Help make MARY A. WHALEN run again!

Help make the next installment of our campaign goal! That's $80,000 by the end of November, 2024!

Help bring the MARY back to life! This beloved ship is the home base of PortSide NewYork and our ship cat Chiclet.

PortSide helped Red Hook residents and small businesses recover from Sandy in so many ways - and we now seek help with our Sandy recovery. For 10+ years since that storm, PortSide programs have improved Red Hook’s resiliency, our neighborhood’s ability to prepare for and recover from floods, and earned us a White House award and honors from the NYS Senate. Our work also influenced FEMA and NYC policy.

The impact of this project:

A major historic preservation contribution: The MARY is the last of her kind in the USA and on the National Register of Historic Places. She is a museum of herself and a vital community center for Red Hook, Brooklyn. She is NYC's favorite oil tanker and a great platform to teach about USA fuel consumption and how that relates to climate change.

Supports our impactful education programs on the ship.

Supports and grows our workforce development programs.

Protects a beloved floating cultural center and attraction.

Protects our shipboard offices thus supporting ALL PortSide programs.

Will net us a much-needed revenue stream. We seek a Coast Guard status, compare to a building permit, they will only grant after we complete shipwork they inspect and approve.

Make us more insurable. Insurers now prefer ships with running engines.

Help us attract and retain volunteers with maritime skills which keeps the ship fit for all the above.

We are raising money to do necessary work on the hull AND major prep work relating to making the engine run again, leveraging FEMA funds from our hurricane Sandy recovery project.

During the pandemic, we acquired an engine and engine room parts from several historic ships, so restoring the ship to running condition is now an attainable goal with your support.

PortSide will be finalizing details of the shipwork and this campaign in 2023 as we build on accomplishments of late 2022 and do the resulting, related estimating:

1) FEMA granted us an extension on our Sandy recoveryproject and allowed us to change the project so we can use the $231,000 in FEMA funds on work that supports getting the MARY A. WHALEN running again.

2) We are working on a few more estimates before having a final campaign goal (a ballasting plan to weigh down the front part of the ship; replacement of our damaged propellor).

Thanks for your support!