By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The Hamilton Avenue Ferry was established in 1846. It was run by the Union Ferry Company, who also ran the Fulton Ferry at that time. A major destination was a new upmarket cemetery. The ferry offered a “direct approach by way of the Gowanus...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
GBX-Gowanus Bay Terminal is on a historic maritime site which has had several significant iterations. More on those below. GBX’s website says it is a multi-user industrial facility with an emphasis on community, environment, and sustainability."...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Tug captains use landmarks (points on land visible from the water) to tell other mariners and the Coast Guard VTS (Vessel Traffic Service - the harbor equivalent of air traffic controllers) where they are. This is not always as straightforward as...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Night herons live around the Red Hook shoreline. PortSide staff have seen them in Erie Basin (this photo is in the O'Connell's marina), Atlantic Basin, and the Red Hook Container Terminal. As their name implies, they usually fish at night, and are...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
Greater New York Marine Transportation is a small tug and barge company that is a tenant of the Erie Basin Bargeport. Greater New York Marine has one oil barge and two tugs (EASTERN DAWN, THE DORY) which deliver fuel products with the barges and...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
The LOUJAINE is docked in the GBX Company's section of Erie Basin. Previously named the ABU LOUJAINE, and before that the BAHMA, she was built in 1966, in Nagoya, Japan for the Saudi Arabian company Arabian Bulk Trade. In the 1980s the ship...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
This article from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sunday, March 12, 1911, recounts the winter-time lives of Erie Canal barge families who winter in Erie Basin. Colonies of Cozy Canal Boats Cluster for Winter City of Inland Navigators Prepares for Annual...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
This green buoy is one of a series that marks the north/west side of Buttermilk Channel. The green color and odd number (5) indicates to mariners that they should keep it on their port (left) side as they are heading north in the channel. This...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
This buoy is on the south side of the main channel connecting the East River and upper New York Harbor. [See U.S. Coast Pilot 2, 45th ed., 2016, pars. 270-286 ] It is a red buoy, telling mariners to keep it on their starboard (right) side as they...
By The Red Hook WaterStories team
This buoy is at the southwest end of the Buttermilk Channel. It is green and conical, so it tells mariners to keep it on their port (left) side as they are heading north, into the channel. See In The Water for more information on navigating the...
