September 11, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, as Lower Manhattan filled with smoke and chaos on September 11, 2001, escape routes vanished. Bridges and tunnels were shut down, subways halted, and thousands of people were trapped at the edge of the island with no way out. In that moment, the harbor became their only hope. The call went out: “All available boats.” Fireboats, tugboats, ferries, and even private pleasure craft rushed to the seawall. Together, they carried civilians across the Hudson and East Rivers in what became the largest water evacuation in history—greater even than Dunkirk. This is the story of the FDNY fireboats and ordinary mariners who became heroes on one of America’s darkest days.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories and with a
story about nine to eleven. Doctor Mike McGee is the
author of All Available Boats, which is about Manhattan's trains
and bridges shutting down on nine to eleven and the
heroic evacuation of three hundred thousand people off of the
island by boats that happened to be in the area.
(00:32):
It was a larger evacuation than Dunkirk, and it was
executed by a wide variety of boats that answered the
call for help, from pleasure boats to tugboats. And today
Mike tells us about the Fire Department of New York's
fire boats that bravely served that day.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of them was the John J. Harvey, which had
been decommissioned. It was in nineteen thirty one, this most
powerful fireboat in the world. It could pump eighteen thousand
gallons a minute, which was just unheard of at the time.
It was named after John J. Harvey, who had died
(01:13):
in a fire on a boat. But the interesting thing
about it is that at the time of nine to
eleven it was completely decommissioned, but it was functional, and
the guy who actually was in charge of the John J.
(01:35):
Harvey was a architectural preservationist who had gotten interested in saving.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
The John J. Harvey.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So this boat, which is about one hundred and thirty
feet long, was formally preserved and saved beginning in nineteen
ninety nine, and Huntley Gilt was the guy who raised
the funds and coordinated it, and then he became the captain.
He was aided by a former truck mechanic whose name
(02:03):
was Tim Ivory, who became the chief engineer for the boat,
and he just got a kick out of, you know,
keeping this thing functioning. It's a mechanical wonder. And then
there was a third person named Jessica DeLong who happened
to be from Massachusetts and was a maritime historian who
had gotten interested in the boat became one of the
crew members for it. So at the time of the attack,
(02:30):
Huntley Gill was asleep in his Manhattan apartment, Tim Ivory,
who lived on a houseboat in a marina in New
Jersey on the New Jersey side, was having breakfast at
a diner, and Jessica DeLong was writing a freelance article
in her Brooklyn flat. Within hours, the three of them
(02:52):
were on the boat, and the boat was on the
Hudson heading south to the disaster, and the first thing
they did when they arrived there was to over a
loudspeaker address the crowd that hadn't gathered to be evacuated,
you know, the most panicky people and those who were
(03:13):
injured in the falling of the towers immediately obviously tried
to get off the south side of the island and
they were all gathered there. So at Pier sixty three
on the Hudson River, where the boat originated, it headed
south and the first thing it did was use a
loudspeaker to tell people anybody want to go uptown, and
one hundred and fifty people boarded the fireboat and they
(03:37):
took them uptown. Then they got a call by the
time they reached uptown to discharge these one hundred and
fifty people that got a call to rush back because
the fire trucks had already run out of water and
they needed this retied John J. Harvey to pump eighteen
thousand gallons of water a minute to fill.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
The trucks that were all out of water.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So that's what they did, and they stayed in action
down there for four days. Now, one of the boats
that was there as well, was the John D.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
McKean fireboat.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
That fireboat was actually in service at the time, and
it was a newer boat. It wasn't that brand new.
It had been commissioned in nineteen fifty two, again named
after a firefighter in nineteen fifty three actually who had
lost his life in a steam explosion on a boat.
(04:39):
The captain, though, ed Metcalf, this was only his second
day as captain of that boat, so he had just
arrived and the second day of his command, he gets
this call to come down immediately to the seawall at
Liberty Street. In fact, this was right after the first
(05:00):
plane had hit and the second plane had not yet hit.
They were down there within about five minutes, and Metcalf
got off the boat to go to the command center
to see what the fire department wanted him to do next.
He subsequently was lost in the turmoil and the collapse
(05:22):
of the second building after the second plane hit, which
they all saw, you know, and that's another part of
this story. You know, anyone who witnessed those attacks, or
anyone who witness all of the citizens covered in inches
of dust and debris slowly walking either north out of
(05:47):
Manhattan or south to try to be evacuated by boat.
Anyone who witnessed those images has never really forgotten those images.
