Montreal Fire Department 1970's

[Ian Stronach]

I will close this 1970's and little later tour of the Montreal Fire Department with the Montreal fire boat which really was not the Montreal Fire Department fire boat.  The James Battle was built by the Detroit Shipbuilding Company in 1901 and served a one of the Detroit fire boats until 1941 when it was sold as a tug to Sincennes-McNaughton and then to McAllister Towing and Salvage in Montreal in 1959.  McAllister operated it in Montreal from 1959 to 1992 as a tug.  They had an agreement with the City of Montreal to make it available upon request in the event of a fire. Its pumping capacity was 10,000 gpm. It was not replaced with another fire boat or fire fighting tug but rather with the "fire barge" but that is a story for another day.