The Boatmen of 9/11 · 7:44pm Sep 11th, 2018
“A hero is a man who does what he can.” –Romain Rolland.
“All available boats, this is the United States Coast Guard aboard the Pilot Boat New York. Anyone who wants to help with the evacuation of Lower Manhatten, report to Governor’s Island.” These were the fateful words spoken on 9/11 when the Coast Guard realized that the only way on or off Manhattan Island was the water. The call went out for any willing boats to come evacuate the hundreds of thousands of people who were trapped on the island. No one knew how many would come. No one would have been able to blame them if they hadn’t. After all, Manhattan Island had disappeared under a cloud of ash and smoke. No one knew if more planes were coming, if they were being bombed, or if heading into that smoke would be the last thing they ever did.
But the Boatmen came.
Hundreds of boats, from tugboats to party boats to schooners to fishing boats. “If it floated, and it could get there, it got there,” recalled one sailor. “I’ve worked on the water for 28 years. I’ve never seen that many boasts come together at one time that fast.”
When asked about their actions that day, the words of the many Boatmen are simple and straightforward.
“I was compelled because I’m the type of person that can’t stand by and watch other people suffer.”
“It’s just human nature. You see people in distress on the seawall of Manhatten begging you to pick them up … you have to. You have to pick them up.”
“No training. This was just people doing what they had to do that day.”
“And the thing that was the best … everyone helped everyone.”
At the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II, civilian boats from England labored for nine days to evacuate nearly 400,000 trapped soldiers from France. It was, up till 9/11, the largest water-borne evacuation in history. On 9/11, nearly 500,000 people were rescued by boat. It look less than nine hours.
“I believe somebody has a little hero in ‘em. You gotta look in. And it’s in there. It’ll come out, if it need to be.”
“I have one theory in life. I never want to say the word, ‘I should have.’ If I do it and I fail, I tried. If I do it and I succeed, better for me.”
I have studied war and genocide since I could read. The first book I read for myself was a day-by-day history of the Second World War, a book which did not shy away from the reality of the Holocaust or the true Evil of the Axis powers. Since then, I have devoted years to the study. This obsession of mine has struck many as odd over the years, and I have on more than one occasion been asked, ‘Why?’ Why study such travesties? Why look more closely at the darkest aspects of humanity. Part of it, it is true, is vigilance. Evil will never truly be absent from our world until the End, so it is our duty to remember Evil, that we may better guard ourselves against it. But more than that, I study it for the Boatmen. Because whenever you look at the darkest moments of history, no matter how grim, no matter how wicked the story, if you look hard enough you will always, always find the Boatmen.
The Boatmen of this world are heirs to a legacy of heroes stretching back to the dawn of humanity. This heritage is as rich and diverse as humanity itself. Its members are the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the saints and the sinners. Its members are Humanity, with all its quirks and flaws and successes and failures.
Some are like Rick Rescorla, the man responsible for saving nearly three thousand lives on 9/11, orchestrating the mass evacuation at the cost of his own life. The actions of these heroes ring throughout history, a glorious tone of courage and defiance.
Some are unknown, their attempts to stand against the Evil unmarked by history, and often ending in failure, their final struggles lost to human awareness, known only to God. Some heroes spent their lives in the service of their fellows, and it came as no surprise to their friends and family to learn that they had died in the same way. Others lived selfishly, until one day there came an Evil that they could not let pass unchallenged.
Yet all, I tell you, are Boatmen. Whether their actions were great or small, known or unknown, whether they achieved their objective or not … these are not what define a hero. What defines a hero is this simple choice: that when confronted with an Evil, however great or slight, they said, ‘No.’
Good and Evil come in many forms and degrees. An action that saves the lives of thousands is an obvious Good, just as an action that dooms the same number is an obvious Evil. Yet just as wars are won or lost by individual soldiers as much as by generals and armies, so too are the battles of this life decided. Even if we are never called upon to perform a grand action that saves lives, the individual choices we make about how we conduct ourselves day to day still define our character and shape our world. They are the foundation upon which greater actions may be built should the need arise. A life lived with small acts of kindness finds it easier to be compassionate when that compassion is challenged by a great Evil. Welles Crowther was a 24-year old equities trader who had spent his life helping others; he was courteous, kind, and willing. He had lived his life as a considerate and honorable human being. It was his habit to be good. How surprising is it, then, that after rescuing over a dozen people and making his way out of the Tower, he ran back in with the firefighters to save more, giving his life in the process? Crowther had lived his life as a man who always strove to be good. Even if 9/11 had never come, the goodness of his past actions and the simple heroism with which he lived his life would have been no less laudable.
