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14 August 2004Fireboat that played vital role on 9/11 visits Kingston
by Hallie Arnold
KINGSTON - On Sept. 11, 2001, the John J. Harvey, a restored New York City fireboat that once was destined for the scrap heap, was called into service to pump water for firefighters battling blazes at Ground Zero after the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed.
But now the Harvey is on a different mission: to teach people about the historic 1931 vessel and to promote awareness of and access to the Hudson River and its tributaries.
On its fourth annual visit to Kingston, the Harvey on Friday docked at T.R. Gallo Park on the Rondout Creek, where a flock of ducks and a great blue heron watched, then set off with a full load of passengers on a 45-minute
Ethan Husted, who will turn 4 at the end of August, came to ride the boat with his mother, Laurie, and little sister, Tess. While mom and sister stayed relatively dry under what crew members jokingly called the "coward's tent," Ethan stood happily in the drenching spray from the vessel's water guns with a big smile on his face and green rubber rainboots on his
This was the second time the Husteds, of Red Hook, came to see the boat, but their first time aboard.
"I liked getting wet," Ethan said. "I liked the top part (of the boat) - the very top part," he added, pointing to the uppermost deck, where two of the ship's water guns were
As fun as Friday's venture was for the riders, the vessel played a much more serious role on the day of the World Trade Center attack, said Second Pilot Huntley
The Harvey, which had been purchased at auction in 1999 and subsequently restored, was a leisure boat and had not been in service since the New York City Fire Department retired her in 1994.
On 9/11, several crew members took the vessel downtown after the Coast Guard called for all available boats to rescue people trapped on the south end of Manhattan that
"We had no idea we'd actually end up pumping water," Gill said, "until they ... said to stop being a ferryboat and start being a fireboat."
Because the water system in the area had been destroyed, the Harvey and two other in-service fireboats provided all the water used to battle fires at the Trade Center site during the first 80 hours after the
The Harvey will be at the Catskill waterfront on Saturday and in Hudson on Sunday. It will return to Catskill next Friday, then be in Rhinecliff before docking again in Kingston later that day to participate in the Antique Boat Show Parade at 6 p.m.
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Eric Weisler
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