The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The JOHN KENDALL shown here in downtown Detroit, protected the waterfront from 1930 to 1976. the hands of the city and the Detroit Fire Department was officially organized. In 1893 the Detroit Fire Department acquired a different type of steam apparatus in the form of a fireboat, appropriately named the Detroiter. Since then five fireboats have protected Detroit's twenty-five miles of riverfront; Detroiter (1893-1902), James Battle (1900-1940), James R. Elliott (1902-1930), John Kendall (1930-1976) and that whichis currently in service, the Curtis Randolph (1979). The first boat was named for the city she served, whereas the subsequent three were named for former Detroit Fire Chiefs. The presently active fireboat was named for the first black firefighter to be killed in the line of duty. The Detroiter was built by the Craig Ship Building Company of Toledo, Ohio and was commissioned in 1893. Quartered next to a new brick station at the foot of Fifth Street, she was known as Steam Engine Company Number 16. She was fitted with two engines and boilers, and her two sets of double-acting pumps could throw fifteen streams, or the entire discharge could be directed through a swivel nozzle above the pilothouse. Manned by a crew of twelve, the wood-hulled boat cost $31,765. The first major fire for the Detroiter came on November 23,1893 at the Edson Moore and Company (a purveyor of dry goods). Considering the flammable nature of the wood frame structures, tightly spaced along the riverfront, the streams from the Detroiter kept the fire contained to the one building, a remarkable feat in those days. A new aspect of firefighting had come to Detroit. When the Detroiter was retired, parts of her would be used on another fireboat. The James Battle was built by the Detroit Ship Building Company of Wyandotte, Michigan, and went into service on January 15, 1901. She was quartered at the Fifth Street dock and also ran as Steam Engine Company Number 16. Her steel hull was 122 feet long and her pumps were built by the Thomas Manning, Jr. Company of Cleveland, Ohio. They were capable of delivering 2,900 gallons per minute each at 160 pounds pressure. In 1936 the pumps were converted to diesel power, an early feature for a fireboat. She had two turret nozzles on her deckhouse, two stem hose connections, five on each side, and eight more on the forward deck. When the James Battle was de-commissioned, she was purchased by the Sincennes-McNaughton Company in Montreal, Quebec, for use as a tug and an auxiliary fireboat. They had her refitted with a new 1,000 horsepower engine and superstructure in 1955. She was last seen in October of 1991 headed for Ramey's Bend, under tow of the tug Salvage Monarch, for scrapping after many years of valuable service. Dossin Museum Coll.