FDNY Fireboat Fleet

[daysleeper47]

All of the following pictures and text were taken from the FDNY Marine 6 webpage. It can be found at http://www.fdnymarine6.com . It is a great site with tons of information about the former Marine companies of the New York City Fire Department. Unfortunetly, it doesn't have all that much to offer on the current companies, but maybe they can work on that!

[daysleeper47]

Every major harbor has one or more fireboats to protect the docks and ships where ground-based fire vehicles cannot go.

Originally (late 1800's) these boats were made from old, converted tugboats. Within a few decades they had proved their worth and specially-designed fireboats began to be built.

Certainly the most famous fireboat of all time is the FIRE FIGHTER of New York City, which began service in 1938 and still answers the call.

FIRE FIGHTER was designed by William Francis Gibbs, who also designed the ocean liners AMERICA and UNITED STATES.

Four 5000 GPM De Laval two-stage centrifugal pumps provide a total pumping capacity of 20,000 gallons per minute at 150 PSI. They can also be connected in series to provide 10,000 GPM at 300 PSI.

W. F. Gibbs also designed a land-based fire truck -- the most powerful ever built -- called the Super Pumper, which served NYC from 1965 to 1982. It was built by Mack Trucks, and could feed 35 hoselines at once.

[daysleeper47]

The 'John J. Harvey' is perhaps the most famous fire boat in history, aside from maybe its FDNY sister 'Firefighter'. There are so many articles and bits of infomation on this fine boat. Use this thread as a place to post on this Hudson River queen.

[daysleeper47]

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/fireboat.htm

Historic Fireboat Aids In New York City Response and Recovery at World Trade Center

The John J. Harvey, a large fireboat listed in the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, aided in relief and evacuation efforts at the World Trade Center on Tuesday, September 11th. Upon learning of the disaster at the World Trade Center, friends and crew of the historic fireboat met at John J. Harvey and made the decision to take her south from Pier 63 to help at the World Trade Center. Normally afloat at Pier 63, North River, at the west end of 23rd Street in Manhattan, the John J. Harvey joined in a group of tug boats and ferries to help in evacuation efforts. The John J. Harvey transported some 150 people from the sea wall near the Battery north to Pier 40. En route, the New York City Fire Department radioed a request that the John J. Harvey drop off her passengers as quickly as possible and tie up adjacent to the World Trade Center site to provide pumping capacity, as hydrants were not working. The fireboat joined New York Fire Department boats on the sea wall in North River, the closest proximity possible to World Trade Center 2, to provide the only water available at the site. Fire hoses wielded from the fireboat Wednesday provided the only area at the site that was not covered by choking dust. This area later became the main supply center for the emergency crews. The John J. Harvey worked non-stop at the site until Friday night, September 14, after hydrants had been restored. Countless friends and supporters made Harvey their base for volunteering in the emergency, working on shore on clean-up, rescue work and organization.
 
The John J. Harvey will turn 70 this October. Supporters of the fireboat expressed pride that the ship was saved, thus allowing her to work for New York City during the crisis. The fireboat was built in 1931 at the Todd Shipbuilding and Dry-Dock Corporation in Brooklyn, NY and updated in 1957. She played a large role in protecting the New York Harbor in the 1930s and into World War II when the port was used as a staging area for convoys supplying troops, munitions and petroleum to Europe. As a fireboat, John J. Harvey was instrumental in extinguishing fires that took place along the water, including the 1932 five alarm fire that destroyed Cunard’s Pier 54 and a fire aboard the former French liner, Normandie, that eventually capsized the vessel at her dock. The Harvey also became famous for her water displays in which she welcomed prominent ships to New York. In 1959, all of New York City’s fireboats were redesignated as marine companies. Since the 1960s New York Harbor has changed dramatically and fireboats have been made smaller in order to deal with small pleasure craft, rather than the grand ocean liners of the past. In 1994, John J. Harvey was retired from service and auctioned to her current owners. She has since been restored. The steel boat measures 130 feet length overall, and weighs 268 gross tons and was entered in the National Register of Historic Places on June 15, 2000.

[daysleeper47]

John Purroy Mitchel (1921-1966)
Length-132' Beam-27' Draft-10'
Built by Standard Shipbuilding, Shooters Island N.Y. 1921. Cost of $275,000. Capacity 9000 GPM at 150 PSI. Steel hull, steam oil fired. Put in service as Engine 57 and later as Marine 3. Retired and sold Feb. 26, 1966



(Top photo from NYFD.com, bottom photo from FDNYMarine6.com)

[daysleeper47]

A fireboat gets a new lease on life
By Sara Clemence
Columbia News Service
10 June 2002
 
It has all the bells and whistles a grown-up child could want: Brass nozzles, a riveted hull and the ability to shoot 18,000 gallons of water a minute into the air.

But when a group of water-loving New Yorkers saved the fireboat John J. Harvey from the scrap heap, they got more than just a plaything.

'We didn't have any idea it was going to be anything other than a restoration,' says John Doswell, 59, one of the 17 owners of the Harvey. Instead, the historic floating fire engine has become a passion and a landmark, creating a community all its own. And on Sept. 11, the Harvey was called back to the work it once did best.

Seventy years ago, fireboats ruled New York's waterfront. Patrolling the city's nearly 600 miles of shoreline, they answered calls in the active city commercial port, extinguishing fierce dock fires, managing oil spills and staging boat rescues.