And yes, I did say ‘heroism.’ Strange as it may seem to say, the common, banal, everyday actions of kindness, generosity, and virtue that we exhibit are rooted in the same drive that moves men and women to actions like Crowther’s and Rescorla’s. Perhaps we shall never find ourselves in a position where these virtues are called upon to quite the same degree, and perhaps even our greatest struggles shall remain a matter between us and God alone, but that makes them no less worthy. When you refuse to gossip; when you hold your temper even if you’ve had a bad day; when you resist the temptation to malign another or when you’re patient with an annoyance … however small these are, however unwilling we may be, the act of choosing the better path is always something to be praised. Whenever we are confronted with an Evil, no matter how insignificant, and we choose to say, ‘No,’ we are participants in the same tradition of heroism that has defined the greatest moments in human history. And while the great actions may preserve us from the great evils, it is these small acts that keep the Darkness at bay day-to-day.
Every year on 9/11 I am forced to consider how best to honor the dead. This year I offer you this:
Live Well.
Good and Evil will always be at war in the world. Perhaps our part in that war will never earn note in the eyes of the world. Perhaps our struggles will remain anonymous, or seem insignificant to us.
It doesn’t matter.
Live well.
This world can be a dark and scary place, and resisting that at any level is an act of heroism, because it is so much easier to just surrender to the Darkness. But even the smallest act of basic decency can make a change, even if that change is only to us.
Live well.
Great Evils are not destroyed overnight, and Darkness is never bested on a whim. It takes daily choices by ordinary people to resist it, and, even in failure, there is grace and courage in the attempt.
Live well.
Just as we remember the heroic last stands of those who ultimately died on the field of battle, so too must we honor our own efforts to do good, even when they don’t achieve what we desire. Remember, heroism is defined by what is fought for, not by what is won.
Live well.
Live heroically. Yes, heroically. For we may never be called upon to be a Rescorla or a Crowther, but the call to be a Boatman belongs to us all. The basic decision to resist Evil carries with it a heroism that can belong to the mundane and commonplace as easily as to the grandiose.
So live well, for there is no greater way to honor the dead than with a life well lived.
God bless you all, and God bless America.
Well said!
Puts me in mind of a song.
Thank you for this, thank you for a simple regard and a simple thought. As you say, live well.
wow, this reminds me of Dunkirk
[literally the next line]
I actually had no idea about this event surrounding the evacuation of the island, this is the first time I've heard of it.
I remember being a freshman in American History class when I started to hear some talking about something going on NYC. Than at football practice that afternoon some guys were talking about America being attacked, I thought it was just a rumor, that they were making it up. Then one of the coaches gathered us together and informed us about that mornign's events.
After practice I went home, and of course there was nothing but live coverage of events on TV, so I sat there and watched as Building 7 collapsed live. I think it was all a little too big for my mind to grasp at the time.
But while I was sitting on my bed in a rooming house, the 'American Dunkirk' was going on. An example of 'mass heroism' in response to 'mass terrorism'.
4935869
Thank you for sharing your story. My own was not dissimilar. We knew something was happening. Only later did we find out what.
Here is the link to the full story of the 9/11 Boatlift.
Came here from One Castle, Two Alicorns. Wow, this was a very deep blog post. You have a way with words, though I suppose I already knew that from your mob-spawning story. Anyway, same as HeatseekerX51 down there, I had no idea about this evacuation, though I knew about Dunkirk. I've always thought that doing one's best is enough, even if it doesn't succeed; after all, what more can we do?
After reading this, I went to Rick Rescorla's Wikipedia article, and in the "See also" section I found a link to an article on a person called John P. O'Neill. His summary just screams of irony.
Anyway, it might interest you to know that every year, on and around 9/11, a lot of the TV channels in Japan show documentaries of the attacks. Even in places separated by the greatest of oceans, former enemies on top of that, people will remember.
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Thanks for passing this along.