And when ed that Calf didn't come back immediately, one
of his crew members, Tom Sullivan, went to try to
find out where he was, and Tom ended up in
(06:11):
some of the wreckage of the second building collapsing and
nearly lost his.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Life as well.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
But in any case, what happened was that this boat
that John D mckeenhich, is one hundred and thirty feet long.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It played a major role.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
In the evacuation, and it was not designed obviously to
transport people. In fact, these boats, the way they're designed,
they need a gangplank of about twelve feet to reach
the shoreline, and the shorelines down there were never designed
(06:48):
for multiple purposes at either.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I mean, one of the things that we learned from
this event is.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That that New York Harbor area was not well designed
for a disaster.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You know, the people who run these boats, they.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Talk about the commercial uses and bringing in liners and
shipping containers over on the New Jersey side, but in general,
it isn't a very good edge between the water and
the land for boarding human beings. Not designed for that
at all. So the fact that they were able to
(07:25):
move safely somewhere between three hundred and fifty thousand and
five hundred thousand people off that island in a short
period of time is nothing short of a miracle.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And when they moved the John D.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
McKean fireboat and started using it, people were panicked.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
The towers had just collapsed.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
People thought that the entire southern tip of Manhattan was
going to blow up.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
They didn't know what was coming next, and they were panicked.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And you had not simply wall streeters covered in dust,
but you had babies and nannies and civilians who lived
in the buildings around this area, all trying to get
off the island.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And the John D.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
McKean fireboat really ran into a lot of challenges in
terms of children. Their deck was about eight foot down
from the loading shores, and they were literally throwing some
of the babies to the open arms of these firefighters
on the boat, and then the babies were taken down
(08:37):
and four babies to a cot were placed in the
firemen were taking care of the babies as they were
loading the nannies. In one case, a lady who was
panicked actually jumped in the water and got trapped between
the boat and the shore, and the firefighters had to
(08:59):
actually ump into the water and save them by throwing
a plank ladder down and boosting them up. One firefighter
had to dive under the water to push an exhausted
lady onto the ladder. So this is a very chaotic situation,
and so for the boat captains, who were not used
(09:22):
to doing this kind of work to remain calm and
to as much as possible protect the safety of people
who were inclined to do anything at that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Moment to get off the island. One of the common features.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Of almost everyone that we interviewed was that when the
boats were moving away from the island and looking back,
you could see initially the twin towers on fire, and
then they all witnessed their collapse, and then they were
(10:00):
just gone.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
The thing that was most in common and every.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Story was the extreme quietness on the boat itself that
was nothing like they had ever experienced, the solemnness. Everyone
was deep inside themselves.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And he is right about the silence, and that's the
silence in New York and also in Washington, DC. And
I bet it was the quietest time in American history.
People would just shocked. A special thanks to Monte Montgomery
and Alex Cortes for the work. Doctor Mike McGee, author
of all available boats are nine to eleven special here
on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories and with a
story about nine to eleven. Doctor Mike McGee is the
author of All Available Boats, which is about Manhattan's trains
and bridges shutting down on nine to eleven and the
heroic evacuation of three hundred thousand people off of the
island by boats that happened to be in the area.
(00:32):
It was a larger evacuation than Dunkirk, and it was
executed by a wide variety of boats that answered the
call for help, from pleasure boats to tugboats. And today
Mike tells us about the Fire Department of New York's
fire boats that bravely served that day.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of them was the John J. Harvey, which had
been decommissioned. It was in nineteen thirty one, this most
powerful fireboat in the world. It could pump eighteen thousand
gallons a minute, which was just unheard of at the time.
It was named after John J. Harvey, who had died
(01:13):
in a fire on a boat. But the interesting thing
about it is that at the time of nine to
eleven it was completely decommissioned, but it was functional, and
the guy who actually was in charge of the John J.
(01:35):
Harvey was a architectural preservationist who had gotten interested in saving.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
The John J. Harvey.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So this boat, which is about one hundred and thirty
feet long, was formally preserved and saved beginning in nineteen
ninety nine, and Huntley Gilt was the guy who raised
the funds and coordinated it, and then he became the captain.
