1893: A Pilot Boat is Launched in Brooklyn

February 16, 1893

A Thursday morning launch of a pilot boat named the J. Henry Edmunds was held in the city of Brooklyn (now one of the five boroughs of New York City). This type of vessel operates in the vicinity of a port and is used to transport maritime pilots to ships in the area. While on board a ship, the maritime pilot is responsible for safely guiding that vessel in or out of the port.

The Edmunds (depicted in accompanying photo) was built by Brooklyn-based C. & R. Poillon and her launch took place at that company’s shipyard. She replaced a boat that had likewise been built by C. & R. Poillon and was also named J. Henry Edmunds. Both vessels owed their name to James Henry Edmunds, who served as mayor of the city of Cape May on New Jersey’s southern coast from 1885 to 1892 and again in 1895-96. The original vessel bearing his name was launched in 1887 and subsequently served went on to serve as a pilot boat for ships making their way to and from the Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River. In 1892, however, this vessel sank after being run down by a four-masted schooner.

A “good sized crowd,” in the words of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, were on hand to witness the launch of the second version of the Edmunds. That next day’s edition of the newspaper went on to provide further details about the ceremony. “Ice prevented the event from taking place a week ago,” reported the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “Yesterday morning, however, the conditions being favorable, baskets of grease were used on the ways and cradle.”  

The new Edmunds — decorated with flags and bunting for the festive occasion — was outfitted like a schooner with respect to her masts. At 7:45 a.m., the pilot boat was formally christened by a daughter of the past and future mayor of Cape May. This vessel then slid into Gowanus Bay, a portion of Upper New York that borders western Brooklyn.

“The new pilot boat is schooner rigged, measuring 9 feet 6 inches [28.8 meters] overall,” noted the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in its article about the launch. “She is built with heavy oak keel and frames and planged with yellow mahogany and maple.”

Just like her predecessor, this version of the Edmunds eventually served on the Delaware River. Unlike the original pilot boat named Edmunds, the second one had a considerably longer tour of duty. In addition, she turned out to be the last of the schooner-rigged pilot boats operating in that part of the world. The second version of the Edmunds remained in service until 1928, when a combination of dense fog and bad weather led to her sinking off the coast of Cape Henlopen (near where the Delaware Bay, the estuary outlet of the Delaware River, meets the Atlantic Ocean).

Photo Credit: Public Domain

Additional information on pilot boats that have served in the Delaware River region is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_northeastern_U._S._pilot_boats# and https://archivesfiles.delaware.gov/ebooks/100_Year_History_of_the_Pilots_Association.pdf