Ten years ago today, amidst the smoke, flames, and debris from the collapsed World Trade Center towers, an armada of tugs, ferries, launches and virtually every other craft available in New York harbor steamed toward the docks and seawalls of lower Manhattan to evacuate hundreds of thousands of commuters. The bridges and tunnels were closed. The only escape was by water.
No one was was in command. There was no single plan. (The New York City Emergency Response Center was buried in the rubble of the towers.) Nevertheless by nightfall almost half a million commuters had been evacuated by New York mariners who knew what they had to do and worked together to do it. It was one of the largest maritime evacuations in history. See our post from two years ago: Maritime Evacuation on 9/11 – An American Dunkirk
My wife was one of those commuters. After being trapped in her office building by the smoke, dust and debris for several hours, she heard that ferries were running on the East River from the foot of Wall Street. Wrapping a towel around her face, she walked with her colleagues down the block to find busy ferry terminal at Pier 11. Ferry employees directed the still stunned passengers to the appropriate ferries running to Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island or New Jersey. No fares were collected. Everyone helped each other in boarding. Miraculously, my wife was home on the other bank of the Hudson by mid afternoon.
Here is an amazing video that captures the madness, wonder, determination and commonplace heroism of that Tuesday in September. Thanks to Wojtek Wacowski for pointing it out.
BOATLIFT, An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience
[iframe: width=”560″ height=”345″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/MDOrzF7B2Kg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen]
It is an all too common story, an overloaded and poorly maintained ferry in an impoverished nation capsizes, drowning many of its passengers. It happens so often it that it is often not reported beyond the local press. This morning at three AM local time, a ferry boat running between Zanzibar and Pemba, Tanzania sank after capsizing. Update #2: 606 of the passengers have been rescued and 192 bodies have been recovered. The ferry was reportedly loaded with twice the allowed weight of cargo. The ferry had an approved passenger capacity of 600 and was carrying close to 800 passengers. This is the third ferry to capsize with a loss of life in the vicinity in the last year.
If
For those of a non-piratical bent there is still a lot going on this weekend.
The good folks in Eastport, Maine have seen fit to once again hold their annual 
On this day in 1754,
The
Last February 
Oh well. I guess there is nothing surprising about this news report. It seems that David Copp, a tourist visiting Ilfracombe Harbour, west of Bristol, in the UK, complained to the harbor-master that the fish being landed on the quayside had a “disgusting smell.” Nor, for that matter, were the fish pleasent to look at. 
The 120 year old ketch,
Ironically, the further inland from where Hurricane Irene made landfall in Brooklyn, the more damage and disruption the storm caused. While the 
Fin whales