You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘South Street Seaport Museum’ tag.
Sandy floodwaters rising over Pier 16 on October 29th, 2012. Photo via South Street Seaport Museum’s facebook
Last October, Hurricane Sandy flooded miles of coastline along the eastern seaboard. The South Street Seaport area was hit hard by a 8+ foot storm surge – corrosive seawater flooded every building, historic and modern alike. More than 6 months later, our friends in the hardest hit neighborhoods are still treading water, struggling to navigate Sandy’s aftermath. Confusion about how to get relief and whether you qualify for help, has made the road to recovery very slow. Time is running out. Many businesses have gone belly up, unable to hang on until help arrives. Now, even the South Street Seaport Museum has had to close her galleries.
The day after Sandy, the museum is underwater. Photo via SSSM facebook
From DNAinfo: The South Street Seaport Museum has shuttered its Sandy-damaged galleries, unable to bankroll the historic building’s expensive temporary heat and power systems while permanent repairs to the building are made. The exhibition space at 12 Fulton St. — which was inundated with corrosive flood waters that destroyed the escalators and elevators, along with heating, electrical and air-conditioning systems — was closed as of Sunday, the museum announced on its website.
The museum’s other location, Bowne & Co. Stationers, a recreation of a working 19th century printing shop at 209 Water St. — which also sustained hurricane damage — will remain open, according to the museum.
After the waters receded. Photo via SSSM facebook
After Hurricane Sandy, the museum managed to reopen the Fulton Street galleries in late December with generator power but without elevator or escalator service. The museum’s collections were spared from flooding because they were on the upper floors. At the time, the museum launched a Sandy relief fund and said total permanent repairs would cost more than $22 million. With the help of a $500,000 check from an anonymous donor, and other funds, the museum raised more than $800,000 as of January.
But museum officials soon learned that an infusion of cash that they were hoping for from FEMA would take years to arrive and that temporary repairs could preclude the museum from getting those funds.
With no working elevators, museum staff and volunteers moved historic artifacts lovingly up several flights of stairs. Photo via SSSM facebook
“First, we were nicely told [by FEMA] that we were a non-essential non-profit, which dropped us to the bottom of lots of their lists,” the museum’s general manager, Jerry Gallagher told member of the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs on Feb. 28.
“We were told that those temporary repairs we contemplated would preclude future reimbursements for a full reinstallation of the systems, either in the basements or at some higher level.”
“We are plucky and feisty, but we now feel powerless to remain open,” he added, asking the City Council and the Economic Development Corporation for help.
SSSM staff and volunteers worked tirelessly to repair and reopen the museum galleries after Sandy’s devastation. Photo via SSSM facebook
Without proper heat and humidity control in the building, especially in the approaching summer months, the collections — including rare ivory carvings, marine paintings and ship models — are in danger, Gallagher said, and may have to be moved if they aren’t protected. It remains unclear when the Fulton Street galleries will reopen, but museum officials said they will focus on the Water Street space for now.
“The galleries within 12 Fulton will remain closed until the building’s systems are replaced, and we do not have a timeframe for that,” said a museum spokesman. “It is a complicated process because the building’s systems need to be moved out of the basement, and they cannot be relocated upstairs without ruining the historic fabric of these narrow, early 19th century buildings.”
The museum is still collecting donations for its relief fund.
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
Rosanne Cash. Photo: duchessofyourke via Wikipedia
From BWW MusicWorld.com: The South Street Seaport Museum today announced a gala concert starring singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash to raise funds to restore the schooner Lettie G. Howard. The gala event will be held on Monday, April 8th at the New York Academy of Medicine on Fifth Avenue.
Ms. Cash’s ancestors arrived in Salem, Massachusetts aboard the ship Good Intent in 1643, and many of her ancestors were whalers and fishermen.
“I’m honored to support the restoration of Lettie G. Howard, a treasure of maritime history, a completely unique teaching vessel, and a precious fixture in New York Harbor,” Ms. Cash said.
