Pet, No. 9

The pilot boat Pet was built in 1866 by Edward E. "Ned" Costigan at Charlestown, Massachusetts, for Pilot Captain Abel T. Hayden. She was 54 tons, steered by a tiller.[2] The sister pilot boats, Pet and Phantom, were built on a model by Dennison J. Lawlor of East Boston, Massachusetts for the New York pilots. The vessels had a reputation for swiftness under sail.[3] The Pet was in service for a number of years in Boston and later sold to the New York pilots.[4] By 1876, she was registered to Captain Joseph Henderson.

The pilot-boat Pet, No. 9, was registered in the New York Record of American and Foreign Shipping from 1876 to 1885. For fourteen years Joseph Henderson was commander of the pilot boat Pet, No. 9. Below are the ship registrations:[5] [6]

On November 4, 1872, Captain Joseph Henderson spoke at a meeting of the Board of Commissioners of Pilots about how he and his boat Pet, No. 9, rescued the crew of the brig Emily. The New York Times reported: “GENTELEMEN: I respectfully report that on Monday Oct. 28, Block Island bearing north, forty miles distant, the pilot-boat Pet, No. 9, it blowing a gale of wind east by north-east, fell in with the brig Emily, from Jacksonville, bound to Boston, in a sinking condition, colors flying union down: went to her and spoke her; the master wished to abandon the vessel as the sea was making a clean breach over her and she could not float much longer. I, therefore, lay by her about one and a half or two hours, and succeeded in getting the crew and officers safely on board the Pet; timber was washing off and knocking around furiously all the time, rendering it difficult to use the boats safely; lay by the wreck till 7 P. M., 28th, when spoke steamer Italy, and on reporting to Capt. Thompson, he very kindly waited to receive the shipwrecked crew and brought them to New-York.” The Board was authorized to provide Henderson and Thompson a reward of $250 dollars for rescuing the crew.[7]

On February 3, 1877, an article from the Spirit Of The Times talked about the pilot-boat Pet, number nine of the New York Harbor fleet. The article said: “There is something attractive in the very notion of a pilot-boat. It is associated with thoughts of exposure, hardship, and danger, to be sure, but undergone by men who ever with a frolic welcome take the tempest and the sunshine, and oppose mere hearts, free foreheads, and great as the risks may be, there is always a sense of security about a pilot-boat, because it is manned by those who are specialists in the peril of the sea, who can detect the faintest premonition of a storm, and have weathered it out in the severest of gales. The eyes of the passengers who cross the ocean on the mammoth steamships arc strained, as they near the land, for the first glimpse of the tiny cockle-shell which bears the pilot, and when his foot strikes the deck of the great vessel, he is welcomed not only as a fresh-comer from the longed-for shore, but as the man of ability, to whom everything is entrusted. Nothing is too good for him, he is lord of all. Even those who hare never seen the sea join in the sentiment which attaches to pilots; in all minds they are privileged and popular members of the community. This week, in connection with a picture of the pilot-boat Pet, Joseph Henderson, Captain, we give a brief sketch, the object of which is to explain how the business of these craft is conducted in the port of New York. The Pet is selected simply as an example of her class, not because of her superiority over others, though she is acknowledged to be one of the best pilot-boats afloat. She is, like all the others, schooner-rigged, 125 tons burthen, 78 feet long, 21 ½ feet beam, 8 ½ feet depth of hold, draws 11 feet aft, and 6 ½ feet forward, and spreads about 1,800 yards of canvas to the three lower sails.”[8]

On November 9, 1878, the New York Herald reported that: "Mr. Joseph Henderson, Sandy Hook pilot of the pilot boat Pet, No 9, reports passing Nov 7, lat 40 56, Lon 69 40, the wreck of the bark Sarah, of New Bedford, she lies directly in the track of vessels coming from or going to the eastward."[9]

On January 6, 1881, the New York pilot boat Pet, No. 9 and Joseph Henderson arrived at the port of Newport, Rhode Island. They put in for pilots and sailed back to the Port of New York.[10]

On August 5, 1884, The New York Times, reported that: "A SHARK'S STRANGE MEAL, Providence, Rhode Island, Pilot boat Pet, No. 9, at Newport, reports that she caught a gray shark, 9 ½ feet long, with a sheath knife sticking in its stomach, and a man’s right hand in the shark’s stomach."[11]

On January 8, 1886, an articled appears in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: "AT SEA IN A HURRICANE, The Narrow Escape of Pilot Boat No. 9. Pilot boat No. 9, which is named the Pet, arrived in New York Monday, after having had a rough experience in a hurricane while at Georges Shoals, 300 miles from Sandy Hook. About three weeks ago the boat left New York for an outside cruise, having on board her Captain J. Henderson, of this city."[12]

On November 29, 1888, the New York Herald Tribune reported: "OVERDUE VESSELS COME IN - Rough Weather Reported By All. Few Of Them Seriously Damaged" and talks about not hearing from the pilot-boat Pet No. 9. "She left port twelve days ago, and when last heard from was 300 miles east of Sandy Hook. She carried a crew of six men, and was in charge of Joseph Henderson, one of the oldest pilots in the business.[13]

On March 19, 1889, the New York Herald-Tribune reported that: "THE WINGATES TOWED INTO PORT, Pilot Henderson, from the pilot-boat Pet, went aboard the British steamship Wingates and she was safely towed to port." The heavy seas off the east end of Long Island had broken the steamship’s crank shaft, causing her to drift 300 miles off course.[14]

On November 21, 1889, Joseph Henderson was commander of the pilot boat Pet, No. 9, which stuck on the rocks in Newport, Rhode Island, harbor. The New York Times reported: "A PILOT BOAT ASHORE. Pilot Boat Pet, No. 8, of New-York went ashore this morning on the east side of Conanicut Island, half way betwtween Beaver Tail and Mackerel Cove, Rhode Island. She let go her anchor, but it would not hold, and the heavy sea drove the boat on the rocks. The seas broke over her and she filled and sank, proving a total loss. The agile Henderson escaped with his life." She was later reported as having gone to pieces and left abandoned; she was partly insured.[15][16]

• From Sandy Hook to 62
• The Sandy Hook Pilots website
• Gregory F. Henderson (2017). The Henderson Family and the California Perfume Company. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781977682048.