The Mary A Whalen
The oil tanker MARY A.WHALEN is PortSide NewYork's ambassador to the BLUEspace and site of our offices and many programs. Built for Red Hook's Ira Bushey and Sons, she was launched May 21, 1938 and is significant to area history and national maritime law.
Below are a collection of stories, images and oral histories relating to the Mary A Whalen.
1 The MARY A. WHALEN
A PDF guide to MARY A. WHALEN inEnglish,French,German,Spanish,Italian
The oil tankerMARY A. WHALENwas launched May 21, 1938.The ship is PortSide NewYork's ambassador to theBLUEspaceand site of our offices and many programs.
Why she is…
2 Audio Tour of The MARY A. WHALEN
Explore The Mary A. Whalen by clicking on the links below and hearing about her places and people. Or read a guide inEnglish,French,German,Spanish,Italian, Urdu
Plimsoll Line
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Edwin Poling (he and…
3 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 name…
4 Fairbanks-Morse Model 37 Marine Diesel Engines brochure
The engine of the MARY A WHALEN is not exactly the same. Ours is a Fairbanks Morse 1938 37E12 6 cylinder direct reversing serial # 808553 450hp, 300rpm.Developed in the 1920s, the engine design was tried and true when MARY was built in 1938…
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Alf Dyrland, Captain of the MARY A. WHALEN, 1962-1978
Alf Dyrland was Captain of the MARY A. WHALEN from her rechristening in 1962 until 1978 when he retired. He was her first captain; she was his last boat.
Alf loved the MARY deeply. As he lay dying in 1996, what he said out loud revealed to family in…
6 Thanks to our ship MARY WHALEN, a 1975 Supreme Court Ruling
Our ship MARY A. WHALEN is famous in maritime law. That’s because American admiralty law is a lot fairer thanks to a case involving the MARY A. WHALEN, the 1975 Supreme Court decision U.S. vs Reliable Transfer. As a nation, we can be thankful that…
7 Heidi Benedikt, crew member of the MARY WHALEN, 1986-88: Oral History
Heidi Benedikt - part 1:
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Heidi Benedikt - part 2:
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Synopsis of interview with Heidi Benedikt, former crew member of the MARY A. WHALEN. Recording times in parenthesis are aproximate.
(0:10) The delegate of…
8 Captain Rich Naruszewicz, MARY WHALEN crew member: Oral History
Captain Rich Naruszewicz started his career in 1978 as a deckhand. He worked on the MARY A. WHALEN for three years in the early 90s and now is a captain of one of the few remaining oil tankers in the New York Harbor the Chandra B. He was interviewed…
9 Oral History: Charles Cushing, naval architect
Hear notable marine engineer and architect Dr. Charles R. Cushing talk about the rescue of the MARY A. WHALEN.Cushing has played a significant role in maritime history during 60+ years, including being one of the architects of containerization. In…
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Gary Shiflett about Bushey, 2016
Oral History
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 of working on ships. His…
11 Jim Ebersole's artwork: Mary A. Whalen in the Red Hook Container Port, 2015-2016
From the artist:
In the spring of 2015 artist Jim Ebersole was invited by Portside NewYork to paint and draw the Mary A. Whalen and her surroundings during the last weeks of her time inside the Red Hook Container Terminal. He spent several days…
12 The MARY A. WHALEN in art: Depictions of Portside's tanker
Many artists have captured the likeness of PortSide NewYork’s tanker the MARY WHALEN in a variety of styles from plein air paintings, illustrations and comic art.
The artists in this collection are:
Stephen…
13 Urban Sketchers help celebrate MARY A. WHALEN's 80th Birthday, 2018
In honor of the ship MARY A .WHALEN reaching its 80th year PortSide NewYork invited the Urban Sketchers to come and be inspired by her views. Below is some of the artwork made that day.Scattered on, around, and in the Red Hook neighborhood of…
14 Ira S. Bushey
Ira S. Bushey and Sons, for three generations was a nationally significant business located in Brooklyn’s Red Hook. Moreover, the tanker MARY A. Whalen, homeship of PortSide NewYork was built for Ira S. Bushey.
Ira S. Bushey was born in 1862. He…
15 PortSide uses of the MARY
PortSide NewYork created this Red Hook WaterStories product.
PortSide is a maritime non-profit founded in Red Hook in 2005.
Our goal is to create a waterfront center with a landing for boats, a home for the MARY A. WHALEN, and more programs and…
16 Who was the eponymous Mary A Whalen?
"Reliable was owned by Harold Tabeling of Brooklyn, N.Y. and he named the vessel after his Mother." from Carl E. Eklof, Sr.
The short answer is Mary Agnes Whalen was Captain John Tabeling’s wife and mother of James Harold. James and John ran the…
17 Nautical Nomenclature of the MARY A WHALEN
The names of things on ships are different than buildings on land. Here are some key words using PortSide New York's MARY A WHALEN as the example.
Ship parts:beam:width of the boat
bow:front endbulkhead: wallbunk:bedcabin:bedroomcowl…