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...
Captain Rich Naruszewicz, MARY WHALEN crew member: Oral History
Captain Rich Naruszewicz started his career in 1978 as a deckhand. He worked on the MARY A. WHALEN for three years in the early 90s and now is a captain of one of the few remaining oil tankers in the New York Harbor the Chandra B . He was...
Heidi Benedikt, crew member of the MARY WHALEN, 1986-88: Oral History
Heidi Benedikt - part 1: audio element. Heidi Benedikt - part 2: audio element. Synopsis of interview with Heidi Benedikt, former crew member of the MARY A. WHALEN. Recording times in parenthesis are aproximate. (0:10) The delegate of the...
Urban Sketchers help celebrate MARY A. WHALEN's 80th Birthday, 2018
In honor of the ship MARY A .WHALEN reaching its 80th year PortSide NewYork invited the Urban Sketchers to come and be inspired by her views. Below is some of the artwork made that day. Scattered on, around, and in the Red Hook neighborhood of...
Cricket Sounds on the MARY WHALEN, 2018
The sounds of the Mary Whalen are more than just the ship moving in the water, and the NYC ferry idling at the dock, it is also, the call of gulls, the quack of ducks, and on this night, the very loud trill of a cricket.
Ducks in Dirty Water, 2018
A few ducks and geese are often to be found in the waters of Atlantic Basin in the the Spring and Summer. The ducks in this video, shot from the aft end of the MARY WHALEN, are swimming in water near the City's combined sewer overflow pipe. The...
Swallows in Red Hook
Swallows live under the piers with fendering (wooden cross piece's of piers) and like the dock lines and mast and stack stays on the Mary Whalen They arrive around April 9 and leave around August 23
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...
Bells are Direction, Jingles are Speed
The MARY A WHALEN is a rare surviving example of a bell boat. On a bell boat, the person steering (the captain or the mate) has no direct control over the speed of the engine, nor whether the ship goes forward or in reverse. The engineer, as the...
The MARY A. WHALEN
A PDF guide to MARY A. WHALEN in English, French , German , Spanish , Italian The oil tanker MARY A. WHALEN was launched May 21, 1938 . The ship is PortSide NewYork 's ambassador...