting some near the galley stove.

Over the next several days, Peter covers most horizontal surfaces in the tanker with drying antique documents. “Some of the blue prints lost most of their blue to the water, and the modern pulp paper fared worse than the rag paper of the 1800s but in the end most of the important items in the collection, if a little worse for wear, were salvaged.”     

Wednesday, the Halloween that never was, Peter and I head into the shed to inspect more things.  

The hard-to-find vintage engine parts that could repair MARY’s engine have been submerged. Ditto all the historic artifacts from Todd Shipyard.  Ditto our electrical transformer. 

I make some calls and am told to douse the transformer in fresh water, dry it, and then spray it heavily with di-electric cleaner. We retrieve buckets of water from our rain barrels (there is no running water connection to the ship) and pour them over the transformer. I locate one outlet with power (which blessedly worked for a few days), plug in a fan and park it in front of the transformer. (10/27/19 update: The treatment above worked. We are still using this transformer!)

Drying our rinsed transformer. We were so lucky! Right after several days of drying, the power in the outlet went out. The ebbing waters pinned lots of dunnage around our transformer.​

Drying our rinsed transformer. We were so lucky! Right after several days of drying, the power in the outlet went out. The ebbing waters pinned lots of dunnage around our transformer.

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The engine parts are beyond us, and we turn to the artifacts.  

Once upon a time, Peter had carefully wrapped each one in paper and identified each with a number and a photo. That labeling system is gone. We unwrap it all and leave stuff to air out. I console myself with the thought that shipyard artifacts have likely been wet before.

An email arrives saying Red Hook restaurants are cooking their food at a community BBQ rather than have it be wasted, BYO charcoal, and Peter and I bike into Red Hook toting some charcoal.

I leave the port with my spirits high.  The ship is fine, the artifact loss was minimal. Irene had been a great preparatory experience; we had survived Sandy. 

A few blocks down Van Brunt my spirits drop. I was a photojournalist for some 15 years and worked in rough places overseas, and I recognize the signs of disaster.  A burm of garbage three to four feet high lines Van Brunt Street. Dazed and muddy people mill around at the corner of Pioneer Street amid the clatter of generators and a tangle of electrical cords.  

Peter remarks that it looks like a macabre Christmas. Santas, which had been stored in cellars, are now muddy and atop garbage heaps, or, at the bar Bait and Tackle, set up by the door like a dark joke.  In short, the mess ashore is bad, much worse than the damage to PortSide NewYork. I immediately decide that PortSide should come ashore to help our neighbors.   

More on that in the next installment.

PortSide NewYork would like to thank the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for their support during Hurricane Sandy while we were in their Red Hook port.

For our latest Sandy relief info, see our blogpost, follow us on Twitter.

Additional reporting and editing by Dan Goncharoff and Peter Rothenberg.

The kind of thing we prevented: how a vessel went up on a pier during Sandy. Photo by Frank Yacino, crewmember of tug KRISTY ANN REINAUER

The kind of thing we prevented: how a vessel went up on a pier during Sandy.
Photo by Frank Yacino, crewmember of tug KRISTY ANN REINAUER

PortSide’s impact on PS 676

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PortSide’s impact on PS 676

After seven months of PortSide programs with PS 676 in Red Hook, Brooklyn, this K-5 school has decided to become a maritime STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) school—the FIRST public elementary school in Brooklyn with a maritime focus!  Here’s how this came to be, with info about PortSide programs with PS 676 and how students and community benefit.  At the bottom is a list of ways you can support and get involved.

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"Poets Afloat" on the MARY A. WHALEN

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PortSide is pleased to have participated in the first "NYC Poets Afloat," the brainchild of poet-paddler-preservationist Brad Vogel, as part of National Poetry Month. We hosted two poets, Stefan D-W and Michelle Yasmine Valladares, aboard our tanker MARY A. WHALEN. Our Captain’s Cabin was theirs to use. A total of four historic vessels were involved in “NYC Poets Afloat,” and a reading was held on the South Street Seaport Museum vessel WAVERTREE on Sunday, May 19, 2019. More about the program in the press release.

