Fireboat "Torrent"

Baltimore's Fireboats

..The 121 foot, 11,000 g.p.m. steam fireboat, “Torrent”, served the Baltimore City Fire Department Marine Division for 35 years from 1921 to 1956. At 340 Tons, she was the largest fireboat to ever serve with our fleet. Except for the first four months while her station was constructed, the “Torrent” would spend her entire career at the Canton Railroad Pier No.3, Lower Canton with Engine Co. 48.

Below is a list of the Company assignments and locations of the "Torrent" during her service with the Baltimore City Fire Department.

December 27, 1921 - Placed in service with Engine Co. 48 temporarily located at quarters of Engine Co. 39,
...................................Fort McHenry, pending completion of their new house.

April 29, 1922 - Re-located to new quarters with Engine Co. 48, Canton Railroad Pier No. 3, Lower Canton

September 16, 1956 - Removed from service and de-commissioned. Sold at auction.

The charcteristics of the Fireboat Torrent are as follows:

Builder - Baltimore Dry Docks Plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Baltimore, MD

Commissioned - by the Fire Department as Engine 48, December 27, 1921

Cost - $135,000

Official Number - 221812

Construction - riveted steel

Length overall - 121 feet 3 inches

Extreme beam - 29 feet 6 inches

Depth of hull - 14 feet 3 inches

Full load draft - 12 feet

Tonnage - 205 net,. 340 gross

Fuel capacity - .? .tons of coal ( as built )

--------------------..1936 - converted to oil fired,. two tanks with total capacity of 21,000 gallons of fuel oil installed

Maximum speed - 15 m.p.h.

Boilers - two (2) Babcock & Wilcox boilers,. converted to oil fired in 1936,. 10 feet ˝ inch long

-----------.by 142 inches in diameter. Stand-by steam pressure 160 psi., working steam pressure 175 psi.

Propulsion - single screw,. (1). one,. 2-cylinder,.vertical,. inverted,. surface-condensing steam engine,

-----------------.with cylinders of 20 inch diameter by 20 inch stroke, rated at .1,000 H.P.

Fire pumps - four, (2) Worthington, single stage centrifugal pumps rated 4,500 g.p.m. each at 150 psi., each

-----------------.driven by a geared Kerr steam turbine.
----------------- (2) Ahrens duplex, double acting piston pumps, rated 1,000 g.p.m. each.
----------------- Total capacity of the boat - 11,000 g.p.m.
-----------------.During the early 1940's, the two Ahrens duplex 1,000 g.p.m. pumps were removed.
----------------. Total capacity of the boat now 9,000 g.p.m. This was the final pump configuration.

Discharge gates - twentyfour, 3 inch with 2 ˝” inch reducers, twelve under forward monitor, and

-----------------------.twelve under deck house monitor

Monitor pipes - five (5), Andrew J. Morse & Son of Boston, one on forward deck, one on pilot house,

---------------------.one at center of deck house, one at aft end of deck house, and one on 25 foot steel tower, aft

Hose - 550 feet of 2 ˝” inch, ..1,150 feet of 3 inch,.. 200 feet of 1˝ inch ( 1946 )

..The Fireboat Torrent was built in 1921 at the Baltimore Dry Docks Plant of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Baltimore, MD. Launched on October 22, 1921, the boat was christened by Katherine Ethel Broening, daughter of Mayor William F. Broening.
..After outfitting and testing were completed, the Torrent was placed in service with the newly organized Engine Co.48 on December 27, 1921, being temporarily quartered with Engine Co. 39 at Fort McHenry until completion of their station in Lower Canton.


Acceptance pump test: .December 16, 1921


..During the first hour of the test, which started at 9 o’clock in the morning, the machinery was not speeded up to any marked degree for the purpose of allowing it to warm up before the heavy strain was placed upon it.
..With the revolutions of the turbine pumping engines registering 1,850 per minute at the beginning of the test, this speed was increased gradually until it attained 2,000 revolutions per minute.
.When the pumps were first placed in operation they registered a capacity of 8,511 g.p.m. .At 3 o’clock in the afternoon they registered 12,640 g.p.m. and a half hour later they were at 12,890 g.p.m.
..An unusual feature of the test was the high vacuum that was maintained by the pumps from noon until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. During this time the machinery was pronounced to be as near perfect as possible.
..The officials of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation are extremely gratified with the showing made by the Torrent, that was built at their plant, on Locust Point..

12 hour acceptance pump test being conducted on the new Fireboat Torrent
at Marine Division Hqt's., .Pier 7, . foot of President Street, on December 16,
1921. Tests showed the ability of. the four pumps to .deliver 12,890. g.p.m.,
more than 110% of her designed capacity. ----------------------------------------------

The Fireboat Torrent occupied her .new quarters on April. 29, 1922.. Engine
House No. 48 .was built on the outer .end of .the Canton Railroad Pier No.3,
Newgate Avenue, Lower Canton. The small two story fire house was built by
the City, with the property being leased from the Canton Company.-----------


Members of. Engine Co. 48. next. to. quarters on the .Canton Railroad .Pier
during .the 1920's. .Second from left, seated in the first .row is Jim Hurley,
first Captain of the boat. The Torrent rides at her berth behind them.---------


Torrent. on .a .bitter cold .February .day in .1936 after .battling a nitrate fire
aboard the Norwegian freighter, “S.S. Gisla” at Pier 8, Lower Canton. On the
bridge at left is the Captain of Engine Co. 48, Jim Hurley, and on the right is
Pilot Walter Broll, who would become Commander of the Marine Division in
1950.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fireboat. Torrent .tends to a .fire aboard .a .tugboat .of .the Atlantic Towing
Company at .Canton during the 1940's--------------------------------------------------


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