Fireboats of Chicago explained
As an important port city, Chicago has operated dedicated fireboats since 1877.
In 1986, the Chicago Tribune offered a history of Chicago's larger fireboats, when the Chicago Fire Department moved the Victor L. Schlaeger from active to standby status.According to that account, by 1908 the City was operating nine fireboats. However that was when many of the buildings that lined the waterfront were still made of wood, and by 1986 most of the factories and warehouses by the waterfront were built of concrete.
Josiah Seymour Currey, in a history of Chicago published in 1912, listed five fireboats operating in the early 1900s.
By 1986 the city had introduced smaller, less powerful fireboats, that required smaller crews, and did not require specially trained and certified mariners to operate them.
When she was commissioned in 2010, the Christopher Wheatley was Chicago's first full-size fireboat in sixty years.
Fireboats operated in Chicago include: | name | commissioned | retired | notes |
|---|
| | 1885 | |
|
| | 1886 | | - First of Chicago's fleet designed to be a fireboat.
- renamed the Denis J. Swenie in 1903.
|
| | 188? | | |
| | 1890 | | - Same size as, but more powerful than the Geyser.
- Her name was changed to Protector in 1903.
- Her name was changed to Michael W. Conway in 1907.
|
| | 1892 | 1905 |
|
| | 1899 | | - Chicago's first fireboat with a steel hull, instead of a wooden hull.
- Sank during the Burlington Grain elevator fire, but was quickly refloated and put back into service.
|
| | 1908-06 | 1947-01 | - According to Fire Strikes the Chicago Stock Yards the Joseph Medill and Graeme Stewart were built in the same yard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, at the same time, and were "twins".
|
| | 1909 | | - According to Fire Strikes the Chicago Stock Yards the Joseph Medill and Graeme Stewart were built in the same yard in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, at the same time, and were "twins".
|
| | 1937 | 1981 | - Converted to an excursion boat.
|
| | 1948 | | - The 1948 Joseph Medill was a sister ship to the Victor L. Schlaeger. Now wreck in Escanaba, MI
|
| | 1949 | 2010 | Built by Christy Corp, Sturgen Bay, WI. |
| | | | |
| Christopher Wheatley | 2010 | | - Especially designed to navigate a city with shallow rivers and low bridges.
|
| | 2017 | | - 33feet "Boston Whaler Conquest Hull" "fast assault craft"
| |
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