eWaterStories experiences selected by PortSide for the pandemic era

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Sunset seen from the deck of portside’s flagship, the mary a. whalen, in red hook, brooklyn

Sunset seen from the deck of portside’s flagship, the mary a. whalen, in red hook, brooklyn

For you! Specially selected #eWaterStories, virtual maritime and marine life programs for the COVID19 period, to educate and entertain while we all do our part at #socialdistancing and staying inside to flatten the curve. There is an ocean of resources out there produced by a wide variety of marine science organizations, museums, aquariums and educational sites. This is a growing list of selections I made to provide programs during the coronavirus era.

I list the organization websites first, and then break out the offerings such as virtual tours, live cams, games, and educational material into their own headings.

PortSide has our own virtual museum RedHookWaterstories.org, full of oral and written histories, anecdotes, maps, photographs, and other water stories (from cats to quarantines) related to Red Hook, Brooklyn on land and water.

Please check back for updates, and if you have something good to recommend, please let me know.

Peter Rothenberg
Curator, PortSide NewYork

Index

General websites

PortSide NewYork's own offerings – some quick links

  • portsidenewyork.org

    • PortSide NewYork's African American Maritime Heritage program's website, a jumping off point for exploring the waterstories of African Americans;stories of black achievement, struggles against the sea, struggles against racism, and aspects of daily life and work. It includes short synopses and links.

    • PortSide NewYork's blog

  • redhookwaterstories.org
    PortSide's virtual museum full of written and oral histories, anecdotes, maps, photographs, and other water stories (from cats to quarantines) related to Red Hook, Brooklyn on land and water. Updated often.

  • facebook.com/portsidenewyork
    Live streams of the sunset, from the top of the MARY A WHALEN's wheelhouse, looking out on the Atlantic Basin with the Statue of Liberty in the distance every evening starting around 7:30 by PortSide's Executive Director Carolina Salguero. These have turned into a conversation and harbor tour.

  • youtube.com/user/PortSideNewYork

  • Audio Tour of PortSide NewYork’s MARY A WHALEN
    https://redhookwaterstories.org/items/show/1738

Audio

Coloring Books (with a story to tell)

Children's Books – downloadable

Children's Books Read-a-loud (YouTube videos)

Education

Games

Graphic Novellas, Comic Books and Illustrated E-books

Google Expeditions

Designed to viewed on a phone with VR (virtual reality) glasses using the app but can also just be used on a computer screen, or phone screen. [Google Cardboard viewers were sort of a thing in 2014 and information about on how to make them or buy them are available on line.]
https://edu.google.com/products/vr-ar/expeditions/
Google’s spreadsheet of Google Expeditions (Google doc): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uwWvAzAiQDueKXkxvqF6rS84oae2AU7eD8bhxzJ9SdY/edit#gid=0

Here are some marine related ones

  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Explore an artists interpretation of the underwater world created by Jules Verne in 1872.
    “Join Pierre Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land as they inadvertently embark on an underwater journey on board the submarine Nautilus commanded by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. A voyage covering 20,000 leagues in a submarine years ahead of its time, you will feel part of the action journeying through realistic underwater scenes. Jules Verne himself would surely recommend bringing his wonderful novel to life using the magic of virtual reality.”
    https://poly.google.com/view/c2BA_10LmWW

  • Alice Austen: Early American Photographer
    Dr. Doty and the Quarantine
    ”In the early 1890s, 500,000 immigrants per year were sailing past Clear Comfort into New York Harbor to Ellis Island. If there were signs of infectious disease on the boat, the passengers and goods abroad and the vessel had to be inspected and sanitized. In the late 1890s, Austen was asked by a Public Health Service doctor, Dr. Alvah H. Doty, to document the quarantine stations located on Hoffman and Swinburne Islands close to the Austen family home. Austen continued to travel to the islands for over a decade to document advances in technology and conditions at the quarantine stations. She processed these photographs in this darkroom.”
    https://poly.google.com/view/fsGxNPolkGj

  • USS Midway Museum, The USS Midway was the largest Navy ship in the world for a decade after it was commissioned in 1945. She is also the longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century (47 years)
    https://poly.google.com/view/1u1aO9S1sYW

  • Titanic Belfast . Stand in a spot and look around the SS Nomadic. “Built in 1911 as a luxury tender, she ferried 1st and 2nd class passengers to ocean liners moored off the French port of Cherbourg, which was too shallow to accommodate the big ships. (Her sister ship, SS Traffic, carried the 3rd class passengers.) In her lifetime, Nomadic served as a minesweeper, a tugboat, and a restaurant and nightclub. Nomadic has survived over 105 years of turbulent events to make it back to Belfast in one piece.
    https://poly.google.com/view/6tjWCUFYtjK

Knots

Maybe now is a good time to learn some handy knots, knowing a few good ones can be useful and satisfying.

