Please check the
schedule page on the website
for the latest information about trips
and Volunteer Days.

PHOTO COPYRIGHT JOHN SKELSON

In 1931, John J. Harvey was the largest most sophisticated fireboat in the world. On 30 April, FDNY's eagerly awaited new fireboat Three Forty Three, the largest and most sophisticated in the world, arrived in New York harbor for the first time.

John J. Harvey departed pier 66 at about 16:00 for the Statue of Liberty where we met up with other fireboats including John D. McKean, Firefighter and several New Jersey boats stationed further south. Three Forty Three was completing the voyage from Panama City, Florida where she was built and launched. Some eight fireboats doing water displays simultaneously has not been seen in decades, and was a rare sight!

On signal, all boats stopped water as Three Forty Three started up her bow pipe and was escorted to the World Trade Center site where a wreath was dropped in honor of the 343 firefighters who died there on 11 September 2001.

Three Forty Three is berthed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard undergoing further outfitting, training and trials pending going into service as Marine One, replacing John D. McKean at Pier 40 in the North River. A sister boat, Firefighter II, will arrive later this year to, we trust, a similar welcome.

For more on Three Forty Three, visit:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/events/2010/043010b.shtml

Roy Attaway, a Trustee of SOSNY since it was founded, died suddenly on 9 May 2010.

A child of the South Carolina Low Country, Roy was on boats before he could walk. He was a reporter and editor in Beaufort SC and Charleston SC until moved to New York City where he was Editor-in-Chief of Boating, Yachting and Motorboating and Sailing magazines, and a producer and writer for ABC's The American Sportsman. He contributed articles to many national journals including the New York Times, and was the author of a memoir of his childhood titled A Home in the Tall Marsh Grass, published by Lyons Press. His award-winning photography was shown in galleries in New York and elsewhere and often accompanied his writings. He was also the editor of this e-newsletter however briefly.

To the joy of friends and family, Roy was a consummate amateur chef and avid fisherman. When he and his wife Robyn Gill moved to Kansas City in 2001, he desperately missed the both the sea and all the delicious fish in it. In a wonderful and rare combination, he had the soul of the true sportsman and the perception of the real artist. He was a quietly dedicated supporter of our project, and he will be missed.