“I was gonna swim to Jersey.”

Abstract

This chapter details the experiences of both mariners and passengers during the waterborne evacuation across the New York harbor following the attacks of 9/11. The longstanding tradition of mariners assisting those in peril is as ancient as seafaring itself. Stemming from a moral duty rooted in pragmatism about the implicit dangers of nautical life, the obligation was signed into U.S. admiralty law in the aftermath of the April 15, 1912, sinking of the RMS Titanic. This rule, however, did not apply to the situation in Manhattan on September 11. At least not technically speaking in most cases. But that did not stop the boatmen and boatwomen from New York harbor and beyond from feeling compelled. At stake were notions of identity, of mariners' acclimatization to taking and mitigating risks, of what can be called “professional honor.” Without planning or protocols, many undertook the evacuation out of a sense of duty, unquestioningly, applying to this land-based calamity their mandate from the laws of the sea. The compulsion to rescue, stitched into the fabric of nautical tradition, propelled mariners into action, as did the sense, for many, of New York harbor as home.