New York Notes: The Newsletter of New York Maritime, Inc.

NYMAR:

As 2009 is drawing to a close, how did projections for the port match against reality?

Larrabee:

Our mid 2008 projections were considerably more optimistic than reality. We were looking at flat to up a few percent. However as we got into the later part of 2008, we started adjusting downward.

NYMAR:

In what area did the port experience the greatest impact from the economic downturn?

Larrabee:

Vehicle imports/exports, our second largest business and in which we lead the USA, are down approximately 40%.

NYMAR:

What do you anticipate for 2010 in trade levels and other changes?

Larrabee:

We anticipate modest gains in 2010 vs. 2009, however it all depends on the consumer's willingness to open up their pockets, and that is a major change. We anticipate that for 2010 and future years, consumers will not be as willing to spend as they have been in the past. Other changes we will see are an even greater stress on cost and efficiency by all links in the supply chain with each link squeezing the ones up stream for lower costs and greater efficiency/productivity.

NYMAR:

Challenging economic times tend to fray relationships. Has the port been successful in maintaining a smooth operating environment?

Larrabee:

What you say is true but we have also seen, in many cases, a greater interest in cooperating on larger over arching issues by some of our major partners in the port. Our tenants compete with each other fiercely and at times we have normal business disputes but many of them realize that some of the issues facing us all are best addressed jointly rather than independently. As an example, our container terminal operators have gotten together under an FMC agreement to look at issues such the environment, improved efficiency and productivity.

NYMAR:

Has the PONYNJ been the beneficiary of stimulus package money? If so, how is that being utilized?

Larrabee:

We at the Port have not been a direct beneficiary of recent stimulus package money; however we have gotten nearly $10million of grants from the EPA for air quality initiatives.

NYMAR:

What are the greatest challenges facing the port in the next decade?

Larrabee:

If you had asked me that 2 years ago, I would have said providing sufficient capacity in short/medium/long term to meet demand. Now I must say that the greatest challenges facing us will be how to make the port more efficient, productive and less costly.

NYMAR:

How can organizations like NYMAR and the New York maritime cluster in general work to support the port and its continued prosperity?

Larrabee:

We need public support in many areas that impact our business - not only directly on port but also in regard to off-port activities. For instance, the location of warehousing and distribution facilities in the region is very important for our businesses - not only because they attract cargo through our port but also because they provide jobs and economic benefits to the region. However there are often lengthy permitting processes or other regulatory hurdles that must be overcome in order to establish those facilities. This often gives a very business-unfriendly image of our region. We need everyone's support to counter that image and work to make our region more business-friendly.

NYMAR:

Thank you, Rick.

Europe churned in political and social turmoil in the late 1800s, and Kaiser Wilhelm II's government was in big trouble. The German emperor's policies had made enemies abroad, and support at home was deeply shaken.

Stone mason Wilhelm Frederik Muenster did most of his work for the Kaiser and could see financial ruin in his future if Wilhelm's government collapsed, so he boarded the SS Frankfurt in Bremen, Germany, on Oct. 30, 1902. He arrived in Galveston a few weeks later in the frenzy of the city's rebuilding efforts after the Great Storm of 1900. There was plenty of work for a stone mason.

Muenster's wife followed a few months later on the same ship, coaxing extra potatoes from the German cooks to help feed her five children. Her oldest, a 6-year-old girl, was the mother of 79-year-old Pete Rygaard of Dickinson, who is the 60-year husband of Mary Lou Blair Rygaard. Her family came to Galveston in 1911 from Alsace-Lorraine, also on the SS Frankfurt.

"My grandparents wanted to come here for the opportunities and a better quality of life," Rygaard said. "Things were bad in Germany and they'd heard – I guess from other immigrants – that there was a better life here."

He and Mary Lou are two of the many hundreds of thousands of descendants of immigrants – from Europe, Mexico, South and Central America and Asia – whose first glimpse of America was the flat, bustling port city of Galveston – called "the Ellis Island of the South."

Galveston's role as the landing spot and processing point of so many new citizens has almost been lost to history, but visitors to Moody Gardens will soon be able to glimpse into the past and learn about the lives of arriving immigrants through its new exhibit: "Forgotten Gateway: Coming to America through Galveston Island." The exhibit opens Nov. 21.

"This exhibit is the first of its kind to explore Galveston's legacy as a port of entry on a national scale," said John Zendt, Moody Gardens general manager. "We are very excited to have it here on the island and bring to light the little-known yet rich era of Galveston's history and just how important it was to the growth of Texas and the American Midwest."

Indeed, many hundreds of thousands of immigrants were processed through Galveston, beginning in 1845, long before Ellis Island opened as a federal immigrant processing center in 1890.

The exhibit puts a face on immigration and focuses on the common ordeals the aspiring Americans contended with: the dangerous journey, establishing a life in a new land with a strange language, maneuvering the bureaucracy of registration, sometimes spending time in the quarantine station, and facing the discrimination of the day.

The multi-faceted exhibit includes personal stories, interactive kiosks, informative media pieces and more than 200 original artifacts and documents, set near the waters that welcomed so many from so many countries.

The Rygaards' forebearers paid about $15 each for steerage space and were packed into the holds of cargo ships that steamed into Galveston Bay with regularity.

Galveston was not only a check-in station for immigrants but a way station to the entire country. From 1860 to 1900, thousands of miles of railroad tracks were laid from the island to the western and Midwestern United States, and many immigrants found jobs with Houston & Pacific Railroad out of Galveston, establishing homes and lives at points along the rail routes west and north.

The Rygaards' ancestors settled around Galveston and westward through Texas. Part of Mary Lou's family lives in San Antonio. Both genealogists, the Rygaards have traced their family roots back hundreds of years in Europe, but they remain fascinated with their journey to America.

Mary Lou has a copy of the ship's manifest from the trip her grandfather took in 1910, and she took it to San Antonio a few years back to show to her cousin.

"As he was looking at it, he said, ‘Well, I'll be,'" Mary Lou recalls. "He had found his wife's grandfather's name on the list right under the name of his own grandfather."