The Retired Fireboat Volunteers Saved, Then 9/11 Called Back

The John J. Harvey was built for the New York Fire Department, launched on October 6, 1931, and brought out of service in 1994. Seven years later, with the water mains around Ground Zero broken, the fire department radioed her and asked whether her pumps still worked.

Saved at Auction

The city retired the Harvey in 1994. In 1999 she was sold at auction to a private group of marine preservationists, described by Brooklyn Paper as volunteers who rescued her from the scrapyard, and they set about restoring her.

Brooklyn Paper names Huntley Gill and Florent Morellet among the people behind the project, and Jim Ivory, a former volunteer fireman, as her chief engineer.

She began hosting frequent free public trips on the river, and in June 2000 she was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Call on September 11

On September 11, 2001, the Harvey was helping with the maritime evacuation of stranded New Yorkers. Her owners had asked the fire department for permission to assist.

At the site, firefighters found that the scale of the destruction had damaged many fire mains, leaving crews short of water. Officials radioed the Harvey and asked if her pumps still worked.

They did. She was told to drop off her passengers as soon as possible and return to the site, and the fire department reactivated her official designation, Marine 2.

Brooklyn Paper puts her crew that day at ten. Gill later said, "It was all very calm. The thing that really strikes me is that all these firemen were just doing what they knew they had to do without being told."

Eighty Hours of Pumping

She pumped water at the site for 80 hours, until the water mains were restored. She worked alongside two other fire department boats, the John D. McKean and the Fire Fighter.

The Harvey can move 18,000 gallons of water a minute, according to Brooklyn Paper, which puts that at the output of about 20 land-based fire trucks. She has five engines, four pumps and eight deck pipes. On the free trips, her crew demonstrates the pumps, according to the Hudson River Maritime Museum, and young guests tend to get wet.

Still Afloat

The group that runs her says 2026 marks the 95th anniversary of her launch and the 25th anniversary of her service on September 11.

Its calendar lists free public trips this fall, including a full-day voyage to Oyster Bay on October 16 and a return to New York on October 19. People register through the website or its newsletter.

Her story also reached young readers in Maira Kalman's 2002 picture book Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey.