John J. Harvey
 Fireboat John J. Harvey
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 New York City Fire Department | |
| Name | John J. Harvey |
| Namesake | John J. Harvey |
| Port of registry | New York City, United States |
| Ordered | 1928 |
| Builder | Todd Shipbuilding |
| Cost | $594,000 |
| Laid down | 1930 |
| Launched | October 6, 1931 |
| Commissioned | December 17, 1931 |
| In service | December 17, 1931 |
| Out of service | 1995 |
| Renamed |
|
| Reclassified | Museum ship |
| Refit | 1957 |
| Reinstated | Temporary return to service 9/11/2001 |
| Homeport | North River Pier 66, New York City (As of 2019) |
| Nickname(s) | The "Harvey" |
| Honors and awards | National Preservation Award |
| Status | FDNY retired |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Fireboat |
| Displacement | 268 net tons |
| Length | 130 ft (40 m) |
| Beam | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Draught | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Installed power | 5 Fairbanks - Morse opposed piston Model 38F5¼ which consist of 8 cylinders with 16 pistons. |
| Propulsion | Twin screws |
| Speed | 18 knots |
| Capacity | 18,000gpm |
| Armament | Eight deck monitors and 24 large connections for fire hose |
| Coordinates | 40°45′0″N 74°0′39″W / 40.75000°N 74.01083°W |
| Built | 1931 |
| Built by | Todd Shipyards |
| Architect | Henry J. Gielow |
| NRHP reference No. | 00000576[1] |
| Added to NRHP | June 15, 2000 |
John J. Harvey is a fireboat formerly of the New York City Fire Department in New York City, famed for returning to service following the September 11, 2001 attacks.[2][3] She is among the most powerful fireboats ever built, capable of pumping up to 18,000 gallons of water a minute.
Launched in 1931, John J. Harvey had a distinguished career in the FDNY until her retirement in 1994. She was named for marine fireman John J. Harvey, killed when a ship exploded during a fire. Among the marine fires at which she assisted were the Cunard Line pier fire in 1932, the burning of Normandie in 1942, the ammunition ship El Estero in 1943,[4] and the collision of the oil tankers Alva Cape and Texaco Massachusetts in 1966. Her official designation at the end of her career was Marine 2.
John J. Harvey was sold, at auction, in 1999, to a private consortium of marine preservationists determined to prevent her from being scrapped. In June 2000 she was added to the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places. Her current owners have thoroughly restored her, and host frequent free trips on the river. She is currently moored at North River Pier 66, located at 12th Avenue and 26th Street on the Hudson River.
In 2018, she was repainted at the Caddell Dry Dock, Staten Island, in a red and white dazzle pattern as part of an art project by Tauba Auerbach, in commemoration of the dazzle camouflage used on World War I ships.[5]
September 11, 2001
John J. Harvey had an unexpected encore. Shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the boat's owners asked FDNY officials for permission to assist in maritime evacuations from Ground Zero.[6] Meanwhile, firefighters had determined that the vast scale of destruction had damaged many fire mains, depriving fire crews of water. Officials radioed John J. Harvey, asking if her pumps still worked. Responding that they did, she was told to drop off her passengers as soon as possible and return to the disaster site, reactivating her official designation Marine 2. Alongside two other FDNY fireboats, John D. McKean and Fire Fighter, she pumped water at the site for 80 hours, until water mains were restored.[7] The National Trust for Historic Preservation gave John J. Harvey a special National Preservation Award to recognize this incident. John J. Harvey's story was the subject of a 2002 children's book.
References
Notes
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ official site, fireboat.org
- ^ "The Maritime Evacuation of Manhattan on September 11, 2001". Archived from the original on July 26, 2011.
- ^ http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/ThiesenElEstero.pdf The El Estero Fire
- ^ Moore, Kirk (July 5, 2018). "Historic NYC fireboat dons 'dazzle' paint". WorkBoat.
- ^ "Historic Fireboat Aids in New York City Response and Recovery at the World Trade Center". National Park Service. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ^ Attaway, Roy (August 2003). "Born-Again Hero". Power & Motor Yacht. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
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Further reading
- Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey, by Maira Kalman, 2002. ISBN 0-399-23953-7\
External links
Media related to John J. Harvey (ship, 1931) at Wikimedia Commons- Official website
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-335, "Fireboat JOHN J. HARVEY, Pier 63, North River, New York, New York County, NY", 9 photos, 7 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
- Ship information and current position at MarineTraffic.com
| Topics |   | |
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- Service vessels of the United States
- Fireboats of New York City
- Historic American Engineering Record in New York (state)
- Museum ships in New York (state)
- Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
- 1931 ships
- Museums in Manhattan
- Firefighting museums in the United States
- Port of New York and New Jersey
- Chelsea, Manhattan
- Ships built in Brooklyn