The photo above right shows Stefan D-W studying our anchor winch which appears as a pivot point in his poem “Xmas: on the rocks” invoking tankers, fuel, oil spills, age, youth and our own mortality inspired by the MARY A. WHALEN’s famously going aground on the Rockaways in 1968. Our maritime library is a springboard for the ruminations of his second poem “Slocum & Distracted by the Library.”

Michele’s poem “Home, Again” evokes the personal inner seas of the womb and the blood circling within us, and her verse flows outward to include the huge spaces of the Atlantic and our “floating city” and evoke our oneness with the global.

Here are the poems inspired by the tanker MARY A. WHALEN:

More about Michelle and Stefan:

Michelle Yasmine Valladares is a poet and filmmaker. She is the author of Nortada, The North Wind (Global City Press). Her awards include “The Poet of the Year” by the Americas Poetry Festival of New York. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her new manuscript First Map of Her New World, includes poems on Vasco da Gama’s journey from India to Portugal, stowaways and cartographers. She was thrilled to be one of the resident poets included in NYC Poets Afloat on the MARY A. WHALEN. She is currently the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at The City College of New York, CUNY in Harlem.

Stefan D-W’s poetry and songs are rarely seen or heard. He included verse in the plays he wrote for children at Touchstone Theatre in Bethlehem, PA and as Director of Education at Spokane Civic Theatre. Stefan performs his songs and poetry at Thicket in Williamsburg and at an annual fundraising event in Brooklyn. He recently completed a series of 57 poems on utopia. His essays on New York maritime history are a regular feature in Waterwire. A native of Staten Island, Stefan took the ferry to school for kindergarten and first grade. He started working in museums in his early teens, including vessel operations at the National Canal Museum. From 2011-2014 he worked at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle where he lived aboard a sailboat with his cat. In 2019 he produced a series of boat tours and performances celebrating the Erie Canal bicentennial in New York Harbor and the Resilient River Festival of dance and science in a changing ecosystem at West Harlem Piers. He is the Seamen’s Church Institute’s Associate Archivist and also works at the Waterfront Museum.

PortSide’s next artist in residence is Donna Maria deCreeft who will use the Captain’s cabin and deck spaces during June 2019 as a studio to further her work inspired by diatoms, single cell algae. Stay tuned!

#AfAmMH info for Black History month 2019

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PortSide NewYork’s 2019 Black History Month program about African American Maritime History (#AfAmMH) is all digital since we have no building space for public programs. We will be posting to our Facebook pages, Twitter and Instagram and updating this blogpost with content over the month. Please send us ideas, comment and share.

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NYC Maritime & Freight Logistics Career Awareness Fair

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Come learn about jobs and careers in maritime &

the “transportation, distribution & logisitics” (TDL) industry

In Red Hook! at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal

Tuesday, 10/23/18, 11:00am to 1:00pm

Lunch provided

PortSide NewYork will be present!

Directions:

Walk into Atlantic Basin at the gate at Pioneer and Conover Street. The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is straight ahead.

Drive in the gate at Bowne and Imlay. You will be entering an industrial area. The roadway turns hard left, and then you drive past a 4-block long warehouse on your right with lots of trucks backed up to it. The roadway hooks right just after that warehouse, and then the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is straight ahead. Plenty of free parking.

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The MARY turns 80! PortSide turns 13!

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Our ship MARY A. WHALEN made history! She turns 80 on May 21, 2018, and you can visit for art-making and TankerTours on Sunday May 20. She is the only oil tanker in the world open for public culture, education and job-training programs! Come visit! Come get to know PortSide NewYork! We turn 13 this month!

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Calling all creatives: participate in MARY Inspiration Day!

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Calling all creatives: participate in MARY Inspiration Day!

Participate in MARY Inspiration Day at PortSide NewYork on Sunday 5/20/18!  Are you a painter, poet, sketcher, illustrator, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, playwright, puppeteer, sound fabric artist, quilter? Any kind of creative?  Come on down!  Come create work inspired by our historic ship Mary A Whalen and our evocative maritime location.  This event is inspired by the 80th birthday of our ship on 5/21/18 and the diverse artwork she has inspired.  

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