1897: A Successful Launch for a First-of-a-Kind Pilot Boat

March 18, 1897

A pilot boat named New York was launched at the shipyards of the transportation manufacturing firm Harlan & Hollingsworth Company in Wilmington, Delaware. 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 pilot boat New York had been designed by the prominent naval architect and marine engineer Archibald Cary Smith (1837-1911) for the United New York and Sandy Hook Pilots Association. A large group of pilots and their families attended the inaugural festivities for this boat, and it was Marie Killikelly Morse (1874-1949) — the daughter of Harlan & Hollingsworth’s president Henry Grant Morse (1850-1903) — who christened the vessel. “The launch was a success,” reported the next day’s edition of the Philadelphia Times.

This vessel became the first steam-powered pilot boat to operate in New York Harbor. The New York could accommodate up to 16 pilots as well as a captain, steward, cook, two waiters, three engineers, four firemen, and six sailors. A little over three months following her launch, this pilot boat undertook her trial trip.

One of the more notable actions involving the New York took place in 1929, when apprentice pilot James E. McCarthy Jr. (1907-1950) used the vessel to rescue passengers of the Furness Bermuda ocean liner Fort Worth when this ship sank after a collision in the vicinity of Ambrose Channel (part of Lower New York Bay).  On May 12, 1951, the New York was retired after more than 54 years of service.

Photo Credit: Public Domain

For more information on pilot boats that have operated in the northeastern United States, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Northeastern_U.S._pilot_boats