The ''David Scannell'' was a steam-powered

fireboat A fireboat or Fire-float Pyronaut, fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with ...

built for and operated by the

San Francisco Fire Department The San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) provides firefighting, hazardous materials response services, rescue, technical rescue services and emergency medical services, emergency medical response services to the San Francisco, City and County of ...

. The city had no fireboats at the time of the disastrous

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

, so

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

fireboats had to travel there to help fight the extensive fires in the aftermath of the earthquake. San Francisco built a second ship to the same design, the '' Dennis T. Sullivan'', which was launched later in 1909. Both vessels were retired in 1954. The vessel is named after

David S. Scannell David S. Scannell ( – March 30, 1893) was an American firefighter, law enforcement official, and veteran of the Mexican–American War. Biography Scannell was born in New York City in about 1820, and began working as a volunteer firefighter wh ...

, San Francisco's first Fire Chief when, in 1871, it transitioned from volunteers to paid staff.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = http://guardiansofthecity.org/sffd/fireboats/david_scannell.html , title = David Scannell , publisher = Guardians of the City , archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20141009233421/http://guardiansofthecity.org/sffd/fireboats/david_scannell.html , archivedate = 2014-10-09 , accessdate = 2014-10-13 , url-status = live {{cite news , url = http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19090520.2.28 , title = NEW FIREBOAT TO BE LAUNCHED SATURDAY , publisher =

San Francisco Call ''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulleti ...

, volume = 105 , number = 171 , date = 1909-05-20 , accessdate = 2014-10-13 , quote = The launching of the first completed fireboat -- the David Scannell, was fixed for next Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock from the

Risdon Iron works Union Iron Works, located in San Francisco, California, on the southeast waterfront, was a central business within the large industrial zone of Potrero Point, for four decades at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries ...

. {{cite news , url = http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18930331.2.123 , title = THE CHIEF IS DEAD: David Scannell, Soldier, Fireman, Is at Rest , publisher =

, volume = 73 , number = 121 , date = 1893-03-31 , accessdate = 2014-10-13 , quote = For many months Chief Scannell's health bad failed rapidly, but with that indomitable iron will for which he was noted he struggled on with his dangerous duty in being the first at, all fires and the leader in their extinction. {{cite news , url = http://www.sfsdhistory.com/eras/sheriff-david-scannell-vs.-the-vigilantes , title = Sheriff David Scannell Versus the Vigilantes , accessdate = 2014-10-13 {{cite news , url = http://guardiansofthecity.org/sheriff/sheriffs/scannell.html , title = David Scannell, San Francisco Sheriff 1855 - 1856 , publisher = Guardians of the City , accessdate = 2014-10-13 , quote = He went on to become the Chief Engineer of the San Francisco Fire Department, and was appointed Chief in 1871 when the Fire Department went from a volunteer organization to a professional one. He died March 31, 1893 at the age of 73, much beloved by the citizens of the City. Fireboats of California 1909 ships