Tacoma’s most celebrated fireboat is falling apart. Do we care enough to save it?

Not every fireboat has a story. But Tacoma’s does.

Honorarily moored in concrete along Ruston Way, Tacoma residents young and old have grown up with Fireboat No. 1. Some remember it patrolling the waterfront, as it did for 54 years before its retirement in 1983. Others recall the rainbow plumes of water it sprayed from its seven high-powered monitors during city celebrations, particularly Fourth of July in Old Town.

Still more recognize Fireboat No. 1 for what it is today (and has been for many years now): a historical waterfront attraction. Marked by signs commemorating it as one of the first fireboats on the West Coast, Fireboat No. 1 has effectively blended into the Ruston Way landscape over the years. You can probably picture it, propped up on display near the parking lot of Duke’s Seafood. What’s easier to overlook — unless you’re a history buff or a firefighter — is the boat’s significance in Tacoma, and the effort it took to preserve it where it is today.

That’s the thing about history. It survives only as long as people keep it alive.

And for Fireboat No. 1, that’s the dilemma: Nearly 100 years after it was built by Coastline Shipbuilding Co. to help protect a burgeoning city’s waterfront from the threat of devastating flames, the aging vessel waits on a new generation to step up and ensure its survival.

The boat’s paint is faded, chipped and defaced in places. Some of the wood is rotten, other pieces are missing altogether. According to a 2019 estimate commissioned by Metro Parks Tacoma, Fireboat No. 1 needs thousands of dollars of work to restore it to glory.

What remains unclear is whether it’s a project anyone is interested in undertaking.

“The city owns the boat, but MPT is responsible for exterior maintenance. … The wording of (MPT’s agreement with Tacoma) says this responsibility would be after the boat is restored, which it hasn’t been. Nor are we obliged to use our own funds to repair it to historical register standards,” said Metro Parks spokesperson Rosemary Ponnekanti via email. “That’s the unclear part — when you have a historic object like this, separating regular maintenance from restoration and short-term fixes from long-term.”

Added Tacoma spokesperson Maria Lee via email: “The City owns the boat. Any future ‘restoration’ efforts may be subject to Council approval and dependent on available funding.“

The history of Tacoma’s Fireboat No. 1

At this point, a brief history is probably in order.

Constructed in 1929 for $148,000 at the request of Tacoma firefighters and the city’s growing waterfront shipping industries, Fireboat No. 1 served Tacoma for nearly six decades. When it was built, the 97-foot-long vessel was one of the most modern in the nation, boasting seven water cannons, which according to News Tribune archives had the capacity to pump 10,000 gallons of water per minute. The biggest of the cannons was nicknamed “Big Bertha.” In the colorful words of former TNT waterfront columnist Pat Winkler, the high-powered nozzle was capable of shooting “a 450-foot-long shaft of water that’ll snap a telephone pole.”

In 1983, Fireboat No. 1 was retired, replaced by two modern, English-built air-cushion vessels, the Defiance and the Commencement. Local preservationists like Allen Ratcliffe, now an 84-year-old retired psychologist, banded together to help find a permanent home for the Fireboat No. 1 along Ruston Way. Already listed on the local and national registers of historic places, in 1995 commemorative signs were added to the display, according to The News Tribune archives.

Even today, Ratcliffe described Fireboat No. 1 as “an important symbol of the city.”

Still, for nearly as long as the vessel has been stationed along Tacoma’s shore, questions about who bears ultimate responsibility for the vessel’s continued care and upkeep have persisted, he said.

“In my opinion, almost nothing has happened. Both sides in this debate have said, ‘Oh, it belongs to the other side,’” Ratcliffe said.

According to Ponnekanti, Metro Parks has performed general exterior maintenance and necessary safety repairs over the years — consistent with its contract with Tacoma — including replacing rotten wood and addressing vandalism. The boat has also been repainted several times, most recently by the city, she said.

In 2019 Metro Parks asked a local marine surveyor to provide an assessment of all the historical restoration work Fireboat No. 1 might need, Ponnekanti added, and the report revealed a long list of concerns. The surveyor recommended everything from applying new paint and sealant to addressing a rotten section of the boat’s rub rail and, potentially, rebuilding the boat’s pilot house, she said.

According to Ponnekanti, a full de-rust and paint application project on Fireboat No. 1 “would probably cost around $150,000.” Work on the deck and pilot house could add “at least $150,000,” she said. The findings of the 2019 estimate were shared with city officials, she said.

Ponnekanti said several “short-term repairs” to Fireboat No. 1 are included in the park district’s 2023 budget, like replacing the rotten rub rail and adding below-deck ventilation to prevent further deterioration.

Metro Parks recently purchased paint for the vessel, Ponnekanti added, which will be applied by volunteers from the firefighters’ union and a local Rotary club next spring.

‘Neglected and significantly deteriorated’

Today, with Fireboat No. 1’s deterioration apparent to the naked eye, people like Ratcliffe and Tacoma firefighters’ union treasurer Matt Frank are hoping for more, specifically a long-term solution.

While the significance of the vessel might be lost on some, Frank said he’s well aware of what Fireboat No. 1 means to local firefighters, and the place it has in Tacoma’s history.

Frank confirmed the Tacoma firefighters’ union plan to repaint Fireboat No. 1 this spring, and said the union is trying to find creative ways to help complete more of the necessary work.

Much of it depends on funding, he said.

“Historically, it pays tribute to those who came before us. We always try to pay tribute to those who came before us,” Frank said. “It is a huge part of who the Tacoma Fire Department is. Obviously, with the Port of Tacoma and the industry on the water, it is kind of our link to everything.”

Frank noted that Fireboat No. 1 is displayed along Ruston Way not far from the Tacoma Fallen Firefighters Memorial, which the department takes great care to maintain.

“To have something that we keep up very well, and then have a fireboat 50 yards away that’s dilapidated, I don’t think it pays the proper respect to firefighters. It doesn’t pay proper respect to the industry and what the fireboat did when it was in operation,” Frank said.

So does Tacoma still care about Fireboat No. 1 — and the history it represents — all these years later?

What happens in the coming months and years will provide an answer.

“It’s neglected and significantly deteriorated. We worked hard to get that thing ashore, and I just hoped that it would be maintained,” Ratcliffe said.

“If we’re not going to maintain it, maybe we just need to scrap it and get on with life.”