Live Cams - Nature

Live Cams - Port Views

Live Cams - Other

On-line Collections

Photographs, artifacts, sound and ephemera that one can browse through or search by keyword. Lose yourself meandering through thousands of items.

On-line exhibits

  • The Ben Franklin - Grumman/Piccard PX-15 Submersible - 50th Anniversary of the Gulf Stream Drift Mission:
    https://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/646/
    Related video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10849

    • “At 8:56 P.M. (EDT) July 14, 1969, Grumman Aerospace Corporation's research submarine Ben Franklin slipped beneath the surface of the Atlantic off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida carrying a crew of six comprised of engineers, oceanographers and a former Navy captain. In addition, NASA sends along one crew member whose job it was to evaluate the use of the Ben Franklin as a space station analogue.
      The Ben Franklin's mission was to investigate the secrets of the Gulf Stream as it drifted northward at depths of 600-2,000 feet; to learn the effects on humans of a long-duration, closed-environment stressful voyage; to demonstrate the engineering-operational concepts of long term submersible operation; and to conduct other scientific oceanographic studies.
      This longest privately-sponsored undersea experiment of its kind ended more than 30-days and 1,444 nautical miles later, when the Franklin and its crew surfaced some 300 miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, at 7:58 A.M. August 14, 1969”

Photographs

Amazing sea creatures, oceans and related images

Video - Created for Kids

Video - Science & Sea Critters

This list is just a sampling, mostly from marine research institutions and aquariums
(see also ‘Live Cams’ and ‘Video - Documentaries” ) .

Videos – Documentaries

  • After the Fire, It's Happening, Oregon Public Broadcasting, 1967 - “Here's a duffy little tugboat”

    Includes a short segment on moving a raft of logs (8:30). [Red Hook was once a destination for such log rafts.]
    “Here's a duffy little tugboat. A rugged little machine built out of solid steel, has a powerful engine and the operator on it is very much like a cowboy rounding up cattle as he pushes and shows and noses these logs away from the point where they're dropped into the water into the rafting area. There are some rather skilled workers walk around with their calked boots on top of these logs and push them into the arrangement that they would like to have.

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_153-91fj71x1#at_575.759_s

  • American Fisheries, Telemark Films, 2008

    “Explores both the transformation of the living ocean and the embattled fishing industry. Bringing to light one of the most significant environmental disasters in history, it nevertheless raises hope for the future.

    https://vimeo.com/194707359

  • Around Cape Horn, 1929

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=114&v=9tuTKhqWZso&feature=emb_logo

    On the Peking – Dramatic footage.

  • Around the World in a Square Rigged Ship, 1939
    Outward from Copenhagen to Australia by way of Cape of good hope in 91 days and returning via Cape Horn to England in 98 days. Four masted ship PASSAT
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96cRjLkIKlE

  • Black Journal, WNET New York Public Television. 1969

    Includes a section on blacks working in a shipyard in New Orleans

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_512-7659c6sv19

  • Ferryboats of the Connecticut River, Telemark Films, 2017

    The history, heritage, controversy and uncertain future of the last remaining ferryboats on the Connecticut River.

    https://vimeo.com/235225805

  • Filter Feeders. A look at the oyster restoration movement in New York City, as its concerned citizens work together to improve the water quality of New York Harbor and Flushing Bay. Made in 5 days concept to finish for the Project Earth Documentary Challenge hosted by The Audience Awards and Fusion Network.
    https://vimeo.com/183121528

  • Following the Seas, Journeyman Pictures, 2017
    Bob and Nancy Griffith made twenty ocean voyages over two decades, fulfilling a dream of freedom and adventure in their 53-foot sailboat
    https://vimeo.com/ondemand/followingseas

  • History of Tugboats
    Late 1990s documentary
    https://youtu.be/vux2zpwawMU

