By The Red Hook WaterStories team
A pivotal event in the ending of slavery occurred on December 5, 1860, in Atlantic Basin, Red Hook when the slave ship ERIE was sold at government auction. Its captain and owner, Nathaniel Gordon, was then executed for engaging in the slave...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
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....
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Finlay's Stores were described in 1889 as consisting "of thirty-two lots of land and sixteen large double storehouses, eight of which lie on either side of the entrance to the basin... Four of the storehouses are five stories in height and...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Three men, possibly stevedores, loading (or unloading) a large barrel on to (or off of) a freighter, sometimes around the the 1870s. The back of the photograph is inscribed "Atlantic Dock". The photograph is by George Bradford Brainerd , 1845-1887....
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The sweet story from the Atlantic Docks, reprinted in full below, ran in the Towanda, Pennsylvania's Bradford Reporter, on December 22, 1864. This good natured human interest story, with little doubt copied from another newspaper, is notable in...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Col. Daniel Richards witnessed the construction of the Erie Canal and understood that there was great potential for a shipping hub in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Atlantic Dock Company was chartered by New York State on May 6, 1840 with a plan for a...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
D efalcation. John Wright, a storage keeper at Atlantic Docks, N.Y. and a defaulter to a considerable amount, left for France in the steamer United States, on her last passage. One house in New York, it is said, will be a loser by him to the...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Atlantic Basin was the home to hundreds of Erie Canal boats during the winter months. Families, including children, lived on the the boats, tending their floating homes, until the ice melted and they could begin shipping produce again. The...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Ships have unintended passengers As ships travel across the oceans between the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and elsewhere they take with them unintended passengers. These stowaways include seeds mixed in with ballast. In order to be properly...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
November 6, 2018, the PortSide crew spots a great blue heron in Atlantic Basin for the first time. So exciting! More about them here https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/overview Also: Guide to Harbor Herons and Other...
