August 2003

Famed fireboat needs repairs, owners say

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The owners of a historic fireboat that pumped water to aid firefighters at the World Trade Center after Sept. 11 say the boat is in need of about $700,000 in repairs.

Three of the 72-year-old boat's five engines have mechanical problems, and metal has been lost from its right propeller, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The 17 people who collectively own the boat have written to New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to ask for a $350,000 grant and are planning a campaign to match that amount, the Times said.

The "John J. Harvey" debuted in 1931 and served the New York City Fire Department for 63 years before it was decommissioned in 1995. In 1999, a group of private owners then bought it for $28,000 at a silent auction.

The boat went back to work for the fire department after the trade center was attacked, ferrying people to safety and helping to pump water for firefighters at the site.

"It could go on forever," Bob Lenney, who was the boat's captain for the fire department for 25 years, told the Times, "with the money."

The boat was honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in October 2001 and was the subject of the children's book "Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey."

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