In 1866, two men and a dog from Red Hook, set sail in a metal life-boat rigged like a sailing ship. Captain Hudson and Mr. Fitch were out to prove the seaworthiness of the lifeboat , RED WHITE AND BLUE, designed by Brooklyn's Oliver Roland...
S. W. Bowne Grain Storehouse, 1886 to 2019
Updates on the building and the efforts to save it or raze it: June 14, 2018, a fire occurred in historic S. W. Bowne warehouse. FDNY concluded that the fire was arson and "the investigation is still open” (as in "who did it"?) Demo Permit...
Brooklyn's Bonded Warehouses, 1872
Bonded warehouse are places were foreign imports can be stored or manipulated without the payment of duty or taxes. The government only gets a piece of the action (duty) if and when the goods are sold domestically. Under the watchful eyes...
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...
Aniello (Henry) D’Auria, shipyard welder, WWII
Aniello (Henry) D’Auria began working as a welder's helper at Todd's Shipyard in 1933-34. Learning on the job he became a skilled welder. D'Auria describes the working conditions in shipyards as poor, noisy and noxious....
Striking Todd Workers, 1947
Mariners and those in the shipbuilding trades demanded higher wages and better benefits, in the years following WWII. In 1947, thousands who worked at the Todd Shipyard in Red Hook, Brooklyn went on strike. They were not...
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...
Phil Rizzuto remembers Bushey's Shipyard, 1970
Phil Rizutto worked at Bushey's in the 1970s. "The opening photo of Busheys Shipyard brings back great memories for me since I worked there from 72 till we closed the yard down selling everything of value at auction. My family became close with Ira...
Storm Prep info - SBIDC Dewberry training session
Storm Preparedness For Small Business , a n excellent event organized by SBIDC took place on 9/17/13. The tips are also useful for home owners and non-profits, and much of it also applies for areas besides Red Hook. SBIDC set...
Chandra B
The CHANDRA B is a 79 ft by 23 ft double-hull bunkering tanker and part of American Petroleum Transport's fleet of service vessels that work the New York Harbor. As part of APT's fleet, the CHANDRA B delivers fuel to many of the vessels in the...