  • Lamu New Year’s Dhow Race, Kenya

    “Every January 1, on the island of Lamu off the Kenyan coast, crews of local watermen gather on Shela Beach for the most prestigious race of the year. The traditional Arab dhows, unchanged for centuries, are made by hand from local mangrove wood and fabric.”

    https://vimeo.com/156870692?fbclid=IwAR0VIWun4ZxIrkFrOCF7iFnaDir5Mj7jfvbTKJSfydQbAn6l9ZTrxWuBuwM

  • Lightship Overfalls (6:40)

    A visitor's tour of the Lighship OVERFALLS

    “Lightships were permanently stationed at fixed locations off the coast where lighthouses could not be located. GPS has made them obsolete and none remain in service. When I was young I fished with my father near Scotland Lightship outside New York Harbor. This is an inside tour of one such ship.”

    https://vimeo.com/261710445

  • Microplastic Madness (trailer)
    Cafeteria Culture worked with Red Hook's PS 15 5th grade to make the movie, PortSide’s Carolina Salguero has a cameo.
    https://vimeo.com/361115158

  • New York in the mid 1930's in Color!
    Compilation that includes several harbor views, including the SS Normandie and RMS Queen Mary
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpXnEvW0XD0

  • New York Voices, #302, Thirteen WNET. 2002 “Is Red Hook, Brooklyn the New Bohemia?”

    Starts off with Sunny, Greg O'Connell, Nick FeFonte,

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_75-343r26zx

  • New York Voices, #324, Thirteen WNET. 2003
    History and changes on the water front. Includes last days of the Fulton Fish Market, Kenneth Jackson opining on the changing use of the waterfront, Sal Catucci of American Stevedoring talking about the

    Red Hook Container Terminal (13:40), discussion of Brooklyn Bridge Park (not yet built) and the City's changing views on an industrial waterfront.

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_75-31cjtb40

  • New York Voices, #502, Thirteen WNET. 2005

    Topics include the rezoning of a major portion of North Brooklyn's old industrial waterfront and Hidden Harbor Tours – with some footage of Erie Basin before Ikea (12:40).

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_75-72p5j143#at_1151.49_s

  • Replacing Z-Drives Onboard the Coast Guard Cutter BARBARA MABRITY, 2013

    Coast Guard Industrial Production Facility New Orleans renews two thirteen-ton Z-drive propulsion units onboard the Coast Guard Cutter Barbara Mabrity at their dockside facilities near New Orleans East, March 11, 2013. The Barbara Mabrity, a 175-foot buoy-tender, has since returned to their home port in Mobile, Ala

    https://vimeo.com/62447518

  • Saving Jamaica Bay – THIS IS A LIMITED TIME NO COST OFFER
    Watch the award-winning documentary, Saving Jamaica Bay. Follow the residents of Jamaica Bay as they battle against government and natural disasters to protect the rich ecosystem of the bay. http://www.jbrpc.org/video Worksheet for students
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AhTz7lJgvYOs0slyYNfcPMtqQfWXAKn2G_HlQ2OkAEc

  • Sea Rescue. Full length documentary
    https://youtu.be/Wa1NrfNQxWM

  • Shipyard Tools Tour, Mystic Seaport
    https://stories.mysticseaport.org/shipyard-tools-tour-digital-museum/

  • Sludge, The Robert MacNeil Report, 1976
    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_507-9c6rx94090#at_904.679_s

  • Tanker Turning on the KVK (4:19)

    McAllister Tugs turning an oil tanker from the berth at IMTT Bayonne NJ and out to sea.

    https://vimeo.com/89970249

  • The Charles W. Morgan, Telemark Films, 2014
    Story about America’s last wooden whale ship and the incredible saga of the first global industry dominated by America.

    https://vimeo.com/194231226

  • The Fight for Maritime Unity, National Maritime Union ca. 1947.
    NYU Preservation YouTube channel
    Starts with an introduction by the head of the National Maritime Union, listing the goals of the union and a call for unity among all the unions in the industry. References to the merchant marines during WWII; longshoremen loading bulk cargo; chipping, scrapping and painting; heroes yesterday, bums today, the broken strike of 1921; “getting my coffee and doughnuts and praying in the mission”; “shipping crimps” (racketeers who controlled access to shipping jobs, often operated out of rooming houses – the seaman often ended up with a job but no pay to keep at the end of his stint); the shape up “a nightmare of intimidation and insecurity”; industrial unionism; 1934 West Coast waterfront strike; Marine Federation of the Pacific; victory; rotary hiring system; the need for greater unity to maintain and expand gains. Music by Pete Seeger and Joe Jaffe,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XIthhMpDc0&feature=youtu.be&mc_cid=7ac6d0e550&mc_eid=48691e2a2e