But when the waterfront businesses declined, so did the need for fireboats. Today, fireboats in New York City are rarely spotted, their numbers having dwindled from more than a dozen to a mere three active ships. Other port cities report the same: San Francisco now has but two fireboats, and New Orleans no longer has any.

The Harvey, a 130-foot, 268-ton fireboat, was a revelation when it was put into service in 1931. The fireboat was the most powerful of its time, and the first to be built with an internal combustion engine rather than a steam engine. It could pump water over the roadway of the George Washington Bridge.

The ship served the city well for decades. But the city started to downsize its fleet in the 1960s, in response to a declining waterfront, according to Al Trojanowicz, a retired fire fighter and fireboat historian. Rather than ship bags of flour and barrels of food in pieces, shipping containers became the prominent mode of transport. The huge, fire-resistant metal boxes could be lifted directly by crane onto railway cars or truck beds, which required a lot of space. Shipping moved to New Jersey, and the city's piers and warehouses were rendered obsolete.

In 1991, the city decommissioned the Harvey, leaving just three primary fireboats, the John D. McKean, the Harry M. Archer, M.D., and the Fire Fighter.

The Harvey sat decaying in the water at the Brooklyn Navy Yard until 1999, when the city sold the boat in a sealed-bid auction. John Krevey, a lover of historic ships who operates a floating pier on Manhattan's West Side, gathered a group of bidders together, offering $28,010 for a ship that cost more than $500,000 to build.

'The second highest bid was the scrap yard,' says Doswell. 'So she'd be Toyotas by now.'

The 17 owners, who range from a software engineer based in Dublin, Ireland, to a retired New York City fire fighter, hired a tugboat to move the Harvey to its new home at Krevey's Pier 63 on West 23rd Street in Manhattan. The Fire Department had stripped the boat of its insignia and gear, nameplates and all. But not long into the restoration, the Marine Division offered to send it all back.

'When they realized we were doing the right thing,' recalls co-owner Huntley Gill, 'They said, 'Bring a truck.''

After three years of work and 'a couple hundred thousand dollars, all told,' says Gill, the boat is mostly in working order. 'We didn't realize that we had bought one of the most complex engine rooms in New York.'

The restoration has attracted a diverse following, from Pennsylvania firefighters to local businessmen. Now, the dozens of volunteers will focus on the boat's appearance, stripping, painting and even riveting.

Due to strict U.S. Coast Guard regulations, the Harvey can't carry paying passengers, but can be used for parties or events. The owners frequently take groups out for free rides, and accept donations to maintain the vessel. In 2000, the boat made it on to the National Register of Historic Places, and it has a web site, www.fireboat.org.

On Sept. 11, the Harvey showed that, even at 70, it could be of use to the city. That Tuesday morning, Gill, two other owners and a couple of volunteers rushed to the boat and headed south to help the Coast Guard evacuate people from the financial district. They could see the World Trade Center burning as they powered down the river. While en route, they watched the towers fall.

The Harvey took a load of about 150 people from Battery Park City, right next to the World Trade Center, to Pier 40, a mile north. Then the Fire Department radioed to say that all the water sources around the World Trade Center had been knocked out. They needed the Harvey to do what it was designed to do: pump water from the river to the fire.

For three days, 24 hours a day, the fireboat worked alongside its FDNY sister ships, and became a haven for firemen when they came off the pile. Some firefighters recall throwing their coats down on the deck and collapsing on top of them for a few hours' sleep.

Back at Pier 63, the Harvey is just another retired boat, but with another episode to add to its proud past. Now its owners are hoping for a long future.

'If we're lucky,' says Gill, 'she'll be around and running for another 20 years.'

[Bulldog]

FDNY has finally started the process of aquiring a new fire boat!  They hired Robert Allan Ltd. in Vancover to do the design.  This is the same company that designed the new fireboat for LAFD so it will certainly be state of the art.  General specs are 130', 36,000gpm & 17.5 knot service speed.

Here's the link to the announcement:

http://www.shipbuilding.ca/news/RobertAllan_Oct-05.pdf

[Box 2565]

In the first photo Firefighter Charles Cornell salutes the F.D.N.Y.'s newest boat, the H. Sylvia A.H.G. Wilks, on May 13, 1958.  The second photo shows the vessel as she is cruising.
Image from eBay.

[yfdgricker]

Forum member Angelo sent me this pic...

Picture of NYFD  Fire Boat  June 12th 2004.

[Box 2565]

Taken along 35th Street in Brooklyn on December 3, 1956.

[Box 2565]

New Yorker (1890-1931)
Length-125' Beam-26' Draft-12'
Built by Julius Jonson 1890. Cost of $98,250.
Capacity 13,000 GPM. Steel hull, coal fired, single screw. Put in service as Engine 57. Out of service Dec. 17, 1931
"New York Fire Boat at Drill"

[Box 2565]

A somewhat unusual variation on this theme is a model of the "Gaynor".

[Bklyn Phil]

A see-through plastic model of a fireboat showing internal layout of piping. And a fuller picture of the diorama.

Phil Bklyn

[firebox_417]

Great Job !!!!

[Bklyn Phil]

Thanks! I went back thu my photos and found a better pic from the 2005 Firehouse Expo trip. FDNY fireboat "Firefighter" aka Marine 9 was also modeled there.