August 7, 1970, Page 60Buy Reprints
The changing needs of fire fighting along the city's wa terfront will send a 105 foot fireboat, the Gov. Alfred E. Smith into honorable retirement at midnight to morrow.
The Fire Department's ma rine division is being reor ganized. Replacement of the old wooden piers with con crete, higher safety standards in ship construction and the department's new super pumper trucks that pull wa ter from the harbor to feed the firetruck's hoses have re duced the reliance on such vessels.
And a new hazard—the growing fleet of small pleas ure craft moored around the city's bays—calls for a new breed of smaller shallow draft fireboats.
The ship's company of a pilot, several marine engi neers, four fire officers and 28 firemen are to be reas signed, most of them to other boats in the department's marine division, the rest to land companies. Their desig nation, Marine Company 8, will be abolished.
Carries Rescue Craft
Built in 1961 by the John H. Mathis Company's ship yard in Camden, N. J., the fireboat was the last of four identical boats built for New York City. It cost $907,077. It has a speed of 11.3 knots and displaces 290 tons.
The Smith's two fire pumps deliver up to 8,000 gallons of water a minute. It has a 20 ‐foot hydrojet ‐propelled fire rescue boat as auxiliary equipment. The rescue craft, designed for work in shallow water, is carried on the star board side of the Smith's boat deck.
Originally stationed at 37th Street in Brooklyn the boat was moved to 52d Street, Brooklyn, at a new marine station that cost $250,000. Prior to going into retirement the fireboat was docked at Pier A, the Battery.
The crew was honored in 1967 for outstanding per formance at the scene of the June 16, 1966, collision in Kill van Kull between the tankers Alva Cape and the Texaco Massachusetts. A tug alongside was covered with naphtha from the Alva's rup tured tanks and blew up. In the fire that followed, 33 sea men were lost.
The Alva was towed two days later to an anchorage off Bay 26th Street, Brook lyn. As salvagers neared the end of emptying undamaged tanks, a sudden explosion racked the ship again, and fire and other explosions fol lowed. Four more men died and nine were injured.
Lieut Louis Rubine Jr., in command of the Smith, was blown off the deck of his vessel and was rescued by men in the Coast Guard.
The reorganized marine di vision, according to an aide to Fire Chief John T. O'Hagan, will soon get a sec ond boat with water‐jet pro pulsion for shallow‐draft op erations similar to the Flame, now assigned to Neponsit, Queens. The new one, which was built in Oakland, Calif., and underwent sea trials there last Monday, will be assigned to Jamaica Bay.
The department's marine fleet will also include the spe cial unit boat Blaze in How ard Beach, Queens; the tender Smoke 2, based at Pier A in Manhattan and six regular fireboats on active duty with one in reserve. Except for the largest, the Fire Fighter, sta tioned at St. George on Staten Island, they were built within the last 15 years.
No decision has been reach ed yet on the disposition of the Smith. The company of another city fireboat, the H. Sylvia A.H.G. Wilks, which has been out of service for several months, is also being disbanded along with the Smith's company. The Wilks unit bore the designation Marine Company 7.