The Lettie G. Howard sailing the New York City Harbor in the fall of 2010. Photo: Nelson Michael Chin
Tickets to the performance – which will begin at 8 PM – can be purchased online at http://www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org/rosanne-cash. Those purchasing tickets at the $500 “Jib” level or above will be invited after the performance to a private reception with Ms. Cash at the Museum of the City of New York.
The event is being held to raise funds to repair and renovate the 120-year-old Lettie G. Howard, which in recent years has served as a sailing school vessel for the New York Harbor School, the New York City public high school on Governors Island that trains students for maritime careers. Repairs to make her seaworthy again are estimated at $250,000; $140,000 has been raised to date.
“It is clear that Lettie is as tough as she is beautiful,” said Susan Henshaw Jones, Ronay Menschel Director of the Museum of the City of New York and President of the South Street Seaport Museum. “But today she needs help. She has developed rot in her keelson, the interior spine that holds her together, and we will have to take her apart in order to repair her. The project is estimated to cost approximately $250,000.” Read more here…
reblogged by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
A painted wall sign for the South Street Seaport Museum. photo: Wikipedia
The South Street Seaport Museum reopened to visitors Monday for the first time since Sandy hit the region and will launch two new exhibits this Friday, December 14 – Street Shots/NYC and A Fisherman’s Dream: Folk Art.
Wonderful staff and volunteers prepare gallery spaces for reopening. photo: South Street Seaport Museum
From the Wall Street Journal: The Seaport neighborhood’s cobblestone streets, preserved 19th century buildings and tall-masted historic vessels anchored at Pier 17 create an evocative glimpse of New York’s old waterfront and is a popular tourist destination.
The holidays have arrived at Bowne & Co. Printers! photo: South Street Seaport Museum
The historic vessels and the Seaport museum’s collections and exhibits were not damaged, but the museum’s mechanical, heating and electrical systems were shut down. For now, visitors must use stairs to the museum as its escalators and elevators are still not operating. Heat is being blown into the building from heaters located on the street.
The South Street Seaport Museum is open, 10am–6pm!* Show your support and visit the Seaport Museum today! You can also donate to the Museum’s rebuilding here.
z
*Note: Due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, access is by stairs only. seaport@mcny.org
z
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
Museum president Susan Henshaw Jones helps move dock lines on the work barge in preparation for Sandy, October 28.
photo credit: South Street Seaport Museum
In the days before the storm, all hands were on deck at the South Street Seaport Museum – battening down the hatches, preparing the ships and buildings for the initially projected 4-6 foot storm surge. But as Sandy approached, the height of the anticipated surge rose by the hour; 6-8 feet; 8-11 feet until the water crashed into lower Manhattan at an astounding 13.8 feet, swamping the Seaport’s streets and buildings for blocks.
A view of Fulton Street during the surge.
photo credit: South Street Seaport Museum
The Museum suffered much damage from Hurricane Sandy. Thankfully, the valiant efforts of museum staff and volunteers saved the historic ships from harm. They also managed to move much of the collection to the upper floors, but the basements and first floors are devastated.
The museum’s flooded lobby.
photo credit: South Street Seaport Museum
When the storm passed, museum staff and volunteers immediately started work on their recovery. Rescuing soaked documents, pumping out the oily brackish water and picking up the tons of debris. Their hard work and dedication cannot be praised enough. Because of them, many historical artifacts will be able to be salvaged and restored.
Cleaning up with a smile. photo credit: South Street Seaport Museum
Seaport Museum and City Museum curatorial and collections staff joined forces to rescue, clean, and dry out the moveable type collection, soaked under 2 feet of water even in elevated Bowne & Co. Stationers, 2 blocks from the river on Water Street.
photo credit: South Street Seaport Museum
Books laid out to dry outside Sal’s woodshop on Water Street.
photo credit: South Street Seaport Museum
The South Street Seaport Museum has been hit hard and they need your help to recover from the extensive flood damage. Your gift in any amount will be most gratefully received! Please click here to give what you can to help.
