''Deluge'' is a
fireboat
A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipmen ...
(also referred to as a firefighting tug) in
. Built by Johnson Drydock & Shipbuilding Co. of New Orleans in 1923,
she was declared a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1989.
[
]
She was the nation's second oldest fireboat at the time.
In March 1930, a fire broke out on the freighter ''Scantic'', lasting two days. Ten crew members were killed. It was the first major fire the ''Deluge'' had to put out.
In March 1958, a schoolhouse was on fire in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
. The ''Deluge'' helped aid the firemen by dousing the school with a quarter of a million gallons of water from the river.
The most famous fire battled by the ''Deluge'' was the Christmas Eve fire in 1950. A barge with crude oil smashed into the Standard Oil tanker ''Baltimore'', resulting in an oil spill. Fire quickly engulfed the oil, and from the docks it looked as though the river were on fire. ''Deluge'' quickly arrived and peppered the boats and the surrounding area with gallons of water. Successfully, the fireboat ended the threat.
It was common for ''Deluge'' to fight forty fires a year.
Along with battling fires, ''Deluge'' also completed other tasks. She completed numerous towing jobs as well as maintenance after a fire had occurred. This usually required clearing the silt off of docks and boats. ''Deluge'' would also rescue floating barges and boats and bring them back to the docks.
The ''Deluge'' was retired in 1992.
In 2000, she was no longer operational and would require hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix.
It was possible the fireboat would be stripped for its scrap metal if no buyer came forward, as the maintenance for the boat was steadily increasing.
Due to an absence of reliable information concerning the boat's condition since its sale in 2000, its National Historic Landmark designation was withdrawn in 2023.
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Buildings and structures in New Orleans
Fireboats of the United States
Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Louisiana
1923 ships
National Register of Historic Places in New Orleans
Former National Historic Landmarks of the United States