He was aided by a former truck mechanic whose name
(02:03):
was Tim Ivory, who became the chief engineer for the boat,
and he just got a kick out of, you know,
keeping this thing functioning. It's a mechanical wonder. And then
there was a third person named Jessica DeLong who happened
to be from Massachusetts and was a maritime historian who
had gotten interested in the boat became one of the
crew members for it. So at the time of the attack,
(02:30):
Huntley Gill was asleep in his Manhattan apartment, Tim Ivory,
who lived on a houseboat in a marina in New
Jersey on the New Jersey side, was having breakfast at
a diner, and Jessica DeLong was writing a freelance article
in her Brooklyn flat. Within hours, the three of them
(02:52):
were on the boat, and the boat was on the
Hudson heading south to the disaster, and the first thing
they did when they arrived there was to over a
loudspeaker address the crowd that hadn't gathered to be evacuated,
you know, the most panicky people and those who were
(03:13):
injured in the falling of the towers immediately obviously tried
to get off the south side of the island and
they were all gathered there. So at Pier sixty three
on the Hudson River, where the boat originated, it headed
south and the first thing it did was use a
loudspeaker to tell people anybody want to go uptown, and
one hundred and fifty people boarded the fireboat and they
(03:37):
took them uptown. Then they got a call by the
time they reached uptown to discharge these one hundred and
fifty people that got a call to rush back because
the fire trucks had already run out of water and
they needed this retied John J. Harvey to pump eighteen
thousand gallons of water a minute to fill.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
The trucks that were all out of water.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So that's what they did, and they stayed in action
down there for four days. Now, one of the boats
that was there as well, was the John D.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
McKean fireboat.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
That fireboat was actually in service at the time, and
it was a newer boat. It wasn't that brand new.
It had been commissioned in nineteen fifty two, again named
after a firefighter in nineteen fifty three actually who had
lost his life in a steam explosion on a boat.
(04:39):
The captain, though, ed Metcalf, this was only his second
day as captain of that boat, so he had just
arrived and the second day of his command, he gets
this call to come down immediately to the seawall at
Liberty Street. In fact, this was right after the first
(05:00):
plane had hit and the second plane had not yet hit.
They were down there within about five minutes, and Metcalf
got off the boat to go to the command center
to see what the fire department wanted him to do next.
He subsequently was lost in the turmoil and the collapse
(05:22):
of the second building after the second plane hit, which
they all saw, you know, and that's another part of
this story. You know, anyone who witnessed those attacks, or
anyone who witness all of the citizens covered in inches
of dust and debris slowly walking either north out of
(05:47):
Manhattan or south to try to be evacuated by boat.
Anyone who witnessed those images has never really forgotten those images.
And when ed that Calf didn't come back immediately, one
of his crew members, Tom Sullivan, went to try to
find out where he was, and Tom ended up in
(06:11):
some of the wreckage of the second building collapsing and
nearly lost his.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Life as well.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
But in any case, what happened was that this boat
that John D mckeenhich, is one hundred and thirty feet long.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
It played a major role.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
In the evacuation, and it was not designed obviously to
transport people. In fact, these boats, the way they're designed,
they need a gangplank of about twelve feet to reach
the shoreline, and the shorelines down there were never designed
(06:48):
for multiple purposes at either.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I mean, one of the things that we learned from
this event is.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That that New York Harbor area was not well designed
for a disaster.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
You know, the people who run these boats, they.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Talk about the commercial uses and bringing in liners and
shipping containers over on the New Jersey side, but in general,
it isn't a very good edge between the water and
the land for boarding human beings. Not designed for that
at all. So the fact that they were able to
(07:25):
move safely somewhere between three hundred and fifty thousand and
five hundred thousand people off that island in a short
period of time is nothing short of a miracle.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
And when they moved the John D.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
McKean fireboat and started using it, people were panicked.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
The towers had just collapsed.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
People thought that the entire southern tip of Manhattan was
going to blow up.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
They didn't know what was coming next, and they were panicked.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And you had not simply wall streeters covered in dust,
but you had babies and nannies and civilians who lived
in the buildings around this area, all trying to get
off the island.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And the John D.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
McKean fireboat really ran into a lot of challenges in
terms of children. Their deck was about eight foot down
from the loading shores, and they were literally throwing some
of the babies to the open arms of these firefighters
on the boat, and then the babies were taken down
(08:37):
and four babies to a cot were placed in the
firemen were taking care of the babies as they were
loading the nannies. In one case, a lady who was
panicked actually jumped in the water and got trapped between
the boat and the shore, and the firefighters had to
(08:59):
actually ump into the water and save them by throwing
a plank ladder down and boosting them up. One firefighter
had to dive under the water to push an exhausted
lady onto the ladder. So this is a very chaotic situation,
and so for the boat captains, who were not used
(09:22):
to doing this kind of work to remain calm and
to as much as possible protect the safety of people
who were inclined to do anything at that.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Moment to get off the island. One of the common features.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Of almost everyone that we interviewed was that when the
boats were moving away from the island and looking back,
you could see initially the twin towers on fire, and
then they all witnessed their collapse, and then they were
(10:00):
just gone.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
The thing that was most in common and every.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Story was the extreme quietness on the boat itself that
was nothing like they had ever experienced, the solemnness. Everyone
was deep inside themselves.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And he is right about the silence, and that's the
silence in New York and also in Washington, DC. And
I bet it was the quietest time in American history.
People would just shocked. A special thanks to Monte Montgomery
and Alex Cortes for the work. Doctor Mike McGee, author
of all available boats are nine to eleven special here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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