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
An update from Captain John Doswell, Executive Director, Working Harbor Committee
In general, most commercial vessels, including historic & educational vessels, fared well in New York Harbor with a few notable exceptions (See this about a tanker run aground on a street in Staten Island).
Most damage was to waterfront facilities everywhere – but especially in New Jersey.
The South Street Seaport Museum’s schooner Pioneer was safe up river anchored near Verplanck (where Capt Doswell took her last year during Tropical Storm Irene) but we hear the marinas up there, as in other locations, are in shambles and/or gone.
photo: Working Harbor Committee
Back at Pier 16, Pioneer’s floating dock is fine, but you can see in the photo above, the huge camel for it floated up and over the pier railing and got stuck there. The same thing happened to the lightship Ambrose – ship fine, camel on the pier.
South Street Seaport Museum lobby after the flood waters receded. photo: via SSSM facebook page
The two tall ships at the South Street Seaport Museum were fine, thanks to good shipkeeping by the Museum’s Waterfront Director, Capt Jonathan Boulware. The schooner Lettie G Howard was well out of harm’s way in Mystic CT. As for the Museum itself, although the exhibits and artifacts are all on higher floors and suffered no damage, the Museum’s tenants and programs, as well as the lobby & mechanical equipment were hard hit. For the complete story and how to help, click here.
Meanwhile at Classic Harbor Lines at Chelsea Piers, operated by WHC Steering Committee members Sarah and Susan Greer and Meghan May Hart, and owner Rick Scarano, a great WHC supporter, the boats came through fine. But Rick & crew had a tough time keeping the floating docks in place. And the Classic Harbor Line office and stock room were ruined by flooding, with about 4 feet of water filling the building, which sloshed everything around.
According to Bill Buckley at our Hidden Harbor Tour partner New York Water Taxi & Circle Line Downtown, again the boats came through fine, but facilities suffered. Gus Markou, CEO at Circle Line 42nd Street and another great tour partner and supporter of WHC, said the story was much the same.
Sandy Hook Pilots. photo: Richard Drew/AP/Corbis via New York Magazine
The large container and ro-ro ships that we see on our tours all went to sea for the event, and area tugs found safe places to hide – The Reinauer tug fleet holed up in Erie Basin according to VP Bert Reianuer. We saw the Sandy Hook Pilots boats spend the evening stemming the tide in the North River, an option that was considered for John J Harvey before we decided on Pier 25.
Other historic ships came through well, according to their owners or keepers. The steamer lighthouse tender Lilac and historic tug Pegasus were fine at Pier 25, and the Showboat and Museum Barge (Lehigh Valley No 79) and tanker Mary Whalen (PortSide NewYork) fared well in Red Hook – but again facilities – and the neighborhood of Red Hook, among others – suffered much damage. And, as mentioned above, Pier 66 Maritime was not damaged, nor was the historic lightship Frying Pan, nor Manhattan by Sail’s boats Clipper City or Shearwater.
As for the NY Harbor School on Governors Island, falling trees spared the school building and the fleet docked at Brooklyn Navy Yard survived. Captain Aaron Singh reported, “Our boats survived the storm with little to no damage. They are in good shape”, thanks to the efforts of faculty, staff, and students.
For the latest on the state of New York Harbor from the NY Times, Click Here.
After the storm: Sun coming up on the city & Pegasus from stern of Harvey. photo: Renee Lutz Stanley
But even with relatively good news about many vessels, this was a destructive event on a historic scale that has brought great loss and misery to so many, including entire towns, especially in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and many other waterfront areas in NYC and New Jersey, where many of our readers live, and our hearts go out to all those who have suffered from it.
Pleas for help are coming from many neighborhoods around New York and New Jersey. We can’t list them all here but please check websites and twitter feeds for information on how you can help in your area.
