November 28, 2006
Pre-museum Mary Whalen towed to ship repair yard
A floating piece of New York maritime history, the 1938 retired fuel tanker Mary A. Whalen this morning left her temporary Red Hook home in need of repairs that should allow her eventual conversion into a new museum for Portside NewYork.
 The Mary Whalen will spend about two weeks at May Ship Repair, just across from the deserted Shooter's Island, map, where she will get a lot of overdue hull maintenance, said Carolina Salguero, the director of PortSide NewYork. In addition, she will be fitted with two spudwells (the long pipes that can be seen
on top of the ship during today's voyage). These sleeves will hold the spuds
(internal pilings,) that will pin the vessel in place once she arrives at her new Red
Hook home ... or when she visits other waterfront neighborhoods that also lack piers.
 After repairs, the plan is to dock the Mary Whalen near the end of Columbia Street in Red Hook and open the ship to the public with a cafe, cultural center and a museum focusing on maritime practices, water issues, art, and policy.
Carrying a dozen passengers, including the daughter of the Whalen's first captain, the ship was towed by the Falcon tugboat through Brooklyn's Buttermilk Channel, across the New York Harbor and into the Kill Van Kull, which divides Staten Island from New Jersey.
 Along the way, the ship passed a plethora of the types of sights the museum one day hopes to document, including working and abandoned floating dry docks, hundreds of rotted pier stumps and a sunken tugboat.
More pictures from the trip after the jump.
Earlier: OpenHouse report card: 80,000-plus, but some snafus
On board the Mary A. Whalen for Open House NY
November 28, 2006 02:49 PM in History, Museums, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology
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