By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Dalzell Towing Company purchased the Red Hook Towing Company in 1925 to expand their operations into Brooklyn. They then moved their offices to the Erie Basin breakwater (the man-made protective pier that encloses the basin) from...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Improvement of Gowanus Bay, New York Harbor, N.Y: a 1892 map showing Red Hook, Gowanus Creek and Bay Ridge Channels as well as Atlantic Basin, Erie Basin, and a proposed basin.
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The staff of RMC Canvas and Rope, posing by their hand-made rope fender. The Red Hook company ended its long run serving the maritime businesses in 2005.
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
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...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
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...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
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 around the 1920s their ships...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Red Hook's Atlantic Basin was the main port of entry for early Puerto Rican migrants. They traveled on the ships of the NEW YORK & PORTO RICO STEAMSHIP COMPANY" (aka, PORTO RICO LINE). Jose Mendez is quoted in Place Matters , a joint...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
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...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Sailors have long looked to the sky for clues to the impending weather. In the morning, when the sun was low in the sky, a red sky was understood to mean that a storm was likely. Just don't tell it to the judge. On November 10, 1939, the seagoing...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
1932 map of the piers and port businesses of Red Hook from Atlantic Basin to the Erie Basin for the War Department / Corps. of Engineers, U.S. Army. The map indicates the businesses that operates each pier as well as their primary use such as,...
