PortSide has been corresponding with Don Horton since 2013. He visited us in 2015 from North Carolina to give us an oral history. The last time Don had visited Red Hook was in 1950. He wrote the memory of Red Hook Flats below in 2015. For related...
Atlantic Dock Riot: Irish v. Germans, April 17, 1846
The Atlantic Dock Company brought over workers from Germany to build the Atlantic Basin after the Irish workers who had begun the job demanded better pay. On April 15, 1846 newspapers reported on a riot between angry Irish and the newly...
Ships Were Importing What?, 1872
In the 1870s grain made up a bulk of the imports to Red Hook's piers but a wide variety of other goods from around the world were arriving and being stored at its ports. Major's Storage Guide (1873) published "Rates of Storage and Labor on...
Jewish Refugees fleeing German-occupied countries, arrive at Columbia Street dock aboard Spanish freighter NAVEMAR, 1941
The Spanish Freighter NAVEMAR left from Seville. Spain, with 1,120 passengers, in 1941. Most were Jewish refugees fleeing genocide in German-occupied countries. The conditions on the NAVEMAR, a ship designed with only 28 accommodations, were...
Jewish Refugees Arrive on an Overcrowded Spanish Ship, 1941
617 refugees fleeing German-occupied European countries arrived at the foot of Columbia Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn in 1941. Crammed aboard the VILLA MADRID, a Spanish liner with accommodation for only 225, they complained about the conditions and...
PS GENERAL SLOCUM - Disaster and Memory
The GENERAL SLOCUM ended service as a sinking fireball June 15, 1904, killing over 1,000, most of them women and children. 1,300 were aboard. That made the SLOCUM famous. Her fame was then forgotten and re-remembered by most of the City over the...
RED HOOK POINT, Thirty Years in the Slums, 1872
Transcript of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle , December 2. 1872 article: Origin and Progress of Tinkerville, Bunkervillle, Slab City, Sandy Bank and Texas — Peculiarities of Their Populations. There is scarcely a ward in Brooklyn does not...
Captain Nels Helgesen of the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company
Captain Nels Helgesen during his long career which began in 1918, commanded every ship of the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Line. The home port of the steamship line was in Red Hook's Atlantic Basin. Starting in the late 1910s, their ships...
Irish first Mate never gets off His Ship, 1951
In 1951 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran a human interest story about Thomas Dunne, an Irish sailor on a comercial vessel who traveled the world but when docked in Red Hook, Brooklyn would not get off the boat for fear of getting lost in the city. Text...
Audio Tour of The MARY A. WHALEN
Explore The Mary A. Whalen by clicking on the links below and hearing about her places and people. Or read a guide in English, French , German , Spanish , Italian , Urdu Plimsoll Line audio element....