  • The Old Tugboat That Still Can, NYC Lens (Columbia University) ca. 2012
    “The only thing that's changed about the 54-year-old steel tug Thornton Bros. is the crew that guides her through the choppy waters of New York Harbor”.

    https://vimeo.com/41218823

  • The Real McCoy, Telemark Films (56 minutes)

    The story of Bill McCoy, the pioneer rum runner of the Prohibition era, who fuelled the Roaring Twenties by transporting over 2 million bottles of "un-cut" alcohol to the Speakeasies of New York. McCoy never broke the law or diluted his alcohol, earning the name “The Real McCoy.” - Winner of 5 Emmy® Awards.

    https://vimeo.com/144350191

  • The Revolutionary River, Telemark Films, 2009

    The story of the Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area, known as “The Revolutionary River” due to its involvement in the American Revolution, Industrial Revolution and Environmental Revolution.

    https://vimeo.com/194247881

  • The Salvage Prince, 1979 (22:22)

    “This is a documentary short filmed in 1979 about my parents, Jock, and the late Suzanna Brandis. I was told it was unavailable for purchase after so many years, so I wanted to share it with friends and family. Three intrepid individuals undertake the restoration of an old tugboat destined for the scrapyard. Through great inventiveness, they slowly rebuild it from recycled and scavenged materials.

    From a rusted hulk, it becomes a home, albeit without the luxuries. This documentary is as much an account of their life on and around the tug as a lyrical record of how they restored its battered hide.”

    https://vimeo.com/36329670

  • Timelapse videos of wharves, beaches and containerports by Keith Loutit, Sydney Australia

  • Traditions: Curtis Creek Ship Graveyard, Human Being Productions.(1:48)
    Archaeologist documenting a ship graveyard in Maryland
    https://vimeo.com/307756699

  • Traditions: Tugboats On The Harbor. Human Being Productions.

    “Drinking a beer at Ó Flynn’s on Hanover Street is where we met Captain Mark Stephen Rooney of McAllister Towing of Baltimore. There, he started to tell us all about his life growing up near the Port of Baltimore and the path that led him to becoming a Baltimore Tugboat Captain.”

    https://vimeo.com/237977283

  • Tugs. By Jessica Edwards, Narratively, 2011

    Profile of Millers Launch, includes footage of the annual Tugboat Race

    “The waterways are the city's sixth borough, with history, industry and recreation that are largely overlooked by most New Yorkers. Profiling the humble tugboat was my way of showcasing this unheralded part of the city.”
    https://narratively.com/tugs/ and https://vimeo.com/50619799

  • US Army Divers’ School, 1957
    https://vimeo.com/408430168

  • Using the Standard Deep Sea Diving Outfit - US Navy Training Film MN-9915c, 1966

    https://vimeo.com/399435619

  • Workhorses of the Harbor, ca. 1940

    Tug dispatchers in NY 1940s
    https://vimeo.com/113807700

  • Yacht Building; Maine Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting, 1983
    The making of a fiberglass yacht

    https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_245-60cvdw1w

Video - Just for Fun (just a few random ones)

Virtual Tours 360°

These tours allow one to look around in all directions. Some have points to click on for more information while others are just unguided explorations. They can be viewed on a computer screen or on a phone, some with differing effects. [Also see the related Google Expeditions section.]

Virtual Tours (other or more than 360° tours)

  •  Virtual Erie Canal, Tugster: A Waterblog
    scenes from the sixth boro and gallivants beyond by any and all the crew
    ”    My information and photos result from working on the Canal for five of the past six years, returning there with a camera and drone in the off season, and lots of reading and conversation, all making an ongoing accretion of familiarity.” https://tugster.wordpress.com/virtual-canal-guide/

Other – These don't fall into the existing categories

#AfAmMH info for Black History month 2019

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PortSide NewYork’s 2019 Black History Month program about African American Maritime History (#AfAmMH) is all digital since we have no building space for public programs. We will be posting to our Facebook pages, Twitter and Instagram and updating this blogpost with content over the month. Please send us ideas, comment and share.

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The MARY turns 80! PortSide turns 13!

