{"id":344608,"date":"2026-09-12T02:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T02:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344608\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T02:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T02:11:05","slug":"on-9-11-hundreds-of-ordinary-boat-captains-carried-out-the-largest-maritime-evacuation-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/344608\/","title":{"rendered":"On 9\/11, hundreds of ordinary boat captains carried out the largest maritime evacuation in history"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we remember 9\/11<\/a>, we rightfully focus on the victims\u2014the lives lost and changed forever. We remember the heroes<\/a> and the family members left behind<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But there are millions of stories from that day, from the people who, through some small chance, didn\u2019t show up to work in the Twin Towers to people who nearly boarded one of the ill-fated planes.<\/p>\n

In New York in particular, with all eyes on the towers, one underappreciated aspect of the story is what was happening in other parts of the city amid the chaos, as hundreds of thousands of bystanders feared for their lives\u2014and the everyday heroes who helped rescue them.<\/p>\n

After the Twin Towers were hit on 9\/11, people in Lower Manhattan were trapped<\/p>\n

While the towers were burning and rapidly on their way to collapse, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were nearby. It had been a normal day in Lower Manhattan: people were working, shopping, and seeing the sights of the city.<\/p>\n

The smoke and rubble were not contained to the immediate area around Ground Zero. Thick dust and smoke plumes traveled dozens of miles through the city<\/a> after the South Tower collapsed. Within the immediate 1-2 miles, the air was incredibly dangerous.<\/p>\n

Remember, too, that very little information was available at the time about what was happening. There was no guarantee there wouldn\u2019t be another attack. Hundreds of thousands of people were frightened and confused, and they needed to get to safety.<\/p>\n

But everything was closed. All bridges and tunnels, and the entire subway system. Gridlock, debris, and just too many people made it almost impossible for anyone to safely navigate their way north into Midtown and Upper Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Many were stuck at the water\u2019s edge on the Hudson River piers with nowhere to go.<\/p>\n

Coast Guard and FDNY launched rescue boats, but it wasn\u2019t enough<\/p>\n

The United States Coast Guard quickly began coordinating rescue activities on the water, including closing the harbor to all major ships. The New York Fire Department had a few boats available to help with the evacuation, but the two agencies\u2019 combined fleet was far too small.<\/p>\n

So the Coast Guard issued an emergency call. They needed every available boat to help with the evacuation.<\/p>\n

Within minutes, the call was answered. Roughly 150 boats<\/a> showed up, including ferries, fishing boats, and even private sailboats that had simply been out that day to enjoy the harbor. Boaters who weren\u2019t on the water saw what was happening on television and raced to help. Some even arrived well before the official call. They saw trouble and immediately raced toward it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a person that can\u2019t stand by and watch other people suffer. And to me, they were suffering. They wanted to get off the island and there was no way for them to get off the island other than the water,\u201d Vincent Ardolino, a New York boat captain, said in the documentary Boatlift 9\/11. \u201cI saw a lot of the ferries going up into the slips and taking people off. I say, fine, we could do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the boats that came to help could only carry a few people at a time. But it all made a difference.<\/p>\n

In just nine hours, a staggering 500,000 citizens were evacuated from Lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

It is the largest maritime evacuation in history.<\/p>\n

New York rescue parallels historic WWII evacuation<\/p>\n

Before 2001, the largest sea-based rescue happened in May and June of 1940, when German forces in France had more than 300,000 Allied soldiers surrounded.<\/p>\n

The evacuation from Dunkirk<\/a> took more than a week and, of course, was conducted by experienced naval personnel under heavy fire.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s incredible about The Great Boatlift of 9\/11, as it has come to be called, is that everyday citizens raced into smoke, danger, and uncertainty without hesitation. They showed incredible bravery they couldn\u2019t have prepared for. But even more than bravery, it took immense human kindness, love for our neighbors, and a deep desire to help.<\/p>\n

The horror and the tragedy of that day are well worth remembering, but so is the humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we remember 9\/11, we rightfully focus on the victims\u2014the lives lost and changed forever. We remember the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5301,196,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-344608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-9-11","tag-heroes","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}