NEW YORK (WABC) — Captain James Schneider still remembers the moment he learned the World Trade Center had been struck on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n
Schneider, captain of the fishing boat James Joseph II, had taken customers out on the water that morning and dropped anchor in Norwalk, Connecticut, when his brother, an NYPD detective, called to tell him the North Tower had been hit by a plane.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterward, Schneider heard a Coast Guard radio call and decided to head toward Manhattan.<\/p>\n
After dropping off his passengers, Schneider assembled a crew of 13 and made his way toward New York City. Along the route, he witnessed the collapse of the Twin Towers.<\/p>\n
“We watched both buildings fall. So as each building fell, it became extremely grave,” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
As toxic smoke spread across the East River, visibility became severely limited. Photos taken from the James Joseph II captured the dark conditions on the water.<\/p>\n
“Goosebumps are going up on my forearms…the smoke was billowing out of it dark and black, like blacker than any smoke I’ve ever seen in my life,” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
Along Manhattan’s waterfront, people desperately searched for a way to escape.<\/p>\n
“I’m telling you right now, nobody cared where they were going, they were pushed by that smoke and fire that was driving them down towards the wall,” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
Schneider joined a massive flotilla of police boats, tugboats, ferries, yachts and other vessels that responded to the emergency as about 150 boats descended on Manhattan to assist with evacuations.<\/p>\n
“They were piling down into the water, like ants. And so they had to keep them from jumping off the pier. That’s how much panic, you know, was in that area,” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
Among those rescued was a woman who was eight months pregnant. Years later, Schneider said she recognized the James Joseph II docked at a marina and asked to speak with him.<\/p>\n
“It started to hit me and I got a chill. And she said, ‘Well, I worked in the World Trade Center on September 11th and I thought I was going to lose my baby,'” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
“To have her and have her beautiful daughter next door, you know, it made my life definitely worth living,” he said.<\/p>\n
Schneider spent 17 hours at the helm that day. He also searched for a former dockhand, Jake Jacoda, who had started a job at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center five weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
“They never found any part of Jake,” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
An estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people were evacuated by boat in fewer than nine hours on Sept. 11, making it the largest sea evacuation in American history.<\/p>\n
Despite his role in the rescue effort, Schneider said he does not view his actions as extraordinary.<\/p>\n
“Well, it’s so difficult me to say anything that I did anything important because it’s our responsibility to help. We’re not going to turn our backs on anybody on the water,” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
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