If you would like to help but don’t know where to start, here is the Red Cross link for Hurricane Sandy. (Click Here)
by Captain John Doswell, Executive Director, Working Harbor Committee
photo: Mitch Waxman
Get ready for the 20th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race and Competition! This Sunday, come join in the festivities at Pier 84 (42nd Street /12th Avenue /Hudson River). Our special Circle Line Spectator Boat will get in closer than ever before to the action, giving you a rare opportunity to “be in the race” as the powerful vessels sprint toward the finish line.
photo: Jhoneen Preece-Doswell
Special Circle Line Spectator Boat
9:30 am to 11:30 am – Boarding at 9:00 am
Circle Line 42nd Street – Pier 83
(West 42nd Street and the Hudson River)
Adult – $30 – Child – $25
After the main race on the Hudson, there is much more fun in store! Tug’s will display feats of strength competing in Nose-to-nose pushing contests, while line-toss competitions and other fun, family friendly activities take place on Pier 84. There will be exhibits, food and more including an amateur line toss competition, our famous spinach eating contest and the best mascot award!
photo: Jhoneen Preece-Doswell
This year’s competitors include vessels from: McAllister, K-Sea, Miller’s Tugs & Barges, Derrick Marine, Donjon, Vinik, Henry Marine, Vane Bros, South Street Seaport Museum, Thornton, Merchant Marine Academy, Miller Marine Services, LI, private owners and more!
Footage from last year’s tugboat race from Meridianmulti:
Sponsored by the Working Harbor Committee with Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and Friends of Hudson River Park
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
Pier 16, South Street Seaport. photo: Bonnie Harkin
Hidden Harbor® Walking Tour of Lower Manhattan
1 – 3:00PM
Saturday, 11 August
Click for Tickets
Join us on a narrated walk around the tip of Manhattan from the mouth of the Hudson River to the South Street Seaport Museum on the East River, where New York’s port began and maritime piers are in action today.
Robert Wagner, Jr. Park. photo: LarrySpeck.com
The tour starts with sweeping views out over the harbor from the public roof deck at Robert Wagner, Jr. Park and includes historic Pier A and Battery Park to the US Custom House, Broad Street (the Gentleman’s Canal in Dutch times) and the historic shoreline along Pearl Street.
Landmarks along the way include Fraunces Tavern, handsome India House, and along the East River, the newly opened waterfront esplanade.
South Street Seaport’s Historic Ships. photo: Mitch Waxman
We then continue north to the historic ships and structures of the South Street Seaport District. The tour ends at the South Street Seaport Museum where your Hidden Harbor ticket includes admission to its recently inaugurated galleries celebrating the interweaving of the city and the sea.
Tour Leader Bio
Captain Margaret (Maggie) Flanagan, a Working Harbor Committee member, works for Classic Harbor Lines on schooners and the classic motor vessel Manhattan, and on the historic schooner Pioneer. She was formerly the director of marine education at the South Street Seaport Museum and has always been an avid fan of tall ships and boats in general, particularly historic vessels. From her long association with the South Street Seaport Museum, she has become an expert in the connections between the Lower Manhattan area and the sea, and has conducted many similar walking tours before becoming part of the Working Harbor Committee.
MEET UP
Meet at the brick archway/entrance to Robert Wagner, Jr. Park at 20 Battery Place across from the Ritz Carlton Hotel at 1:00PM. Ends at the South Street Seaport Museum at 3:00PM
1 – 3:00PM
Saturday, 11 August
Click for Tickets
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
Lightship Ambrose LV-87. Photo: South Street Seaport Museum
The United States Lightship Ambrose LV-87 was built in 1907 and served at the Ambrose Channel station as a “floating lighthouse” to guide ships safely through the channel.
Ambrose Channel is the Port of New York and New Jersey’s main shipping channel. Considered part of Lower New York Bay and located several miles off the coasts of Sandy Hook NJ and Breezy Point, NY, Ambrose Channel terminates just south of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, at Ambrose Anchorage.