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Our ship MARY A. WHALEN made history! She turns 80 on May 21, 2018, and you can visit for art-making and TankerTours on Sunday May 20. She is the only oil tanker in the world open for public culture, education and job-training programs! Come visit! Come get to know PortSide NewYork! We turn 13 this month!

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Norwegian Red Hook WaterStories, a night of Bluegrass music - and history

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PortSide NewYork presents
Norwegian Red Hook WaterStories 
A night of bluegrass music and history

Thursday, 9/24/15, 7:00-10:30pm, $15, at Atelier Roquette, 63 Commerce Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY 11231

Cash bar with beer, wine and imported sodas. BYO food or order in from great local venues. Menus will be on hand.

Buy tickets on Eventbrite here. 

Come nestle in a sofa or dance into the night with great bluegrass music during the NYC premiere of the band Paradise Mountain Boys from Norway - and get yourself a NY WaterStory!

Produced by PortSide NewYork as part of our ongoing Red Hook WaterStories.  You will be surrounded by projections of vintage film and photos on the brick walls as you soak up the maritime history of Norwegians in Red Hook. Norwegians were one of the major immigrant groups in Brooklyn from the late 19th to early 20th century. They were a major presence on NYC's working waterfront and on historic ship, the tanker MARY A. WHALEN.  They were first concentrated in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

BIO OF BAND PARADISE MOUNTAIN BOYS

This is the NYC premier of the Paradise Mountain Boys! The band plays the traditional way with all the band members around one microphone. Their six-piece acoustic outfit of mandolin, dobro, banjo, guitar and upright bass has its roots firmly planted in down-home acoustic music found in the Appalachian mountains. Traditional bluegrass and bluegrass gospel, with beautiful harmony singing is their thing.  

Event Schedule

The evening kicks off with speakers covering various aspects of the Norwegian New Yorker experience, then the NYC premier of the Paradise Mountain Boys, a bluegrass band from Norway! Contribute your own WaterStory at our StoryStation. Peruse paper and digital Norwegian New Yorker history at our ReadingTable.  

7:00-7:45pm 3 short history talks with slides
8:00-9:45pm  bluegrass music by Paradise Mountain Boys from Norway
9:45-10:30pm time to talk to the historians and band, read history at our ReadingTable, get interviewed at our WaterStories StoryStation, sign up to be interviewed in the future.

History program

  • Historical overview by Lars Nilsen, Co-Chair of the Norwegian Immigrant Association

  • Victor Samuelsen will talk about the first people to row across the Atlantic, two Norwegians George Harbo & Frank Samuelsen who did that in an open boat - in 1896!

  • PortSide NewYork board member John Weaver will talk about his father in law Alf Dyrland who left Norway as a cabin boy at age 13 and was captain of our ship MARY A. WHALEN from 1962 to 1978, one of many Norwegians to work on the MARY and for the two companies for which the MARY worked most of her years, Ira S. Bushey & Sons in Red Hook and Ekloff in Staten Island.

  • The 1931 silent film “Glimpses of Old New York” playing on the walls is by Engineer Michael Leirvik, shot to show Norwegians how their emigrants brethren lived in NYC and especially Brooklyn, courtesy of Norsk Film Institut, Oslo, with the permission of the Leirvik Family.

First Norwegian seaman's church in Red Hook, now Chico Macmurtie's studio

First Norwegian seaman's church in Red Hook, now Chico Macmurtie's studio

Event Partners

Norwegian Immigrant Association and Norwegian Seaman’s Church and Norsk Film Institut, Oslo 

Thanks

Profuse thanks to the Paradise Mountain Boys for donating this concert.  This is another “Artists for PortSide” event where artists donate their work to PortSide NewYork.

Thanks for funding support from Councilman Carlos Menchaca  and for tech support from Hughes Media Group and Pioneer Works and venue Atelier Roquette.

The Venue  

The venue Atelier Roquette was generously donated by the dynamic duo Monica Byrne and Leisah Swenson, the force behind three businesses, Atelier Roquette, home/made and Roquette Catering whose flair has converted a former forge, ice cream warehouse and espresso machine repair shop into Atelier Roquette, a cozy, airy nest for brunch, weddings and community events. The esthetic here is an exquisite balancing of flowers and rust, linen and stainless with notes of rustic wood with an eclectic mix of chairs, tables and lounge spaces. Check out the interior courtyard with blooming oranges and roses!   

