Ira S. Bushey


Follow this link for a curated compendium of MARY A. WHALEN stories

The tanker MARY A. Whalen, flagship of PortSide NewYork was built for Ira S. Bushey & Sons.

Ira S. Bushey started his work life driving mules on the Erie Canal in the latter half of the 19th  Century. After trying various jobs, he returned to the family mariner tradition; and by 1895, Bushey was repairing wooden boats. Adept at his trade, he quickly grew his business, finally establishing a Brooklyn shipyard in 1905.  His yard was located at the foot of Court Street, on the Gowanus Creek. When his oldest son was only 15, he incorporated his business as Ira Bushey & Sons, and the company lasted for three generations, closing in the 1980s.

"Bushey's" is nationally significant as a leader in innovative shipbuilding techniques, and old timers in New York harbor still reminisce fondly about the company and their seaworthy boats. 

Bushey expanded his business to include boat building, initially barges, and later tugs and tankers too.  Instead of just selling their tankers, Bushey entered the oil storage and delivery business.  In 1977, Ira Bushey & Sons sold the company to Amerada Hess.  

Today (2023),  the property at the end of Court Street, that was once Bushey's, then Hess, is owned by a real estate developer building a commercial warehouse space called the Red Hook Logistics Center.  It promises, according to loopnet.com, a total of 171,000-square-feet of modern warehouse space and 61,000-square-feet of truck court area as well as direct waterway access.  By all accounts, it sounds like yet-another Red Hook last mile facility. There was a pandemic boom in building those.

Ira S. Bushey started his work life driving mules on the Erie Canal in the latter half of the 1800s. By 1895, he was in the boat repair business, first setting up shop in Jersey City around 1895, moving to Staten Island about 5 years later, and then settling in Brooklyn in 1905. He located his business at the foot of Court Street, on the Gowanus Creek.

Ira Bushey and his wife had 4 sons - Francis (b. 1888), Raymond (b. 1891) Ira Jr. (b. 1897) and William (b. 1899). Bushey incorporated his business as Ira Bushey and Sons, in 1903 when his oldest son turned 15.

The company focused on making barges, railroad flats and scows (a type of flat bottomed barge); and by 1919, they had built and launched 254. A year later, Ira Bushey & Sons completed a 15,000 ton drydock on their Red Hook property that was able to lift a ship in just 18 minutes.

Although Ira Bushey's initial business philosophy was not to compete with one's clients, the company entered into the transportation business in 1924. In partnership with a fellow named Bullock, they formed the Brooklyn and Buffalo Navigation Company (B&B) which barged cargo down the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn: Court Street - Bryant Street

In 1925, Ira Bushey diversified again: the growing popularity of cars increased the demand for gasoline, and he founded a partnership with Spenser, Toner, and Bushey to form the Spentonbush Fuel Transport Service.

The first tankers were crude, just steel tanks mounted on the decks of scows. The same year,  company founder Ira S. Bushey died, leaving his business to his sons.

Bushey/Gowanus Bay in the 1970s

In 1931, the company formed the Patchogue Oil Terminals to capture yet another aspect of the oil business. Adjacent to their Brooklyn home, and in Patchogue Long Island, oil storage tanks were erected. The company now was profiting in three aspects of the oil business:

  • Ira S. Bushey and Sons shipyard built and maintained a fleet of oil tankers
  • Spentonbush ran the fleet of tankers and the sale of oil
  • Patchogue Oil Terminals stored oil and distributed products on shore.
These were not the only companies that Bushey controlled, but were early key ones in their success in the oil business.


Bushey ad - 1942


During the period of WWII, the shipyard made many tugs for the US Navy, Coast Guard and Army.  After the war Bushey continued to paint their ships grey.

Frank Bushey becomes the third and final generation to run the company in 1953. By this time, the shipyard was just making tankers and tugs for their affiliated companies, such as the acquired Red Star towing company.

In 1966, Ira Bushey and Sons built their last vessel: the tug BOSTON. Unlike earlier ships, it had an automated engineer room, requiring only one engineer to be assigned to the vessel instead of three.

Frank Bushey was often at loggerheads with the unions and, according to Charles T O'Malley in his book Low Bridges and High Water on the New York State Barge Canal, Frank blamed union rules for ending production, citing labor costs and rules forbidding members to cross trade lines.

On June 24, 1977, Ira Bushey & Sons sold the company to Amerada Hess. The oil terminal and storage tanks at the foot of Court Street were likely what interested Hess. "Inheritance tax," says O'Malley as the reason Frank Bushey gave for why the company did not continue onto a fourth generation. Buckeye Energy Services ran the Red Hook oil storage terminal until it sold to the developers above.