Ambrose served the Ambrose Channel until 1932, when she was reassigned to serve as the Lightship Scotland, a station much closer to Sandy Hook, NJ. She would be the first lightship to serve in the relocated position nearer the center of the channel.
The Lightship Ambrose at South Street Seaport. Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer /Downtown Express
In 1921 she received the first radio beacon in the US; the technology used to help navigate ships through the congested channel in dense fog. She was also the last steam-powered vessel to hold this post. Lightship Ambrose LV-87 was decommissioned from the Coast Guard after 59 years of service on March 4, 1966. Two years later, Ambrose became South Street Seaport Museum’s first vessel in their collectionof historic ships in Lower Manhattan.
After decades hosting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, Ambrose recently took a trip to Caddell Dry Dock and Repair for a much-needed scrub and shine.
Ambrose in dry dock. Photo: John Watson /SaveOurSeaport
From Downtown Express: “Ambrose was the first vessel in the South Street Seaport Museum’s collection,” said Jonathan Boulware, the museum’s waterfront director. “She’s an icon.”
Boulware said the museum was grateful to Caddell Dry Dock and to its president, Steve Kalil, for doing such a good job of repairing the ship. “It’s great to be in the hands of professionals,” Boulware said, while noting that not all dry dock companies would know how to repair a historic ship.
After months of restoration, Lightship Ambrose returned triumphantly to her berth at the South Street Seaport. Today, visitors can board Ambrose and tour the remarkable original lightship, complete with working “radio shack” and mostly 1907 interior and equipment. Visit her at at South Street Seaport’s Pier 16.
Ambrose returning to South Street Seaport from Staten Island. photo: Stephen Nessen /WNYC
For only $10, you get entry to the lightship Ambrose at Pier 16 as well as to the South Street Seaport galleries at 12 Fulton Street. Become a member of the South Street Seaport Museum or the Museum of the City of New York and your admission is always FREE. Check out the website for more information.
Ambrose sails back to South Street Seaport March 5, 2012. photo: Ben Fractenberg / DNAinfo
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
Tall Ship Peking at South Street Seaport. photo Wikipedia
For years, the tall ship Peking has graced the dock at South Street Seaport – her 4 wooden [the masts are steel–Thanks to Jim Chambers for the clarification] masts piercing the sky alongside the glass skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan. But now, she is leaving, for good.
Built in Germany in 1911, the Peking is a steel-hulled four-masted barque – one of the “Flying P-Liners” sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz of Hamburg. In the 1880s, a barque was named Pudel – the owners wife’s nickname. From that point on all F. Laeisz ships were christened with names starting with “P” and they became known as “the P-line”. Their excellent reputation for speed and reliability soon raised their nickname to “the Flying P-Line“.
Footage filmed on board the Peking by amateur filmmaker Irving Johnson, shocked even experienced Cape Horn veterans and landsmen alike at the extreme conditions Peking experienced during the 1929 voyage around Cape Horn. His footage on the barque Peking would become the famous film, Around Cape Horn.
Here is a snippet from Irving Johns’ documentary of the Barque Peking sailing.
The South Street Seaport Museum who has been searching for a new owner for the Peking, reached an agreement with the city of Hamburg to return the ship back to her city or origin, where it was built in 1911.
From the Tribeca Trib: “Happily, the city of Hamburg is eager to bring Peking home and to incorporate her into a maritime museum there,” Zac Roy, the [South Street Seaport Museum] spokesman, said in an email to the Trib. The Peking will be loaded onto a heavy-lift ship for her transatlantic voyage as early as next month.
The Peking is one of several ships that will be leaving the Seaport this summer, as the institution struggles to get on firm financial footing and prepares to hand over its docking space at Pier 15 to the city’s Economic Development Corporation.
Helen McAllister. photo: Will Van Dorp/tugster
With the loss of Pier 15, the museum will say goodbye to 3 ships, leaving five in their fleet. A barge will also move to a Staten Island shipyard.