Proceeds and donations from the evening support future Red Hook WaterStories programs.

Red Hook WaterStories

This event is part of PortSide NewYork’s ongoing Red Hook WaterStories project which tells the history of the Red Hook peninsula along a water theme, including early Dutch tidal mills, shipyards and ports, nature, real estate development, squatters, illness, crime, harbor connections to unexpected things, and contemporary maritime activities ashore and visible from our shore.  It tells of Red Hook’s greatness: when the port of Brooklyn was a place of international importance, and the best in the region from the mid-1800’s until the mid 1900’s, its heart was in Red Hook.  From this content, PortSide makes school programs, public programs, digital and paper Red Hook maps and guides, and the research also informs our advocacy and neighborhood promotion work.

Help us keep up the momentum!

To support PortSide NewYork programs and to get involved with our efforts, please donate, volunteer, attend our October 27 fundaiser at Hometown BarBQue, and/or see www.portsidenewyork.org  for how to contact us.


PortSide interview: Don Horton's WWII memories of Red Hook, recollections of a child in the merchant marine

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Brother Jack and I, Circa 1943.jpg

Yesterday, Don Horton visited PortSide NewYork to give us some oral history.  PortSide has been corresponding with Don Horton since October 2013, and the last time Don Horton visited Red Hook was 1950.  

Starting in the 1940s, through the WWII period,  he was working as a child in the merchant marine - a paid worker - so the company knew what was going on.

Yes, such a class of merchant mariner existed, and Don has dedicated his retirement years to getting their service recognized by the federal government, along with the women, elderly and disabled who worked in the wartime merchant marine. All of that being a startling case of "who knew?" 

We wrote about his dogged efforts to reveal this hidden history in a prior blogpost.

Don knows conventional military service, what it is to be a vet.

He served in the Korean War, and he believes that the hundreds of thousands of merchant mariners who served during WWII deserve our nation’s acknowledgement of their service whether they were towing supplies to the European theater or moving cargo along our eastern shore where German U-boats came in close to sink their kind of vessels.

From age 10-18, Don Horton worked on barges, along with his two brothers, his sister, and his mother, all of them joining the father of the family throughout the summer.  

One of their main jobs was hauling coal from Norfolk, Virginia up north. The two boys learned fast how to repair a steam boiler, and they painted the barge. Mama (Sadie Horton) was the cook. The sister married early in the story and got off the boats. Papa seems to have liked drink too much, and brother Billy got off the barges to get away from that and went to work on a tug. The third day on the tug, at age 17, Billy was killed when Germans shelled and sank his boat.

In comparison, Don’s memories of Red Hook are more associated with fun. A stop in New York meant good times. Don recalled a trip to 42nd Street and the treat of a hot dog.  A trip to Coney Island netted a very big hot dog.

Yesterday, Don was in town to see some Senators on behalf of his cause which you can follow on Facebook and to contribute some oral history to PortSide's WaterStories cultural tourism effort.  Here is a preliminary glimpse of some gems we got from Don today.

Carolina Salguero, John Weaver and Peter Rothenberg spent several hours interviewing Don and recording video and sound files.  Don's tack-sharp memory and vivid story telling made for a great afternoon.

We started out talking over lunch in the galley of our Mary A. Whalen with Don and his darling wife Norita.

Ralston's WWII grocery, now the site of hip Baked

After lunch, we visited the site of Ralston's, a grocery store during WWII Red Hook: fruit under an awning out front, narrow aisles and a place where they preferred you give them a list of what you wanted instead of getting it from the shelf yourself, little shopping carts with wooden wheels.  

Don said boats liked to provision at Ralston’s and explained the allure: the captain's were given free liquor in the back in a private bar which ensured they would frequent the joint and then spend grub money in the store.

Ralston’s address was 294 Van Brunt Street, now BAKED.

Don said that the soda Spur was their favorite and that he and his siblings fought over the precious bottles on the barge trip to the next port, the ice blocks from Ralston's being their only refrigeration until they got there.

Here is a 1943 ad for Spur, "a cola with a walnut taste," he remembered with a smile.

Next, we took Don Horton past two once-twin tenements, one of which is at 415 Van Brunt, to see if those were the kind of buildings that matched his "never would happen now" WWII memories of a Van Brunt Street where women on hands and knees scrubbed little porches with buckets of water, a scrub brush and a big bar of Octagon soap.

