Wrote this for an online forum for young adults, hope you enjoy it:

Harvey isn’t a person – it’s a fireboat. Officially named the John J. Harvey, it was named after a New York City Fireboat crewman who had died in an explosion. When she was launched in 1931, the Harvey was a monster – 130 feet long, weighing 268 tons, and she could pump 18,000 gallons of water a minute. Harvey’s water cannon were so powerful that from the harbor, she could spray water onto a car on the George Washington Bridge. Harvey hit the water the same year that Babe Ruth hit his 611th home run.

It didn’t take long for her to see action. In 1932 an explosion shattered Pier 54, which belonged to the Cunard Steamship Line. The fire got so big that the FDNY declared it a five alarm fire and sent practically everything they had. The Harvey was there, pumping water onto the flames.

On February 9, 1942, she responded when the SS Normandie caught fire. Docked in New York Harbor, the Normandie was one of the largest passenger liners afloat. Wit the French out of the war the Americans had taken control of the homeless ship and were converting it into a troop carrier. Workers accidentally ignited a small fire and the Harvey arrived to find an 80,000 ton passenger ship burning out of control. They fought until 2:45 AM, when the Normandie rolled over and sank, crushing another fireboat as she went over.

World War II would see several ship fires in New York’s harbor, including an ammunition ship loaded to the gills with bullets and bombs. As always, the Harvey was right there when needed. In 1966 she came to the rescue when two oil tankers collied and caught fire.

By the 1990’s Harvey had outlived its usefulness. The large passenger liners had long since retired, eliminating the need for its huge pumping capacity. New fireboats were a lot smaller, since a lot of the harbor traffic was pleasure craft now. The FDNY put the Harvey up for sale, and she almost went to a scrapyard before a group of history buffs and preservationists bought her at the last moment.

They restored the ship to its former self and opened it as a museum. Listed on the National Resister of Historic Places, the Harvey was one of the few museums that move – the ship gives tours of the harbor, and can still activate the water cannon for a welcoming ceremony. (The fireboats have a tradition of welcoming an important ship by turning on their water cannon and blowing their horn, but with the number of passenger liners falling, it is rarely done anymore.)

So the Harvey had a second job – an easy job, considering what it had done through the years, but she was still serving a useful purpose. Until the morning of September 11, 2001.

As that day unfolded, the crew of the Harvey reported to the ship. No one told them to come, and most of them were either retired or had never been a firefighter. They just felt that they might be needed.

Word came that a lot of people were gathering on Pier 63, looking to get away from the World Trade Center. No one seemed to know if the fire department sent them, or they just ran in that direction, but now they were in a pickle. The burning towers were behind them, there was a god awful lot of water in front of them, and there weren’t many places to go.

Harvey joined in with other boats, sailing down to the pier. It wasn’t organized at all. As soon as the old fireboat drew near, people jumped on board. Most of them had already left their shoes behind to make running easier. Once 150 people were aboard, the crew started backing the boat away from the pier. Another boat slid in behind them, to pick up more people.

As they were enroute, to Pier 40, which was relatively safe, the radio crackled. FDNY was asking if the Harvey’s water cannon still worked.