Let me show you something incredible. There is a 95-year-old fireboat tied up at Pier 66 on the Hudson River, alongside the Frying Pan restaurant and an old lightship, and on certain summer days she casts off her lines, fires up her engines, and takes ordinary New Yorkers out into New York Harbor for free. Not a discount. Not a tourist racket. Free.
Her name is John J. Harvey. She was launched in Brooklyn in 1931, named for an FDNY pilot who died fighting a ship fire, and at the time she was the largest and fastest firefighting machine on the water — capable of pumping 18,000 gallons per minute, the equivalent of roughly twenty land-based fire trucks. She was the first fireboat in the world to be powered by internal combustion engines, the first that could pump and maneuver simultaneously, and her design quietly influenced every fireboat that followed.
And in 2026, she turns ninety-five.
The Boat That Refused to Be Scrap
Harvey served New York Harbor for more than six decades. She fought the Cunard Line pier fire in 1932. She fought the burning of the SS Normandie in 1942. She fought a fire on the ammunition ship El Estero during World War II that could have devastated the harbor if it had reached the powder. Then, in 1994, the FDNY decommissioned her. She was supposed to go to the scrapyard.
A group of volunteers refused. They bought her, restored her, and turned her into an operational floating museum — a working fireboat preserved as living history. And then, on September 11, 2001, the FDNY recalled her to service. Reactivated as Marine Company 2 and crewed by her civilian volunteers and FDNY firefighters together, Harvey pumped Hudson River water onto the burning ruins of the World Trade Center for eighty straight hours alongside the FDNY fireboats Fire Fighter and John D. McKean, until the water mains in lower Manhattan could be brought back online.
This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of that week. It is also the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and Harvey is expected to be part of Sail 250 celebrations in New York Harbor. There is no better year to ride her.
What the Ride Is Actually Like
You board at Pier 66 Maritime at the foot of West 26th Street on the Hudson, where the river smells like diesel and salt and the lightship Frying Pan sits low in the water nearby. You step from the dock onto the steel deck of a working harbor boat, not a sightseeing cruise. There are no velvet ropes. There is no pre-recorded narration. Volunteer crew members — pilots, engineers, deckhands — hand out earplugs if you want them and brief everyone on safety.
Then the engines wake up. The eight pumps that made Harvey famous live below your feet. On most public trips, the crew will fire the deck monitors and water cannons at some point during the run — and the boat throws an arching white plume of Hudson River water dozens of feet into the air over the harbor, the same way she did in 1932 and 1942 and 2001. Standing on the deck while Harvey pumps is something between a fire drill, a fireworks show, and a religious experience. The Manhattan skyline slides past in the background, and the spray catches the light.
How to Visit
Where she lives: Pier 66 Maritime, West 26th Street and the Hudson River, alongside the Frying Pan restaurant and the lightship Frying Pan.
Cost: Trips are free. The organization asks for a $20 per person deposit when you reserve, refundable when you board, to discourage no-shows. Donations are gratefully accepted because the boat runs entirely on private support.
Nearest subway: 23rd Street on the 1, C, or E lines, then a walk west to the Hudson. The M23 crosstown bus drops you at the waterfront.
How to actually get on board: This is the catch. Harvey‘s public trips are irregular and announced through her newsletter, SPLASH. The 2026 schedule had not been finalized at the time the boat opened her season, but the organization confirms a full slate of free public trips in New York Harbor, plus upriver journeys to Waterford and out to Oyster Bay in the fall. Subscribe to SPLASH at 1931fireboat.org and watch for the email — trips fill almost as fast as they are posted.
What to bring: A light jacket even in July; the harbor is colder than the city. Sunscreen. A camera. Closed-toe shoes — you are on a working boat with steel decks and metal stairs.
What to skip: High heels, large bags, expectations of a guided tour. This is not a tour. This is a ride on a fireboat.
INSIDER TIP: Pier 66 is also home to the Frying Pan, a former lightship that sat on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay for three years before being raised and turned into a bar. If your Harvey trip is in the afternoon, plan to land at the pier early, grab a beer on the Frying Pan‘s deck, and watch the boat get ready. Almost no one knows you can do this. The locals who do consider it one of the best free-or-cheap afternoons in Manhattan.
Why This Matters
New York is a city built on the water and we forget it constantly. We take the subway. We argue about parking. We watch the skyline from inside. But the harbor is still there, and so are a handful of vessels that have witnessed the entire modern history of this place from the waterline. John J. Harvey is one of them. She was here for the Normandie. She was here for 9/11. She’ll be here for Sail 250.
If you have never stood on her deck while she fires her water cannons over the Hudson with the Empire State Building glinting in the distance, you are missing something New York gives away for free and forgets to advertise. Subscribe to the newsletter. Watch for the email. And when the trip opens, click fast.
For more harbor adventures, see our pieces on the NYC Ferry East River sightseeing hack, the Brooklyn Army Terminal ferry ride, and free kayaking at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Sources: Fireboat John J. Harvey official site (Save Our Ships New York), history page and 2026 season notice; Hudson River Park.