YES, those were the kinds of buildings he remembered!

Don then explained that "doing laundry" on the barge was scrubbing dungarees on the wide rail of the barge and leaving them to dry there.

Sunny's Bar

From there, over to Sunny's Bar where we were thrilled to find Sunny himself lounging in bathrobe with friends at the end of lunch.

At age 80, Sunny is but 2 years younger than Don, and they shared many memories including swimming in the filthy water of the time which both cited as having lots of turds and Coney Island whitefish as Sunny called them, or rubbers in Don’s version.

Sunny cheekily got an old load off his conscience when he confessed that he'd "borrowed' someone's rowboat at one point, and on top of that lied to his Papa saying that he had not taken it, and apologized to Don who said they'd come back from Ralston's Grocery at times to find their boat gone.

Sunny Balzano, Carolina Salguero of PortSide NewYork and Don Horton

Sunny Balzano, Carolina Salguero of PortSide NewYork and Don Horton

The rowboats always came back, Don said, but delays were a big concern; because if they missed the tide, the current would be too strong to row against it in their little boat loaded with groceries.

Sunny shared memories of how, when he heard wartime air raid siren drills and knew that the war was being fought "overseas," thought that Staten Island (which was overseas for a little Red Hook boy) was under attack.

Don Horton gave us several copies of this book.

Don Horton gave us several copies of this book.

Here is what Don told us about shelling during the interview in the galley:  When he first started on the barges and saw flashes of light when they were offshore and asked Papa what they were, Papa fibbed and didn’t say it was German’s shelling the American merchant marine, he said it was lighting.

Later on, “I knew what those lights were,” said Don, “and something I don’t often say, I wet myself with fear.” The barges were old boats, unarmored with no weapons, three miles behind the tug, he clarified.

"Barge" of the sort Don Horton and his family work, dismasted wood schooner hulls.

"Barge" of the sort Don Horton and his family work, dismasted wood schooner hulls.

We need to clarify what "barges" means here. These were the old, creaky hulls of wooden schooners,  dismasted to turn them into barges.

Don said the vessels' intended life span was some 25 years and these were 50-60 years old and so frail that after being beat up in a storm, the caulk might be battered out. Then, they'd have to go to a shipyard for repairs.

The Red Hook Flats & Erie Basin

We walked out to the end of the Beard Street Pier so Don Horton could see the Red Hook flats and the entrance to Erie Basin. This prompted more memories.

Don had emailed us some great memories of the Red Hook flats last year which paint a picture of a harbor jammed with ships, tugs, barges, row boats and the "bum boat" or "speculator" a sort of scrap dealer and rag picker afloat who went from vessel to vessel buying what he could.

Yesterday, Don described how he and his brother scavenged whatever they could, lengths of tired rope, bits of metal they found or “liberated” from cargo on the occasions they were hauling metal.

"There's the cut," Don Horton said as soon as he saw the entrance to Erie Basin.

"There's the cut," Don Horton said as soon as he saw the entrance to Erie Basin.

Standing on the end of Greg O’Connell’s Beard Street Pier enabled Don to pin point geography in a way that looking at the map while seated in our galley had not, and he explained that the dinghy dock location was around the Erie Basin side of that pier.  During WWII, tugboats were jammed into the place where the New York Water Taxi homeport dock is today.

PortSide recently acquired this page from an old magazine showing a view of the Erie Basin during the era described in this interview.

PortSide recently acquired this page from an old magazine showing a view of the Erie Basin during the era described in this interview.

Don said there were often up to 50 barges at anchor "on the Red Hook flats" as he called them, and that Erie Basin was so chock full of ships and barges that his family had to find channels underneath the bow and stern rakes of the barges to row their way through the fleet.

During the interview in the Mary A Whalen galley, Don described how his father bought a lot of whiskey when he was ashore, and his mother would dump it over the side once they got back to the barge on the Red Hook flats, to the point that she said the flats must be full of whiskey bottles. Hello, bottle collecting divers!

We were all surprised to learn that Don's mother did not know how to swim and was afraid of the water but still spent every summer working the coastwise barges with her husband and children during the war.

The whole endeavor required a lot of courage by everyone in the family, and PortSide NewYork is helping to get this aspect of history, that's national history and local history, better known. 

[This and many other stories are also told in redhookwaterstories.org PortSide NewYork's  e-museum and neighborhood website. ]