Thomas Willett, celebrating July 4th, 1908. | |
History | |
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New York City Fire Department | |
Name | Thomas Willett |
Namesake | Thomas Willett |
Port of registry | New York City, United States |
Builder | T. S. Marvel Shipbuilding, Newburgh, NY [1] |
Yard number | 185 |
Completed | 1908 |
Out of service | 1959 |
Renamed |
|
Fate | Sold, converted to passenger vessel by Circle Line |
United States | |
Name | Circle Line XIV |
Owner | Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises |
Acquired | 1959 |
Identification | USCG Doc #: 204989 |
Status | Floating office in Morris Canal Basin, Jersey City |
General characteristics | |
Type | Fireboat |
Displacement | 580 net tons |
Length | 123 ft (37 m) |
Beam | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
Draft | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
Speed | 14 knots |
Capacity | 9000 gpm |
Thomas Willett was a New York City Fire Department fireboat. [2] She was launched in 1908 and retired in 1959. She was built as a steam-engine powered vessel with coal-fired boilers. She was converted to oil-fired boilers in 1926.
At 02:00 hrs on July 5, 1927, a fire was discovered among cotton bales in the number 6 cargo hold of RMS Ebro as she approached New York. She docked in the North River just before 10:00 hrs, disambarked her passengers, and then John Purroy Mitchel and Thomas Willett fought the fire. It was extinguished by 14:00 hrs. [3]
On August 14, 1927, a tugboat of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, towing two barges of railway rolling stock, collided with a train of rock barges towed by Henry F. Wills. [4] Thomas Willett responded, when one barge was sunk and others damaged, saving their crew.
The FDNY retired Thomas Willett in 1959 and put her up for public sale. [2] She was acquired by Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, who converted here into a tour boat and renamed her Circle Line XIV. As of 2021 she survives in Morris Canal Basin, Jersey City, as a floating office for Statue Cruises. [5]
USS Bennington was a member of the Yorktown class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first U.S. Navy ship named in honor of the town of Bennington, Vermont, site of the Battle of Bennington in the American Revolutionary War.
Flandre, later called Carla C, Carla Costa, and Pallas Athena, was an ocean liner and cruise ship that took passengers on transatlantic voyages and on Caribbean and Mediterranean cruises from 1952 to 1994. She was operated by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT), Costa Cruises, and the Epirotiki Line.
Edward M. Cotter is a fireboat in use by the Buffalo Fire Department at Buffalo, New York, United States. Originally named William S. Grattan, it was built in 1900 by the Crescent Shipyard of Elizabeth Port, New Jersey. Due to age, it was rebuilt in 1953 and renamed Firefighter upon its return to service. The following year it was renamed Edward M. Cotter. its namesake, Edward Cotter, was a Buffalo firefighter and leader of the local firefighters union who had recently died.
The PS Washington Irving was a 4,000-short-ton (3,600 t) sidewheel day boat and the flagship of the Hudson River Day Line that operated on the Hudson River from 1913 to 1926.
The second SS Laurentic was a 18,724 GRT steam ocean liner built in 1927 by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, for White Star Line. She was the last steamship to be built for White Star Line.
Baltimore is a preserved steam-powered tugboat, built in 1906 by the Skinner Shipbuilding Company of Baltimore, Maryland. She is formerly the oldest operating steam tugboat in the United States, but at present does not hold an operating license issued by the US Coast Guard, so is unable to leave her dock at the Baltimore Museum of Industry on Key Highway, Baltimore. Her hull is not capable of operating on open water. Baltimore was built and operated as a harbor inspection tug, capable of acting as a municipal tugboat for city barges, as well as an official welcoming vessel and VIP launch, an auxiliary fireboat, and as a light icebreaker.
SS El Sol was a cargo ship built in 1910 for the Morgan Line, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Company. During World War I, she was known as USAT El Sol in service with the United States Army and as USS El Sol (ID-4505) in service with the United States Navy. At the war's end, she reverted to her original name of SS El Sol.
