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BUFFALO'S ENCHANTED FIREBOAT: Edward M. Cotter
Sea Classics, Feb 2006 by Guadagna, Sam
After 105-years of hard steaming and countless encounters with danger and near tragedy, Buffalo, New York's most-famed vessel well deserves its status on the roll of honored ships on the National Historic Registry
Although this article is about The Historic National Register Fireboat Edward M. Cotter, a brief history of Buffalo's waterfront and its growth is in order.
Around the 1880s, Buffalo was known as the Queen City of the Lakes mainly because of its being located at the eastern terminus of the Great Lakes, and also because it was the western end of the historic Erie Barge Canal. Traffic kept growing and so did the grain elevators and the marine industries. Also, the flour mills were mainly constructed of wood and so were the ships and schooners that came here, as well as the packet barges.
Until this time, very few people thought of fire protection of any kind. When fire broke out, pumps were put on barges and tugboats to fight the fires. This was very primitive or elementary and took time. By the time they got to the scene, all was lost. Around 1881, several ships caught fire and were destroyed. Ship and barge owners, as well as people in the industry, started talking about a fireboat. But who would ever hear of such a thing? Who would pay for it?
Finally in 1883, the City of Buffalo decided to bite the bullet and a contract was signed with the David Bell Shipyard located in the heart of Buffalo Harbor to build a 80-ft fireboat that had a 500-hp engine with a speed of 10-mph, and a pumping capacity of 4000-gal per minute.
The name of the boat was the George R. Potter Engine 29. It had to have the hull design and the power and weight to break through 20-in or so of ice because of the heavy winter conditions in the Buffalo River and harbor. This was okay for a while, however, the ice was much heavier than first thought and fires were more frequent; in fact, too frequent; The Potter alone couldn't handle it all.
Then in 1893, the idea of a second boat came up for icebreaking. The boats could be interlocked together or tied one behind the other and both boats could be used as rams to break the ice.
The second boat was built by the same yard, same length, same horse power, however it would pump 5500gal of water with the same speed. This was the John T. Hutchinson Engine 23. This worked for a while but, with the fast current and ice conditions, this set-up was hard to handle. Maybe a single larger boat would work better.
The city then decided a third boat should be built, more powerful and much larger so that it could fight the fires and cope with the heavy ice conditions in the harbor. So here comes Grattan, the third fireboat and icebreaker.
The new fireboat's construction started on 24 March 1900 by Cresent Shipbuilding of Elizabeth City, New Jersey. She was christened on 5 September 1900 by Virginia Pearson, the eleven-year old daughter of one of the fire commissioners of the city. Her cost was $91,000. She had a speed of 15-mph, with 900 indicated horsepower and a pumping capacity of 9000-gal per minute. She also had two Babcock & Wilcox boilers in her. She was 118-ft in length with a beam of 24-ft. Her gross tonnage was 274tons, which was heavy enough to handle the ice conditions in the harbor and cope with most of the problems that Buffalo should get with the help of the other two boats.
WHO WAS WILLIAM S. GRATTAN?
William S. Grattan was the first paid fire commissioner of the City of Buffalo. He also was a railroad construction engineer who was involved in building bridges and railroad yards. Grattan had many ideas for the waterfront and the Fire Department. He was very influential in the construction of the Grattan; so much so that the Grattan was named after him.
On 30 October 1900, she steamed away from her pier in Elisabeth, New Jersey, among cheers from the crowds there to see her off. There were many from the Buffalo area and the official delegation to hear the whistles and horns along the Jersey waterfront. The trip took 14 days to get to her home port. It was almost a troublefree trip however, part of the Atlantic proved to be rough and with heavy seas. But, the old girl road them like a circus performer. She navigated through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, through the old Welland Canal and finally 19-mi across Lake Erie. Her saltwater condenser was removed in Quebec which was rumored to be one off the cruiser Chattanooga which is probably true because that shipyard was known to be working on Navy ships. Her sister fireboats, Potter and Hutchinson steamed out 3-mi into Lake Erie to greet her. She arrived in Buffalo at 11 am and was heralded with the blast of whistles from many other ships and waterfront industry. She docked at Potter's Wharf, which is still her home today.
After her acceptance trials, it did not take long to hook her up to the city's high-pressure system to augment the city's water pressure and volume in the downtown areas for greater alarms. There were three different manifold locations along the waterfront, where any of the fireboats could hook into the system. The discharge hydrants were separate and were painted yellow. The drinking water supply hydrants were painted red. It was said that the Grattan pumped more volume and pressure than some of the fire engines at the fires. This system was very effective for a number of years until after WWII when it was feared that the system might contaminate the city's drinking water, so the city voted to disconnect the system. Shortly after being installed, the system was inspected by Chief Croaker of the New York City Fire Department to evaluate its use in his city. It is not known if it was ever put into service there.
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