Fireboats of Detroit

As an important river port, there has been six fireboats operated by the Detroit Fire Department.

Image	Name	Commissioned	Decommissioned	Notes
	Detroiter	1892	1902	Built by Craig Shipbuilding, stripped of firefighting equipment for James R. Elliot after dry rot developed, sold in 1903 to Reid Wrecking and Towing Company as a wrecking tug, dismantled in 1942 [1] [2]
	James Battle	1900	1941	Built by Detroit Ship Building Company, later sold as tug to Sincennes-McNaughton Line (1941-1959) and McAllister Towing and Salvage Incorporated in Montreal for used as fireboat in Montreal from 1959 to 1992 [3] Detroit Ship Building Co. Retired and scrapped with cabin/funnel surviving in Port Colborne Dry Dock [4]
	James R. Elliott	1902	1930	Built by Jenks Shipbuilding Company, sold to Owen Sound Transportation, Limited and converted as ferry Normac (Manitoulin Island); retired and sold in 1968 to Lee Marine Limited and to Captain John Restaurant in Toronto; sank in 1981, raised and restored after 1986 and now serves as floating restaurant Tokyo Joe's Bar and Grill in Port Dalhousie, Ontario. Boat burned 2011 and fate unknown. [5]
	John Kendall	1930	1979	Sold to Robert Massey of Pan Oceanic Engineering Corporation of Alpena, Michigan and converted as tug for Ferris Marine; scrapped in 1994 [6]
	Curtis Randolph	1979	present	Docked at foot of 24th Street and Detroit Riverwalk near Riverside Park
	Sivad Johnson	2020-08-31	present	A smaller, more modern vessel, named after Sivad Heshimu Johnson, an off-duty firefighter who perished helping to rescue three drowning children [7] [8]

References

1. Patricia Zacharias. "The Detroit Fire Department's 130 years of flames and heroics". The Detroit News . Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2020-12-09. The city's first fireboat, the Detroiter, built by the Craig Shipbuilding Company, went into service in the summer of 1892.
2. "DETROITER - Historical Collections of the Great Lakes - BGSU University Libraries". greatlakes.bgsu.edu. Retrieved 2025-12-19.
3. Joseph Ockershausen; Hollis Stambaugh; Seth Kelly (May 2003). "Fireboats: Then and Now" (PDF). FEMA . p. 30. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-11-16. Retrieved 2020-12-09. However, from 1959 to 1992, McAllister Towing and Salvage Incorporated would make the tug-boat James Battle (a former Detroit MI, fireboat with a 10,000-GPM capacity) available to the Montreal Fire Department upon request.
4. "James Battle". Shipspotting . Archived from the original on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
5. Rob Gowan (2011-12-29). "Burned boat has roots here". Owen Sound Sun Times . Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2020-12-09. The Normac was originally built in 1902 as a fire tug called the James R. Elliott for the City of Detroit, according to the website shipbuildinghistory.com.
6. Bob Toth (2005-04-30). "Fireboat converted to tug". Boatnerd . Archived from the original on 2017-07-19. Retrieved 2020-12-09. The Detroit fireboat John Kendall was decommissioned in 1976 and the following year was purchased by Robert Massey of Pan Oceanic Engineering Corp, Alpena Michigan.
7. "A Hero's Honor: Detroit Fireboat Named For Sergeant Who Drowned In Belle Isle Rescue". Deadline Detroit . 2020-09-01. Archived from the original on 2020-09-01. Retrieved 2020-09-01. Admirers spoke Monday outside Detroit Public Safety Headquarters during a memorial ceremony (videos below) where Fire Commissioner Eric Jones said a new fireboat is named in his honor, Ariana Taylor reports for The News, which has a gallery of 24 photos.
8. Ariana Taylor (2020-08-31). "City honors firefighter who died saving children in Detroit River". The Detroit News . p. A17. Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-09-01. During the memorial, fire commissioner Eric Jones announced the newest fireboat, one that is faster and equipped with the latest technology to respond quickly and more effectively in searches, will be named after Johnson.

External links

• Media related to Fireboats in Detroit at Wikimedia Commons