HMS Hilary was a Booth Line passenger steamship that was built in Scotland in 1908 and operated scheduled services between Liverpool and Brazil until 1914. In the First World War she was an armed merchant cruiser (AMC) until a U-boat sank her in the Atlantic Ocean in 1917.
SS El Estero was a ship filled with ammunition that caught fire at dockside in New York Harbor in 1943, but was successfully moved away and sunk by the heroic efforts of tugboat and fireboat crews, averting a major disaster.
USS Beukelsdijk was a Dutch-owned turret deck ship that was built in England in 1903 as Grängesberg. She was renamed Beukelsdijk in 1916 when she changed owners. In 1918 she was requisitioned as USS Beukelsdijk, with the Naval Registry Identification Number ID–3135. She returned to civilian service in 1919, and was wrecked in the Norwegian Sea in 1923.
SS Almeda Star, originally SS Almeda, was a British turbine steamer of the Blue Star Line. She was both an ocean liner and a refrigerated cargo ship, providing a passenger service between London and South America and carrying refrigerated beef from South America to London. She was built in 1926, significantly enlarged in 1935 and sunk by enemy action in 1941.
The Abram S. Hewitt was a coal-powered fireboat operated by the Fire Department of New York City from 1903 to 1958. She was the department's last coal-powered vessel and had a pumping capacity of 7,000 gallons per minute.
The Snoqualmie was Seattle's first fireboat. She was the first fireboat on North America's west coast. She was launched in 1891, as a 98 feet (30 m) long, wooden-hulled, steam-powered vessel. She was taken out of service, and rebuilt when Seattle completed its second fireboat, the Duwamish, in 1909. Her coal-fueled boilers were replaced with oil-fueled ones. The retrofit included altering her profile. She had a new superstructure, and the replacement of her boiler meant replacing her original single smokestack with a pair of smokestacks. Built by Pacific Coast Engineering.
John Purroy Mitchel was a New York City Fire Department fireboat. She was named after former mayor of New York City John Purroy Mitchel. Grace Drennan, niece of Fire Commissioner Thomas J. Drennan, played a ceremonial role in the boat's launch on July 24, 1921. Her launch was also attended by current mayor John Francis Hylan.
The 1958 East River collision occurred on the morning of June 25, 1958, two ships collided in the East River in New York City, resulting in a fire, a gasoline spill, and the deaths of two crewmembers.
William Frederick Havemeyer was New York City's first fireboat. The vessel entered service in 1875, and retired in 1901. She was named in honor of a recent mayor, William Frederick Havemeyer.
The James Duane was a fireboat operated by the Fire Department of New York from 1908 to 1959.
Cockaponset was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Pacific Coast Shipbuilding Company of Bay Point for the United States Shipping Board as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was largely employed on the Gulf Coast of the United States to Europe route until 1930 when she was laid up. In late 1940 the ship together with 15 other vessels was acquired by the British government to alleviate significant shortage of tonnage due to an ongoing German U-boat campaign. In May 1941 the freighter was torpedoed and sunk on her first war trip to the United Kingdom.
SS Statendam was a steam turbine transatlantic liner. She was the third of five Holland America Line ships to be called Statendam. She was built to replace the second Statendam, which the UK Government had requisitioned as a troop ship in 1915, and which had been sunk in 1918.
Bethlehem Staten Island also called Bethlehem Mariners Harbor was a large shipyard in Mariners Harbor, Staten Island, New York. The shipyard started building ships for World War II in January 1941 under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program and as the result of the Two-Ocean Navy Act of July 1940. The shipyard was part of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation which built ships for the United States Navy, and the United States Maritime Commission. Bethlehem Steel purchased the shipyard in June 1938 from United Shipyards. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation closed the shipyard in 1959. The propeller factory and foundry continued operation for 10 more years at the site. Since 1980 the site is the May Ship Repair Contracting Corporation next to Shooters Island at the southern end of Newark Bay, off the North Shore.
The crew of the fireboat Thomas F. Willett rescued Captain John Webber, 50 years old, and his wife, Dorothy, from the sinking rock barge Moonstone, which was rammed off the Statue of Liberty early yesterday morning, and eighteen men and women, captains and their wives from eight other barges which were cut adrift but were undamaged.