The 1907 lightship Ambrose, tall ship Wavertree, Pioneer and Lettie G Howard will stay at the Seaport, while the 112-year old Helen McAllister tug will return to McAllister Towing Company who will find a home for her. Little Marion M., a wooden tug will also be moved, to where is unknown at this time.
A fireboat welcome for the Ambrose Lightship’s return to South Street Seaport. photo: Stephen Nessen/WNYC
As reported in the Tribeca Trib: Peter Stanford, Founding Chair Emeritus of Working Harbor Committee and founder of the South Street Seaport Museum said, “The overall reduction is sad. I regret it, and I don’t think anybody understands what the public is going to feel.”
Stanford expressed hope on Friday that the museum can acquire enough docking space in the Seaport to host visiting tall ships after the Peking is gone, and one day have a second tall ship of its own again. “We have to live with what’s happening, but I think we better have a larger vision for the [Seaport],” Stanford said.
The EDC has issued RFPs for Pier 15, at this time there is no word on what will become of Pier 15′s berths.
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
Sal Polisi, master maritime woodcarver, has been a regular sight on the docks of South Street Seaport for more than 30 years. His quaint woodcarving workshop has been a popular tourist destination on the NY harbor for decades.
Sea Captain, South Street Seaport Museum Workshop.
photo: Michael Dolan
Six days a week for the past 30 years, Mr Polisi has arrived early in the morning to create hand-carved wooden masterpieces for historic vessels, maritime area-businesses and for the South Street Seaport Museum. Early in his career he had spent time studying with master carvers at the Bartolozzi & Maioli studios in Florence, Italy.
From his website: Sal can be seen at work at the South Street Seaport Museum, where he maintains a studio that is visited by travelers from all over the world. Sal has created and restored items for many of the Museum’s historic vessels, including the squarerigger Wavertree, 1885; barque Peking, 1911; schooner Pioneer, 1883; schooner Lettie G. Howard, 1893; tugboat W.O. Decker, 1930; and paddlewheeler Andrew Fletcher (reproduction), 1985.
Polisi’s handiwork can be seen all around the South Street Seaport district – from historic nameplates and ships figureheads – his workshop is often the first stop for tourists. He greets every visitor with a hearty welcome, “This is the workshop for the South Street Seaport Museum.”
Sal Polisi at his workshop. photo: Randy Duchaine
Mr. Polisi works 40 hours plus a week, all for FREE. He has volunteered 30 years of his time and expertise in return for the little, barely heated / un-airconditioned 13 foot x 32 foot space, at pier 15, to do his work.
From DNAinfo.com: The Seaport Museum covers the cost of materials, but Polisi does not charge for his work. “I don’t do it for the money,” Polisi said as he painted a red border on a sign Wednesday morning.
The woodcarver at work. photo: Michael Dolan
From DNAinfo.com: But now, the city says Polisi’s carving shop blocks a future bike path and walkway that is part of the new East River Waterfront esplanade, several people familiar with the situation said.
In 2011, Polisi was told by the NYC EDC that his workshop would be relocated underneath the FDR Drive, near the current location. That offer has been taken off the table (with no clear explanation) and he is now facing eviction.
From DNAinfo.com: “It’s the last traditional marine craft that is actively pursued in the Seaport area,” said Robert Rustchak, 56, a member of Save Our Seaport‘s steering committee who has known Polisi for 28 years. “We don’t see a good reason for [the shop's eviction]. Everybody’s very confused.”
Tall Ship Wavertree at Sunrise by Artist Naima Rauam
Long-time NY waterfront painter and friend of Working Harbor Committee, Naima Rauam says in the DNAinfo.com report, “I can’t imagine the waterfront without him, [the shop] gives visitors a chance to visually connect with the history of the waterfront of New York City.”
What will happen if he’s forced into retirement? Could we ever find another treasure like Sal Polisi? How will our historic ships fare without his skilled hands? The waterfront without Mr. Polisi is too grim a scenario to even contemplate.
by Mai Armstrong for Working Harbor Committee
