About the Subjects

USCGC Lilac is a retired Coast Guard cutter that carried supplies to lighthouses and maintained buoys from 1933 to 1972. Lilac is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as America’s oldest lighthouse tender - and is the only surviving steam-powered lighthouse tender in the US. Thanks to the efforts of historic ship enthusiasts, Lilac became a museum ship in 2003, owned and operated by the non-profit Lilac Preservation Project. Lilac is open to the public on a regular basis for tours, exhibits, and events – as her ongoing restoration continues.

Fireboat J.J. Harvey. A tour-de-force of maritime technology, the Harvey is the prototype for all modern fireboats. At its heart is a power plant of five 5000hp diesel-electric engines that generate electricity to power virtually all shipboard functions. Constructed in Brooklyn in 1930 and saved from the scrap heap in 1999, the boat played a significant role in the evacuation of 9/11 survivors and subsequently provided critical assistance putting out fires from the disaster. The J.J. Harvey is kept alive only by the efforts of a devoted group of enthusiastic volunteers.

Brooklyn Navy Yard. The name is virtually synonymous with the history of shipbuilding in the United States. BNY survives today as a not-for-profit industrial park squeezed into the no-man’s land between Fort Greene, Willamsburg and Vinegar Hill. Currently a business incubator and provider of commercial space, there remains only one active dry-dock facility and shipyard within. The massive scale of the buildings and the fallow dry-docks that surround them seem incongruous with BNY’s current life as home to small businesses and studio artists.

Lightship Frying Pan. This 1929 lightship, also known as LV-115, was used as a floating lighthouse to guard other ships from running aground on shoals or submerged rocks. The sole lightship of 13 remaining from more than 100 built for the US Coast Guard, she was abandoned for 10 years, subsequently sank, and was underwater for three years before being raised as salvage. Frying Pan has been partially restored and is currently being used as a bar and restaurant in NYC.

Tugboat Pegasus. Built in 1907 and originally powered by a 650hp compound steam engine, she was designed to serve waterside refineries and terminals of Standard Oil. One of four sister tugs that moved sailing ships, towed oil barges, railroad car-floats, and did other transport work, Pegasus was converted to diesel in 1953. She continued to work actively under a series of owners through her retirement in 1997. After a remarkably long career, she was restored to ship-shape condition and kept in service as a training vessel and museum, thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers under the command of Captain Pamela Hepburn, who ran her for decades in New York Harbor. At present, Pegasus' future is uncertain. As of 2015 the organization has suspended operations, and is seeking a way keep up with the high cost of insurance associated with getting the public onto the water.

The tanker Mary. A. Whalen is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the few remaining 1930s motorized coastal/harbor tankers. She worked as a gasoline tanker from 1938-1968 during her years as the S.T. Kiddoo, delivering gasoline as far away as Maine. After being converted to move heavier fuel products and rechristened Mary A. Whalen, she continued doing various jobs in the NYC metro region until 1994, including "creek work" in the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek. The tanker went out of service in 1994, and in September 2006 she became the base of operations for PortSide New York, a forward-looking maritime not-for-profit that exists to bring local communities, ashore and afloat, together. After weathering Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Mary A. Whelan and PortSide NY were recognized by the Obama White House for playing a significant role in post-Sandy recovery and resiliency work in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Todd Shipyard. Active from pre-Civil War times, and once the largest independent shipyard in the United States (with gross sales approaching a billion dollars a year), the Todd Shipyard in Red Hook, Brooklyn employed nearly 20,000 workers during WWII. Although the company continues as a (massively downsized) presence in the industry, the only remaining evidence of the Brooklyn shipyard’s existence are two non-operational cranes in an IKEA parking lot.