USS Liberty III (SP-1229), sometimes written Liberty # 3, and also referred to during her naval career as Liberty and as Pilot Boat Liberty, No. 3, was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919. The Liberty was a pilot boat from 1896-1917. She was a replacement for the pilot boat D. J. Lawlor. After World War I, the Liberty returned to pilot service until 1934 when she was purchased as a yacht.
The Richard K. Fox, first named Lillie, was a 19th-century pilot boat built in 1876 for Boston Pilots. She was designed by model by Dennison J. Lawlor. She was one of the most graceful and attractive of the Boston pilot-boats and represented a trend toward deep-bodied boats. She was later sold to the New York pilots and renamed Richard K. Fox in honor of the famous sportsman and publisher of the Police Gazette. In the age of steam, she was sold in 1896 to the Marine Hospital Service.
The Sylph was a 19th-century pilot boat first built in 1834, by Whitmore & Holbrook for John Perkins Cushing as a Boston yacht and pilot-boat for merchant and ship owner Robert Bennet Forbes. She won the first recorded American yacht race in 1835. She was a pilot boat in the Boston Harbor in 1836 and 1837 and sold to the New York and Sandy Hook Pilots in October 1837. She was lost in winter of 1857 with all hands during a blizzard off Barnegat, New Jersey. The second Sylph was built in 1865 from a half-model by Dennison J. Lawlor. The third Sylph was built in 1878 at North Weymouth, Massachusetts for Boston Pilots. She was sold out of service in 1901, after 23 years of Boston pilot service.
James H. Reid, was a 19th-century American Maritime pilot. He is best known for being the dean of the Boston pilots, serving for 55 years. He was captain of the famous yacht America for 17 years when she was owned by Benjamin F. Butler. In 1897, he built a new America, named after the America's Cup defender.
The Phantom was a 19th-century Sandy Hook pilot boat built in 1867 from the designs by Dennison J. Lawlor. The schooner was considered a model for her type with a reputation for being very fast. She helped rescue the passengers on the steamship SS Oregon when it sank in 1886. She was one of the pilot-boats that was lost in the Great Blizzard of 1888. The Phantom was replaced by the pilot-boat William H. Bateman.
The D. J. Lawlor was a 19th-century Boston pilot boat built in 1881 at North Weymouth, Massachusetts. The schooner was considered the largest for her type, noted for her seaworthiness and heavy weather performance. She was named after the prominent Boston shipbuilder Dennison J. Lawlor. She was struck by a fishing schooner Horace B. Parker, in 1895, and was replaced by the pilot-boat Liberty in 1896.
The Hesper was a 19th-century Boston pilot boat built in 1884, designed from a model by Dennison J. Lawlor as a Boston yacht and pilot-boat for merchant and ship owner George W. Lawler. She was known to be the largest pilot boat under the American flag at 104 feet long and the fastest of the Boston fleet. She competed in several first-class sailing races, and in 1886, the Hesper won the silver cup in what was known as the first Fishermen's Race. She was withdrawn from the pilot service and sold in 1901. The Hesper became a wreck on the point off Cape Henlopen in 1919.
Thomas Francis McManus was a fish merchant who became a naval architect, responsible for introducing the shortened bowsprit and long stern overhang to give speed to his vessels. He was well known for revolutionizing the Gloucester fishing schooner. He made the fastest vessels of their type in the world and was honored on two continents for his skill as a naval architect. He became known as the "Father of the Fishermen's Races." 500 fishing schooners used his designs to improve speed. He was a friend of Sir Thomas Lipton and President Theodore Roosevelt.
The Eben D. Jordan was a 19th-century Boston pilot boat built in 1883 by Ambrose A. Martin in East Boston for Captain Thomas Cooper. Her namesake was Eben Dyer Jordan, the founder of the Jordan Marsh department stores. In 1892, she was sold to the New York Sandy Hook pilots. She was one of the last of the pilot-boats that were discarded in an age of steam and electricity in 1896.
The Centennial was a 19th-century wood pilot boat built in 1876 by Robert Crosbie and designed by Boston designer Dennison J. Lawlor for New York and New Jersey pilots. She was one of the pilot-boats that survived the Great Blizzard of 1888. By 1898, in the age of steam, she was the last pilot boat left in the fleet; then sold in 1898 to a group in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Franklin Fowler, was a 19th-century American Boston maritime pilot. He went with his father to California to become a pilot. He returned to Boston and became one of the oldest and best known pilots in the Boston service, serving for twenty-five years. He was captain of the pilot boat Florence. In 1888, he received an award from the Massachusetts Humane Society for rescuing the crew from the barque Hattie L. Curtis.
