Great news. PortSide NewYork and the tanker Mary A. Whalen have found a long-term berth at Brooklyn’s Atlantic basin. For the last several years, the non-profit based on the historic tanker has not had a berth accessible to the public. Now with public access PortSide will begin new programming by the Fall of 2015. From the PortSide NewYork press release:

The morning of Friday, May 29, 2015, the tanker MARY A. WHALEN will be towed to the south end of Pier 11 in Atlantic Basin in Red Hook, Brooklyn. PortSide would like to thank our friends at Vane Brothers for donating this tow. Vane is operating from the same location where the MARY A. WHALEN began her working life at the former site of Ira S. Bushey & Sons and is in the same business moving fuel. 

PortSide NewYork’s new location in Atlantic Basin keeps us in Red Hook where we were founded, and puts the ship readily accessible to the public one block from the B61 bus stop for Pioneer Street and right next to the Brooklyn Greenway, an easy stop for cyclists. This puts PortSide at a site ‐ Atlantic Basin ‐ that has a fascinating history we look forward to telling, and on a pier with a lot of maritime atmosphere. Pier 11, Atlantic Basin has a varied and changing collection of vessels, views of activity in the Red Hook containerport and the cruise ships at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal plus views of the Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines.

PortSide NewYork delivers water, waterfront and maritime‐themed programs, services and advocacy, working both on and off the tanker MARY A. WHALEN. The MARY is the the last of her kind in the USA and is the only oil tanker cultural center in the world. She is on the National Register of Historic Places. She is famous in maritime law for a 1975 Supreme Court decision U.S. vs Reliable Transfer. She is a symbol of NYC resiliency because the PortSide crew rode out the storm on the ship with the office aboard, and then brought that office ashore and set up and ran a hurricane Sandy pop‐up aid station, winning a White House award and honors from the New York State Senate for their Sandy recovery work.