A new and exciting 10-week speaker series aboard the Waterfront Museum docked at Pier 44 in Red Hook Brooklyn.

In June, July & August highlights ship preservation projects and waterfront profiles that offer a glimpse of the many organizations that today foster active community stewardship along our backyard shores and waterways. Celebrating the HUDSON/FULTON/CHAMPLAIN QUADRICENTENNIAL and the “WOW – Working on Water” traveling exhibition of historic vessels, the Waterfront Museum speaker series, as well as its “Tug & Barge” Fall Tour, upriver is designed to bring locals and tourists to waterfront towns to celebrate our predecessors: Henry Hudson, Samuel DeChamplain and Robert Fulton. Remembering our forefathers serves to bring interest and attention back to our waterways — 400 years after the great explorations and 200 years after the beginning of steam driven vessels.

“Vessels & Profiles of the Quadricentennial” will spotlight presentations by leaders of Tugboat Pegasus, Lighthouse Tender LILAC, Mary A. Whalen Tanker, John J. Harvey Fireboat, W.O. Decker Tug, Clearwater Sloop, and other historic vessels. Speakers and harbor profiles share ship preservation projects that weave the daily interaction of man (physical and financial challenges to keep a vessel afloat) and nature’s elements (wind, shipworms, currents, storms, etc) into adventure and stories that depict the challenges and discoveries of sustaining an isolated floating man-made environment in a modern world.

June 18 “The Restoration of the Lighthouse Tender LILAC” by Charlie Ritchie, Executive Director of the LILAC Preservation Project. Enjoy the labor of love put into the oldest US Coast Guard buoy tender and New York City’s only historic steamship. For more info see: www.lilacpreservationproject.org.

June 25 “Rebuilding the W.O. Decker” by Charles C. Deroko and South Street Seaport Museum. View step by step photos of the shipyard craftsmanship that rebuilt this 1930 wooden harbor tug, and try your own seamanship skills at our tugboat activity table. For more info see: wwwsouthstreetseaportmuseum.org .

July 9 “The John J. Harvey Fireboat” by Huntley Gill and the Fireboat Crew. Discover a fireboat that pumped water to firefighters for 80 hours at the World Trade Center during and after Sept. 11, and became the focus of a children’s book. For more info see: www.fireboat.org.

July 16 “Henry Hudson and his River” by Jack Putnam, South Street Seaport Museum. Relive Henry’s third voyage, and the four centuries of river history that followed.

July 23 “Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Launching and Restoration of the historic Hudson Sloop Clearwater ” by Captain Samantha Heyman and Captain/Shipwright Nicholas Rogers.
For more info see: www.clearwater.org.

July 30 “Plans for Atlantic Basin and the Oil Tanker “Mary A. Whalen” – PortSide’s director Carolina Salguero and designer Tim Ventimiglia, will recount the amazing history of a 1930’s coastal tanker and outline their vision for the ship as a platform for educational programming, exhibits and events and for the maritime hub in Atlantic Basin that will be her home. Based in Red Hook where the ship was built, the Mary A. Whalen has been host to a range of innovative programs including the first-ever performance of a live opera in a working container port. Over the last two years, thirty design students from the Parsons School of Design have been exploring creative ways to transform the ship, re-program its cargo holds and upper deck to interpret a wide range of waterfront themes. For more info see: www.portsidenewyork.org

August 13 “NY 400 Holland on the Hudson – The United States & The Netherlands: Two Countries – One Spirit, United by Values, History and a Vision of the future” by Arjan Braamskamp, Economic Officer NY400-Maritime Events – Netherlands Consulate General in New York.

August 20 “My River Chronicles – Rediscovering America on the Hudson” by Jessica DuLong. Join fireboat engineer and author, Jessica DuLong as she shares stories from four centuries of Hudson River history.
For more info see: www.jessicadulong.com

August 27 “Restoration and Refit of the 102-year old Tugboat Pegasus” by Captain Pamela Hepburn of the The Tugboat Pegasus Preservation Project and Marine Surveyor Charles Deroko.
For more info see: www.tugpegasus.org

“Vessels & Profiles of the Quadricentennial” Presentations begin at 7 pm. A suggested donation of $5 is appreciated. Reservations are not necessary. More information and directions to the Museum are available at www.waterfrontmuseum.org or by calling 718 624 4719 ext 11.

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