The Friend was a 19th-century pilot boat built by Daniel D. Kelley & Holmes East Boston shipyard in 1848 for Boston pilots. She helped transport Boston maritime pilots between inbound or outbound ships coming into the Boston Harbor. The Friend was one of the last of the low sided, straight sheared schooners built in the 1840s for Boston pilots. The second Boston pilot boat Friend was built in 1887. Her name came from the older Friend that was in the service in the late 1840s. Captain Thomas Cooper sold the Friend to New York pilots in 1893. Cooper replaced the Friend with the pilot-boat Columbia in 1894.
Captain Thomas Cooper was a 19th-century Boston maritime pilot. He was a well-known Boston pilot who took more battleships on their trial voyages than any pilot on the coast. He was a leader among the branch pilots of Boston for 50 years. He had ownership in the Boston pilot boats Friend,Varuna, and Columbia.
The James Gordon Bennett was a 19th-century two-masted pilot boat, built in 1870 at the Lawrence & Foulks shipyard. She was named in honor of James Gordon Bennett, Jr., publisher of the New York Herald. She went ashore in 1893 and was rebuilt at the C. & R. Poillon shipyard. In 1897, the James Gordon Bennett was bought by Miller J. Morse of the Atlantic Yacht Club and made into a yacht. He changed her name to Hermit. The New Jersey pilots purchased her in 1901, to replace the David T. Leahy, that was run down by the steamship Alene. The Hermit sank in 1906, when the steamship Monterey ran into her.
Dennison J. Lawlor, was a 19th-century Canadian-Irish shipbuilder and yacht designer. He apprenticed under shipbuilder Whitmore & Holbrook. Lawlor had his own shipyard, building and designing for 40 years some of the finest yachts, pilot boats, and 150 merchant vessels built from his designs. The most notable were the Hesper, Florence, and D. J. Lawlor. Lawlor died in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1892.
The Dancing Feather was a 19th-century pilot boat, built in 1853 at the Dennison J. Lawlor shipyard in East Boston, Massachusetts. She went to San Francisco in 1853. The Dancing Feather met up with the wreck SS Yankee Blade in 1854 and was able to raise four boxes of treasure from the sunken vessel. In 1857, she went ashore on the beach north of Point Bonita in San Francisco Bay.
Captain Bruce Boutlier McLean was a 19th-century Boston maritime pilot, best known for being a pilot on the pilot boat America. He was a leader among the branch pilots of Boston for 35 years. McLean was a pilot and owner of the pilot boat Liberty. He died in Everett, Massachusetts, in 1930.
The Coquette was a 19th-century yacht and pilot boat, built in 1845 by Louis Winde, at the Winde & Clinkard shipyard in Chelsea, Massachusetts for yachtsmen James A. Perkins. Her design was based on a model by shipbuilder Dennison J. Lawlor. The Coquette was a good example of an early American yacht with a clipper bow. As a yacht, she won the attention for outsailing the larger New York yacht Maria at the second New York Yacht Club regatta in 1846. Perkins sold the Coquette to the Boston Pilots' Association for pilot service in 1848. She continued as a pilot boat until 1867 when she was sold as a Blackbirder to be used on the African coast.
The America, No. 1 was a 19th-century American pilot boat built in 1897 for Captain James H. Reid Sr. of Boston and designed by Boston designer Thomas F. McManus. The Boston America did not resemble her famous namesake, yacht America, rather she was designed with a fishing schooner "Indian header" bow. After serving 21 years in the Boston Pilots' Association, the America was sold to David W. Simpson of Boston in 1918.
Elbridge T. Gerry was a 19th-century New York Sandy Hook pilot boat built in 1888 at the Robinson & Waterhouse shipyard in City Island, Bronx. She was named in honor of Elbridge Thomas Gerry, a commodore of the New York Yacht Club. She served as a pilot boat from 1888 to 1896, when she was sold for offshore yachting cruises. Her name was changed to Kwasind, after the strongman in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha.
United States
