By The Red Hook WaterStories team
When the Steamer Uranium, from Rotterdam, via Halifax docked at Atlantic Basin's Pier 38 in Red Hook, all the talk was about love. Love was what people were talking about when the Steamer Uranium docked at Pier 38, Atlantic Basin, Red Hook, in...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
In 1890, Mrs. A. M. Hamilton, a widow, was interviewed in Atlantic Basin, and celebrated by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle as being equal to any man running a canal boat. Beginning in the mid-1820s, canal boats brought produce from the nation's interior...
Joe Ruggiero, aka “Joey Chips” since he always shows up at a party with a bag of chips, is a WWII vet who is still driving in 2016. He served as a Bosun Mate on the Navy vessel THURSTON and participated in 6 D-Days in 4 years including...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Ralph Packer is a Martha's Vineyard old-timer who coyly won't reveal his age because he doesn't want to retire! Interviewed while taking a break on the Vineyard Haven pier of his Packer Fuel company, Ralph offers a historical perspective on...
Gerard Rokosz is a man deeply in love with his former job as the last dry dock manager at Todd Shipyard. At the time of this 2005 interview, he was working for a marina and nostalgic about the shipyard: "seeing my old office collapsing makes me...
When interviewed at a vigorous 82 years of age, Hank Dam laughs hard remembering the WWII slogan of Todd Shipyard “the difficult we do every day, the impossible takes a little longer.” Hank is clearly proud of the ingenuity and hard work of his...
John Gladsky is the definition of a colorful old salt. He is a marine salvor and the principal of Gladsky Marine and has an old-time Long Island accent. His oral history expresses nostalgia for the Todd Shipyard and criticism of public policy that...
Michael Gallagher, last General Manager of New York Shipyard, successor to Todd Shipyard, interviewed two weeks before selling the site to IKEA, talks about the shipyard, its history and final days. Gallagher represents the 5th generation of his...
Interviewed in 2013 at age 19, Rasheed Johnson, a resident of NYCHA’s Red Hook houses, talks about how the neighborhood has changed in the past 8 years since he got here. Development has eliminated all his “hang out spots” except for Valentino...
Richard Gambino, a retired professor, grew up in Red Hook in the 1950s. Interviewed by oral historian Shannon Geis in 2013, he recalls it as a close-knit Italian immigrant commumity. He talks of the customs and traditons of the waterfront...
