Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.
In 1956, Baltimore City Fire Department took delivery of a 103’ ft. fire boat from RTC Shipbuilding in Camden, NJ. Named after the sitting Mayor, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr.
She was Baltimore's most powerful fire boat ever. With a pumping capacity 12,000 gallons per minute while fully underway. She was also the city's first diesel fire boat. She was assigned engine number BCFD Engine 49.
Serving the city faithfully for 59 years she was decommissioned in 2015. Ultimately, the “Tommy” fell in the hands of a scrapper. The boat was scrapped except for the forward section of the hull. Remaining today (cut off at the water line) are the for-ward deck, wheel house, deck house, and her three forward monitors in-cluding the mast.
There it sat largely forgotten and abandoned at Sparrows Point.
In 2019 Tradepoint Atlantic and the Fire Museum of Maryland began a plan to save what's left.
The Plan:
PHASE-1: In order to move the Tom-my from Sparrows Point to the Muse-um in Lutherville it will need to be blasted, primed, and cut before its 3AM super move around the Beltway to York Rd. After which cranes will place it on its new foundation where she will be welded back together and painted.
PHASE-2: We will bring her back to life to simulate a working fire boat by running new lines to the monitors. These will allow fire engines to pump water through the fire boat’s 3 deck guns on special occasions. Electricity will be run throughout the boat to light the interior and exterior.
PHASE-3: The wheel house will be restored to its 1956 appearance and the deck house converted into modern exhibit space. Guests to the Museum will be able to tour the interactive wheel house, stroll around the forward deck, and enjoy rotating exhibits in the deck house.
