Built as a fireboat by the Cresent Shipbuilding of Elizabeth City, New Jersey for the Buffalo Fire Department, Buffalo, New York.
24 March 1900 laid down.
05 September 1900 named WILLIAM S GRATTAN, christened by Virginia Pearson, the fireboat was named after the first paid fire commissioner for the city of Buffalo.
Tonnage 274 gross ton, dim. 36 x 7.3 x 3.30m. (draught)
Powered by two coal fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers who supplied steam to steam engines of 900 hp. , single shaft, speed 13 knots.
Water pumping capacity; three double action steam pumps, 34,070 liter per minute to the three fire monitors..
Building cost US$91,000.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buffalo's waterfront was an extremely busy center of commerce. Grain elevators, warehouses and shipping traffic had overtaxed the two existing fireboats: the JOHN T. HUTCHINSON (Engine 23) and the GEORGE R. POTTER (Engine 29). Also, the city of Buffalo had shoreline hookups to allow the fireboats to serve as floating pumping stations supplying high pressure water to a fire hydrant system that covered the downtown area. The decision was made by city officials to order a third boat that would also have icebreaking capability along with her normal firefighting duties.
Upon completion she traveled up the Atlantic coast, down the St. Lawrence River, across Lake Ontario, through the Welland Canal and finally across Lake Erie in an uneventful trip that took 14 days. She was met 3 miles (4.8 km) out of the harbor by her sister
On July 28, 1928 the GRATTAN responded to the oil barge JAMES F. CAHILL, loaded with 5,000 barrels of crude oil, that was aflame. After burning 17 hours, the barge's mooring lines gave way and the barge began to drift. The GRATTAN's crew tried to attach tow lines to the barge but it drifted into an oil company's dock where the empty oil tanker B.B. McCOLL was moored. The fumes on the McCOLL ignited with the GRATTAN being caught in the explosion and fire. Captain Thomas Hylant along with his crew abandoned ship and swam through the flames to shore. However, Chief Engineer Thomas Lynch lost his life and seven crew members were injured. The unattended boilers on the GRATTAN soon ran dry and exploded, leaving the ship burned out and heavily damaged.
The GRATTAN sat boarded up for eighteen months while city and fire department officials decided whether to replace her at a cost of $225,000 dollars or rebuild her for $99,000 dollars, which was $8,000 dollars more than her original cost. The decision was made to rebuild and in 1930 she was rebuilt at the Buffalo Dry Dock Company of Buffalo, New York. During this refit some improvements were made to the GRATTAN. One improvement was that her boilers were converted from burning coal to burning oil. The engines were rebuilt and her firefighting system was updated and could now handle foam. Also, the pilot house was raised to the upper boat deck level and a fixed turret tower with a fire monitor was constructed on the stern of the ship. A fourth fire monitor was added to the top of the pilot house of the ship as well. As part of her acceptance ceremony she was recommissioned and participated in a race against the harbor tug KENTUCKY, which was considered to be one of the fastest tugs on the lakes.
In the early 1950s, it was noticed that the GRATTAN was showing signs of age. Her boilers were only able to operate at 40 percent capacity and an engine room steam leak in 1951 injured part of her crew. During November 1952, the GRATTAN was sent to the Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for a refit. During this refit her boilers and steam engines were replaced by diesel engines, the pumps for the firefighting system were replaced, the single propeller was replaced with twin propellers, the fixed firefighting platform was replaced with a hydraulically operated platform and the twin funnels were replaced with lower dummy funnels. Upon her return in 1954, she was renamed FIREFIGHTER. In 1955 she was renamed again in honor of Edward M. Cotter, a respected Buffalo firefighter and the leader of the local firefighters union, who had recently died. After the refit the COTTER now mounts five fire monitors that are capable of pumping 15,000 US gallons per minute (950 L/s).
On October 7, 1960 the COTTER came to the aid of firefighting authorities in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. Two days previously, on October 5, 1960, a set of grain elevators caught fire at the eight-story Maple Leaf Milling Company. The Port Colborne Fire Department did not have its own fireboat and they were unable to bring the fire under control. The Buffalo Fire Department was asked to send the EDWARD M. COTTER to lend assistance. Escorted by a United States Coast Guard cutter, because she had never needed navigational equipment of her own, the EDWARD M. COTTER proceeded across the international border. The voyage to Port Colborne took two hours with an additional four hours needed to bring the fire under control. This mission is said to have been the first instance that a United States fire boat had crossed an international border to help authorities in another country.
In 1978 the USS Little Rock, a retired United States Naval guided missile cruiser on display at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, began taking on water and listing. The COTTER and several Buffalo Fire Department fire engines pumped water out of the LITTLE ROCK for five days keeping the ship afloat and level while repairs were made. The COTTER also assisted the disabled United States Coast Guard cutter OJIBWA during the winter of 1983. The OJIBWA, while on Lake Erie, had lost its steering and was taking on water. The COTTER towed the OJIBWA to its base in Buffalo and helped keep it afloat while repairs were made. Another rescue occurred on July 31, 1984 when the COTTER towed the Polish tall ship ZAWISZA CZAMY off a sand bar during the ships visit to Buffalo.
As commerce declined on Buffalo's waterfront, the COTTER was transferred from the Buffalo Fire Department to the Public Works Department in 1992 for icebreaking duties. In 1996 the EDWARD M. COTTER was designated a National Historic Landmark, and was transferred back to the Buffalo Fire Department in 1997.
The EDWARD M. COTTER is considered to be the oldest active fireboat in the world. Often the COTTER can be seen sailing out of berth and south-west to Lake Erie and returning north through the breakwaters while firing her fire monitors.
A non-profit group named "Friends of the Cotter", founded in 2005, has been running fund-raising events to overhaul the COTTER. Along with her normal duties the COTTER has been sent to various festivals and boat shows around the Great Lakes.
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Wikipedia.