Steven Romano

One of my more interesting job experiences was working at the BROOKLYN PIERS NYMT. What a great staff - from the management on down (operations, police, maintenance). There was a family feel to it -- they even had a pet cat.
The facility is located on Columbia St. in Brooklyn. At that time (1980’s), it was already starting to become a ghost town with containerization taking over as a preferred method for shipping and most of the ships going to NJMT (Port Newark).

Some of the other locations under the facility’s jurisdiction included the Passenger Ship Terminal, Pier 40 on the west side of Manhattan, the Grain Elevator, the Fish Port, Civil War piers, Erie Basin, and Howland Hook in Staten Island.

The boat’s main use was for sounding surveys, under-deck inspections and fender inspections. Sometimes we would assist plumbers and electricians repairing damaged piping under the deck.

The top photo is of me standing on the first boat I worked and was trained on. To the left, also wearing the green maintenance uniform, is coworker and mate Aaron Cupperson. The boat was being lifted out of the water for maintenance by Kosnac’s crane, a tenant with whom we shared the berth on Pier 5.

The bottom photo was taken at Kingsborough College where we took a boating safety course. Left to right Dave Giordano, Steve Quinn, Joe Lind, Louis Reyes,Carl Rappa and me. We were at the pool in the Gumby suits practicing the ‘abandon ship’ drill.