September 11, 2026 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, on September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of people reached the southern tip of Manhattan and found themselves trapped between a city under attack and New York Harbor. Then a call went out over the radio: "All available boats." Ferries, tugboats, fireboats, and private vessels converged on the waterfront and began taking people aboard. By day's end, an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people had escaped Manhattan by water in the largest waterborne evacuation in American history.
Dr. Mike McGee, author of All Available Boats, shares the story of the fireboats that answered the call, including the John D. McKean and the retired John J. Harvey.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories, and with a
story about 9-11. Dr. Mike McGee is the author of
All Available Boats, which is about Manhattan's trains and bridges
shutting down on 9-11, and the heroic evacuation of 300,000
people off of the island by boats and boats. that
(00:31):
happened to be in the area. 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 fireboats that bravely served
that day.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of them was the John J. Harvey, which had
been decommissioned. It was, in 1931, the fastest, most powerful
fire boat in the world. It could pump 18,000 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 9-11, it
was completely decommissioned.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
But it was functional.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And the guy who actually was in charge of the
John J. Harvey was a architectural preservationist who had gotten
interested in saving.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
The John J. Harvey. So this boat, which.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Is about 130 feet long, was formally preserved and saved
beginning in 1999. And Huntley Gill 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 was Tim Ivory, who became the chief engineer
(02:06):
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 and became
one of the crew members for it. So at the
(02:28):
time of the attack, 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,
(02:51):
the three of them 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, addressed the crowd that had
gathered to be evacuated. You know, the most panicky people
(03:12):
and those who were 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 63 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?
(03:32):
And 150 people boarded the fireboat And they took them uptown.
Then they got a call by the time they reached
uptown to discharge these 150 people. They got a call
to rush back because the fire trucks had already run
out of water and they needed this retired John J.
(03:53):
Harvey to pump. 18,000 gallons of water a minute to
fill the trucks that were all out of water. 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):
McCain 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 1952, again, named after a
firefighter in 1953, actually, who had lost his life in
(04:36):
a steam explosion.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
On a boat.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The captain, though, Ed Metcalf, this was only his second
day as captain of that boat.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So he had just arrived.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
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 plane had
hit and the second plane had not yet hit. They
were down there within about five minutes and Metcalfe got
(05:08):
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 and
the collapse of the second building after the second plane hit,
which they all saw, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And that's another part of this story.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You know, anyone who witnessed those attacks or anyone who
witnessed all of the citizens covered in inches of dust
and debris slowly walking either north out of Manhattan or
south to try to be evacuated by boat. Anyone who
(05:52):
witnessed those images has never really forgotten those images. And
when Ed Metcalf 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 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,
the John D. McKean, which is 130 feet long, it
played a major role 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
(06:40):
12 feet to reach people. shoreline and the shorelines down
there were never designed for multiple purposes either.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I mean one of the.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Things that we learned from this event is that that
New York Harbor area was not well designed for a disaster.
You know the people who run these boats they talk
about the commercial uses of and bringing in liners and
shipping containers over on the New Jersey side. But in general,
(07:14):
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
move safely somewhere between 350,000 and 500,000 people off that
island in a short period of time is nothing short
of a miracle. And when they moved the John D.
(07:44):
McKean fireboat and started using it, people were panicked. The
towers had just collapsed. 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. And the John D. McKean fireboat really
ran into a lot of challenges in terms of children.
(08:22):
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 and four babies to
a cot were placed and the firemen were taking care
(08:45):
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 actually jump into the
water and saved them by throwing a plank ladder down
(09:06):
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 are not used to doing this
kind of work to remain calm, and to as much
(09:27):
as possible protect the safety of people who were inclined
to do anything at that moment to get off the island.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
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 in every.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Story was the extreme quietness on the boat itself that
was nothing like they had ever experienced.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
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, D.C. And
I bet it was the quietest time in American history.
People were just shocked. A special thanks to Monty Montgomery
and Alex Cortez for the work. Dr. Mike McGee, author
of All Available Boats, our 9-11 special, here on Our
(10:43):
American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories, and with a
story about 9-11. Dr. Mike McGee is the author of
All Available Boats, which is about Manhattan's trains and bridges
shutting down on 9-11, and the heroic evacuation of 300,000
people off of the island by boats and boats. that
(00:31):
happened to be in the area. 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 fireboats that bravely served
that day.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of them was the John J. Harvey, which had
been decommissioned. It was, in 1931, the fastest, most powerful
fire boat in the world. It could pump 18,000 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 9-11, it
was completely decommissioned.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
But it was functional.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
And the guy who actually was in charge of the
John J. Harvey was a architectural preservationist who had gotten
interested in saving.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
The John J. Harvey. So this boat, which.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Is about 130 feet long, was formally preserved and saved
beginning in 1999. And Huntley Gill 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 was Tim Ivory, who became the chief engineer
(02:06):
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 and became
one of the crew members for it. So at the
(02:28):
time of the attack, 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,
(02:51):
the three of them 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, addressed the crowd that had
gathered to be evacuated. You know, the most panicky people
(03:12):
and those who were 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 63 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?
(03:32):
And 150 people boarded the fireboat And they took them uptown.
Then they got a call by the time they reached
uptown to discharge these 150 people. They got a call
to rush back because the fire trucks had already run
out of water and they needed this retired John J.
(03:53):
Harvey to pump. 18,000 gallons of water a minute to
fill the trucks that were all out of water. 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):
McCain 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 1952, again, named after a
firefighter in 1953, actually, who had lost his life in
(04:36):
a steam explosion.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
On a boat.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The captain, though, Ed Metcalf, this was only his second
day as captain of that boat.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
So he had just arrived.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
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 plane had
hit and the second plane had not yet hit. They
were down there within about five minutes and Metcalfe got
(05:08):
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 and
the collapse of the second building after the second plane hit,
which they all saw, you know.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And that's another part of this story.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
You know, anyone who witnessed those attacks or anyone who
witnessed all of the citizens covered in inches of dust
and debris slowly walking either north out of Manhattan or
south to try to be evacuated by boat. Anyone who
(05:52):
witnessed those images has never really forgotten those images. And
when Ed Metcalf 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 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,
the John D. McKean, which is 130 feet long, it
played a major role 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
(06:40):
12 feet to reach people. shoreline and the shorelines down
there were never designed for multiple purposes either.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
I mean one of the.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Things that we learned from this event is that that
New York Harbor area was not well designed for a disaster.
You know the people who run these boats they talk
about the commercial uses of and bringing in liners and
shipping containers over on the New Jersey side. But in general,
(07:14):
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
move safely somewhere between 350,000 and 500,000 people off that
island in a short period of time is nothing short
of a miracle. And when they moved the John D.
(07:44):
McKean fireboat and started using it, people were panicked. The
towers had just collapsed. 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. And the John D. McKean fireboat really
ran into a lot of challenges in terms of children.
(08:22):
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 and four babies to
a cot were placed and the firemen were taking care
(08:45):
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 actually jump into the
water and saved them by throwing a plank ladder down
(09:06):
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 are not used to doing this
kind of work to remain calm, and to as much
(09:27):
as possible protect the safety of people who were inclined
to do anything at that moment to get off the island.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
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 in every.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Story was the extreme quietness on the boat itself that
was nothing like they had ever experienced.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
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, D.C. And
I bet it was the quietest time in American history.
People were just shocked. A special thanks to Monty Montgomery
and Alex Cortez for the work. Dr. Mike McGee, author
of All Available Boats, our 9-11 special, here on Our
(10:43):
American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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