The
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 ...
''Joseph Medill'' was commissioned in
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, in 1908, and was the first of two Chicago fireboats of that name—the second being commissioned in 1949.
[
]
When she was commissioned she joined five other fireboats.
According to ''Fire Strikes the Chicago Stock Yards'' the ''Joseph Medill'' and ''Graeme Stewart'' were built in the same yard in Manitowoc, at the same time, and were "twins".[
In 1963 crewmember Thomas McKnight was knocked overboard during a celebratory display of her ]water cannon
A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining. ...
s.[
Other crew members didn't notice, and McKnight drowned.
]
See also
* Fireboats of Chicago
References
Fireboats of Chicago
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