SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Maritime Community Responds to the Attack on New York As events unfolded in lower M anhattan on 11 September, members of the maritime commun ity and their vessels in and around the harbor stepped up to provide viral services to the paralyzed borough. Even before the full consequences of the airpl ane attack on the World Trade Center rowers became evident, ship operators converged on the Battery to see what could be done. What co uld be done was the evacuation of hund reds of thousands of offi ce workers and New York residents and visitors, followed by four days of delivering necessary drinking wa ter, food, equipment, clothes, fuel and other supplies and rescue workers to the site. T he terrorist attack forced New Yo rkers to recognize just how isolated an island can be without a fleet of vessels and places for chem to dock. Several organizations have published their members' sto ries; we particularly reco mmend the Professional M ariner's coverage in the D ecember/January 200 2 issue and the stories in the November 2001 iss ue of Foghorn, the publication of the Passe nger Vessel Ass o c ia tion. (PM: phon e : 20 7 77 2-2 4 66 ; we b sit e : www.profess ionalmariner. com ; PVA: phone: 206 284-8285 ; we b site: www. passe nger vessel. com) The following info rmation is glea ned from their articles. T hroughout the first day, ferries, tourist and dinner vessels, rugs, dive boars, C oas t G uard cutters, NYC harbor patrol craft, M erchant M arine Academy training vessels, private boats, and everything else that could float headed ro lower M anhattan and we nt inro the swirling bank of smoke and dust ro reach docks and the seawall. Repo rrs indicate that until the first rowe r imploded , evacuati on was fa irly organized, bur panic ensued when the
Fireboat John]. Harvey in Action We wo uld be remiss if we did not mention that some of those heroes were working from hisro ric ships. Among the vessels responding ro the emergency were the fireboat j ohn J H arvey and the Herreshoff yacht Ventura of 192 1. T he crew of the 70year-old fireboat j ohn J H arvey has received much-deserved acclaim for their
building coll apsed and people began jumping off the seawall to reach safety. Boats of all descriptions rook people to Broo klyn, Staten Island, New Jersey and northern Manhattan . New Yo rk Waterways ferries had 23 boats avail able and estimates chat they evacuated about 160,000 people. The C oas t G uard requested the assistance of Sandy Hook Pilots, who brought their 182-foo r pilot boat New York to serve as the On -Scene Commanders' platfo rm thro ugh the evacuation. In som e areas, the visibility was so bad that operators had to navigate by radar and radio to make it safel y to and fro m the island. Other boats tied up to awai t the expected wo unded who never materialized. Even as people were being evacuated, ship crews heard about the need fo r drinking water, fuel , wo rk boors and heavy equipmenc. T hey pu t our the wo rd wh en they arrived in New Jersey and supplies appeared mys teriously, along with assembly lines of hundreds of people to load boxes and bordes on rhe boats maki ng an ocher trip across the water. Vessel traffic was so fast and furio us on D ay 3 that the Maritime Comm and Center started using hand and flag signals to direct traffic. These efforts to bring virally needed supplies and rescue workers to the scene continued unabated until Friday, D ay 4, when federal authorities and the military took over most services . Bur fo r those fo ur days, the ships and ship owners and crews of N ew Yo rk H arbo r perfo rmed heroically and wo rked together to provide the leadership and the means of solving problems and alleviating conditions in th e midst of chaos. W orkers in the industry are trained to expeq and handle emergencies our of reach of assistance. T hat training stood them and the city in good stead thro ughout the week. ,!,
evacuees, the boat was put in ro service supplying rh e firefighters with water, under her old designatio n of M arine 2. She and two large New Yo rk C ity fireboats spent nearly a week o n the scene. Puron rhe National Register of Hisroric Places las t year, the fireboat received a special National Preservation H onor Award on 18 O crober, fo r her role during the disaster and its aftermath. Qohn]. Harvey Ltd., 100 West 72 nd Street, #6-G, N ew York NY 10023; web site: www. fireboat.org)
South Street Seaport Museum to Record Maritime Community's Response to 11 September The fire boat John J. H arvey
acti vities throughout the week. When the re tired tug was put on the block in 1999 a gro up of supporters outbid the scrappers and resrored h er. A skeleron crew made its way to the fireboat on the morning of th e 11th. Returning to the southern tip of M anhattan after making a run with 150
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So uth Street Seaport Museum, still awaiting fu ll resro rarion of phones and computer services, is reco rding the participation of the maritime community by conducting oral interviews with ship operarors and crews, volunteers, city officials, and evacuees. An archive of the interviews will be available for researchers in decades to co me and will form the basis for an exhib it
at the museum , funded by a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment fo r the Humanities. (South Street Seaport M useum, 207 Fro nt Street, New Yo rk NY 10038; 2 12 748-8600; web site: www .so u thsrsea po rt.o rg)
SPUN YARN After nine months on hi atus since being purchased for use in a movie based on Patri ck O' Brian 's Aubrey/M aturin series, "HMS" Rose has been moved from her dock in Newport ro the Ameri can Shipyard, where preliminary wo rk is being done. Word is the movie will be based on the tenth book in the series, The Far Side ofthe World. ("H MS " Rose Newsletter web site: http://www.tallship rose.o rg) . .. T he 1898 steam ferry Berkeley, at th e San Diego Mariti me M useum, has received a matching Save America's Treasures award of $200, 000 from the National Park Service, whi ch will be used to resrore the vessel's rusting a nd thinning hull. (1492 No rth H arbo r Drive, San Diego CA 92 101 ; 6 19 (Continued on page 36)
SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 1- 02