IRA S. BUSHEY STORIES

Ira S. Bushey & Sons was a shipbuilder and oil company based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Remarkably, the companiy combined three different endeavors: a shipyard, a fuel terminal, and a fleet of vessels that moved fuel. Busheys built around 200…

Starting out as a caulker of wooden ships, Ira S. Bushey, by dint of hard work, was the owner of the biggest wooden ship construction yard in the country 1920 - located in Red Hook's Erie Basin. Ira S. Bushey was the first builder and… 

In 1920, the New York Tow Boat Exchange represented 34 independent tow boat companies. In their advertisement in the Port of New York Annual, the Exchange boasted that their fleet of 200 boats could handle anything "from the docking and shifting of a…

In 1955, the ESSO NEW YORK, became the first American super tanker to navigate the Gowanus Creek Channel to deliver oil to the Patchogue Oil Terminal, a subsidiary of Ira S. Bushey & Sons, at the foot of Court Street. The dredging of the…

Jim Perkins recounts his experience of working on the TAMAROA, a Coast Guard cutter located in the Bushey Shipyard in Red Hook. "The TAMAROA was located at Bushey Shipyard in Brooklyn, in the nicer part of the wrong side of town. What a Godforsaken…

In Ira Bushey vs. USA (1968) the US Government was held liable for the conduct of a drunken sailor. After returning to the United States, a sailor on the Coast Guard cutter TAMAROA, then docked in a floating drydock in Bushey’s shipyard, turned…

Vane Line Bunkering (sometimes called Vane Brothers) at the foot of Red Hook’s Court Street in the Gowanus Bay, occupies part of the site of the former Ira S. Bushey & Sons facility. The property was owned by Buckeye who also owns and operates…

IMAGES

Court Street, from Bryant Street to Gowanus Canal, showing in the background the Ira S. Bushey and Sons boat building plant. October 8, 1937. P. L. Sperr. Note: Ira S. Bushey was more than a shipyard. They also were a fuel terminal. The fuel tanks…

Photograph of an able-bodied seaman working in snow flurries at Ira S. Bushey & Sons old shipyard. The end of the line he is working on has been folded back and braided into itself to form a loop. He is inspecting and tightening that splice.…

PORTSIDE NEWYORK'S "BUSHEY BOAT"

The oil tanker MARY A. WHALEN was launched May 21, 1938.  The ship is PortSide NewYork's ambassador to the BLUEspace and site of our offices and many programs.   Why…

 

 

 

Clicking on any of the images here will take you to its story

Ira S. Bushey

"Ira S. Bushey", America's Maritime Progress by George Weiss. 1920

Ad: New York Tug Boat Exchange

 

Ira Bushey Vs. USA (1968)

Ira Bushey Vs. USA, 1968

How Ira Bushey Built up his Ship Building Plant, 1920

How Ira Bushey Built up his Ship Building Plant, 1920

Super Tanker at Ira S. Bushey's Gowanus Oil Terminal, 1955

Super Tanker at Ira S. Bushey's Gowanus Oil Terminal, 1955

 

 

Key Sources: 

O'Malley, Charles T. . Low bridges and high water on the New York State Barge Canal. Ellenton, Fla: Diamond Mohawk Pub. 1991

Shipbuildinghistory.com has a list of ships made at the Ira S. Bushey Shipyard. 

Weiss, George. America's Maritime Progress. Editor J. W. Leonard, New York Marine News Company, 1920 (https://books.google.com/books?id=JRQ9AAAAYAAJ)

More information about Ira S. Bushey & Sons can be found on the Seafarers' Blog

Since the writing of this article, the South Street Seaport Museum has written about their " Ira S. Bushey & Sons Shipyard Collection" which includes photographs of the shipyard.

The Story of Ira Bushey & Sons.

Ira S. Bushey started his work life driving mules on the Erie Canal in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century. By 1895 Bushey began repairing boats, settling up shop in Brooklyn in 1905. His shipyard was located at the foot of Court Street, on the Gowanus Creek. When his oldest son was only 15, he incorporated his business as Ira Bushey and Sons – the company lasted for three generations. Bushey expanded his business to include boat building, initially barges but later tugs and tankers too. The company also got into the oil storage and delivery business. In 1977 Ira Bushey and Sons sold the company to Amerada Hess

The tanker MARY A. Whalen, homeship of PortSide NewYork was built for Ira S. Bushey.

See our full illustrated article on
Ira S. Bushey

Item Relations

This Item is related to Item: The Ships of Ira S. Bushey & Sons, 1907-1966
This Item is related to Item: Ira S. Bushey sign on building
This Item is related to Item: The Sinking of the TAMAROA, 1964
This Item is related to Item: Ira Bushey Vs. USA (1968)
This Item is related to Item: Ad: New York Tug Boat Exchange
This Item is related to Item: Bushey/Gowanus Bay in the 1970s
This Item is related to Item: Brooklyn: Court Street - Bryant Street
This Item is related to Item: Super Tanker at Ira S. Bushey's Gowanus Oil Terminal, 1955
This Item is related to Item: Alf Dyrland, Captain of the MARY A. WHALEN, 1962-1978
This Item is related to Item: How Ira Bushey Built up his Ship Building Plant, 1920
This Item is related to Item: Vane Brothers
This Item is related to Item: Phil Rizzuto remembers Bushey's Shipyard, 1970
This Item is related to Item: Deck work doesn't wait for weather.
This Item is related to Item: Gary Shiflett about Bushey, 2016
Oral History
This Item is related to Item: The Mary A Whalen - PortSide NewYork's Flagship - Story Guide
Item: Oral History: Ralph Packer: 2016 is related to This Item

Sources:

  • George Weiss, America's Maritime Progress  J. W. Leonard, editor. New York Marine News Company, 1920 (https://books.google.com/books?id=JRQ9AAAAYAAJ)

Share this Item