January 31, 2007
Down in Brooklyn's Dry Dock No. 1 with Mary Whalen
A lot of people talk about preserving New York's working waterfront heritage, but Carolina Salguero is actually doing something about it.
In August, she spent $15,256 to rescue the Mary A Whalen, a 613-ton, 172-foot long oil tanker which is becoming the home of her non-profit, PortSide New York. Built in 1938 to deliver fuel along the Atlantic Coast, she is currently getting a $100,000 makeover with the help one of Brooklyn's most famous maritime legacies.
The Mary Whalen is spending time in Dry Dock No. 1 of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is where the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was outfitted after construction at the Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint. Dry Dock No. 1, which opened in 1851, was named a New York City landmark in 1975 and cited as one of the great examples of 19th Century engineering.
 It was only the third granite dry dock built in the United States. Its original pumps are still in use, though now powered by electricity. These days, it's the smallest dry dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and is mainly used for tugboats.
Like the Mary Whalen, the Brooklyn Navy Yard has been closed to the public, except for special events such as OpenHouse New York. The Mary Whalen could open to the public in Red Hook, Brooklyn as early as spring. "It all depends on money," Salguero said.
She had nothing but praise for the guys doing the work at Dry Dock No. 1.
 "People like the boat. Especially the old timers around the yard," Salguero said. Although women first joined the Navy Yard's 70,000 workforce during World War II, there are few women working the docks these days. Embracing it, Salguero bought a pink hard hat.
Asked what he thought on Day 1 when he saw the pink hard hat, dry dock supervisor Ernie Post, (pictured below at left,) smiled and then let the profanities fly. Post says he's been schooled on the history of Dry Dock 1 since arriving from Tennessee a year ago. He was told the red brick building next to the dock housed prisoners during the Civil War. And despite the mafia lore, he hasn't come across any buried bodies, he said
 Crisscrossed by railroads tracks, the space is littered with rusted, industrial arcana. A refrigerator out in the open bears the logo of the NY Housing Authority, 1934. Not far in the distance, there's the spire of the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the sun shimmering off subway trains crossing the Williamsburg Bridge.
Post said he's not happy with all the non-shipyard tenants in the area, especially the ones who've prevented him from doing any sandblasting or painting during the day. One of the adjacent buildings holds a movie studio, which led to his run-in with one Russell Crowe, who complimented Post on his rebuilt Harley.
"This was a Navy Yard before it was a studio and we should have some kind of grandfathered right," said Post, who works for GMD Shipyard. "But you can't bitch about it. Gotta go with the flow."
The workers in the docks are mainly immigrants, a mix of cultures, including Koreans, a lot of Spanish speakers and at least one "just off the boat" Italian. Among them is Guerre Ambrose, (pictured above, at right) originally from Trinidad, who was welding on the spudwells, which will keep the Mary Whalen in place just off Columbia Street in Red Hook.
Once there, her vision is to do something different than the South Street Seaport Museum or the Waterfront Museum. (There's also a Tug Pegasus Preservation Project.) PortSide's Plan:NOT your usual maritime museum! rather living history about the current port of New York-New Jersey, and exhibits and events that speak about a broad array of water-related and water-inspired issues, art, and policy. We will create a Red Hook maritime trail with plaques and visual and sound aides that explain local history and the activities inside current marine businesses. This will make an attraction out of Red Hook's waterfront and maritime aspects. We will have an oral history archive, we've already been taping.
In the dry dock, the Mary Whalen is getting her hull fully examined, repaired and painted but once done, she'll still have to make her way around the harbor via tugboats. And while she doesn't really need the engine just now, the window to salvage it will close soon. "I know three vessels destroyed in the last one and a half years that had parts I will need." Salguero said.
Also frustrating to Salguero is watching city make long-term plans for its growth and disregarding the waterways as a mode of transportation. "The city got into its head that this is a white collar place," she said. PortSide could change that.
Related: Tax-deductible PortSide donations
Salguero's Navy Yard blog
Officer’s Row project
Srefan Falke's pictures of the trip to the shipyards
Earlier: Mary Whalen gets the TLC in Brooklyn Navy Yard
Mary Whalen museum setback as repairs delayed
Pre-museum Mary Whalen towed to ship repair yard
On board the Mary A. Whalen for Open House NY
January 31, 2007 10:23 PM in Architecture, History, Museums, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology
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