This is on my web site.  The book has 20-odd chapters on separate web
pages, with a table of contents (at the URL given below).  It is
chronological, with each chapter representing, typically, a year.

The author, Charles Haswell was an important naval engineer.  There are
many references to individual ships, lines, piers, slips, and occasionally
docks (always accompanied with a peevish remark that there were no docks
in New York - only slips).

Sorry, I have no great finding aids, but you can use your browser's search
functions on "ship", "steam", "sail", "pier", "slip"...  I have not found
any one section that focuses on these issues.

Hal Morris: [log in to unmask]   --  Editor of:
* H-SHEAR Web pages: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~shear
* Tales of the Early Republic: http://www.panix.com/~hal
  Web Resources:  Bibliography, Biographical Dict... (work in progress)
* Jacksonian Miscellanies: free email weekly of source exerpts.

On Wed, 24 Jun 1998, David Minor wrote:

> I recently discovered a resource that might be of help (I haven't been
> there for several weeks, so don't have more details) but it's a site
> called "Reminiscences of New York by an Octogenarian (1816 - 1860)".
>
> The URL is:
>
>         http://www.panix.com/~hal/octo/octo-toc.htm
>