Editor’s note: This list of 10 boats that tell a certain story about New York City is nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Essay/Article/Series Writing in the Guides Association of New York City 2020 Apple Awards. It was originally published in WaterWire in November 2018, part of a series curated by Stefan Dreisbach-Williams. This piece is competing against work published in The New York Times, New York Post, and New York magazine. The winner will be announced March 2, 2020.
What can we learn about New York City and its waterfront from its boats? Waterwire is inviting people from the maritime world and beyond to share their perspectives on NYC History in 10 Boats. Below is our 14th installment, with Andrew Gustafson. (Read lists from Rob Pirani, Colleen Bailey, Frank Hanavan, Ann Buttenweiser, Bill Miller, Charles Denson, Buck McAllister, Celestina Cuadrado, Charlie Deroko, Brad Vogel, David Sharps, Capt. Jim DeSimone, and Angus McCamy.) If you know someone who would like to tell the story of New York City in 10 boats, tweet author Stefan D-W at @DWStefan or email him at [email protected].
Andrew Gustafson is vice president of Turnstile Tours, which develops and operates tours and public programs in partnership with nonprofit organizations in New York City. Since 2008, the team at Turnstile has partnered with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation to offer tours of this former naval shipyard that is today a 300-acre, city-owned industrial park. Tens of thousands of ships have passed through the Brooklyn Navy Yard since it was established in 1801, and Andrew has selected vessels that reflect its evolving role as a center of innovation and craftsmanship along the Brooklyn waterfront. This is his NYC History in 10 Boats.
USS Ohio
This 74-gun ship-of-the-line was the first ship officially built at the Yard, completed in 1820. It was the masterful design of Henry Eckford, a renowned naval architect who spearheaded ship construction on the Great Lakes in the War of 1812, operated his own shipyard in Corlears Hook, and even had multiple amateur baseball teams named for him.
USS Fulton
In 1836, an ambitious officer believed the time had come for the Navy to adopt steam propulsion, but not wanting to jeopardize his career, he published an essay under the pseudonym “X” in the Brooklyn-based Naval Magazine. Top brass got the message, and soon that officer, Matthew C. Perry, was put in charge of constructing the Navy’s first steam-powered vessel.
USS Minnesota
On May 11, 1878, this training vessel became the first ship to strike the Brooklyn Bridge when its mast hit the cables of the under-construction bridge, as the roadway was not yet in place. The bridge posed a major impediment for ships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, necessitating the development of collapsible masts, and the construction of a shipyard annex in Bayonne, New Jersey during World War II to avoid the bridge altogether.
USS New Mexico
In 1918, this became the first battleship with turboelectric drive, with boilers driving an electric motor that turned the propellers instead of a direct drive, a huge leap in propulsion technology. Though not widely adopted by the Navy, this was a major step toward developing electric-drive ships, like many merchant vessels today and the futuristic destroyer USS Zumwalt.
USS Vestal
Eight Brooklyn Navy Yard-built ships were at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack, including the repair ship Vestal, docked alongside the battleship Arizona. Though severely damaged, the ship’s on-board workshops were essential to getting the Pacific Fleet back into action, supported by 1,000 skilled ship-workers from the Brooklyn Navy Yard who volunteered for service in Hawaii.
USS Constellation
On December 19, 1960, a fire broke out aboard this supercarrier during construction, killing 50 workers, the deadliest accident in the Yard’s history. The carrier was eventually completed, but the loss of life spurred safety reforms in the Navy and damaged the reputation of the Yard, contributing to its closure in 1966.
Barge GCS 230
From 1969 to 1979, private shipbuilder Seatrain operated in the Yard, building crude oil tankers and barges. Today, the barge GCS 230 is the only Seatrain vessel—and the only Yard-built vessel other than museum battleships North Carolina, Iowa, and Missouri—still afloat, operated by Gellatly & Criscione Services Corp. in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.
Alice Oldendorff
This self-loading bulk cargo ship, built in 2000 in China, is a regular visitor to the Brooklyn Navy Yard today, delivering gravel from Nova Scotia to New York Sand and Stone, one of several maritime tenants in the industrial park.
Empire State VI
Another maritime tenant is GMD Shipyard, which operates three of the Yard’s dry docks. This training ship for SUNY Maritime Academy, built in 1960 as a merchant freighter, has undergone its last two overhauls at GMD, in 2009 and 2014, which has the only dry docks in New York City large enough to accommodate the 565-foot ship.
NYC Ferry
The homeport for the municipal ferry service is located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and a new facility for docking and maintaining the vessels is under construction. Though the ferries were constructed in Louisiana and Alabama, today they provide jobs for local maritime professionals and mobility for local commuters. Starting in 2019, NYC Ferry will add a new stop with service directly to the Yard.
