Schneider, captain of the James Joseph II, describes leaving Norwalk, Connecticut after a call from his brother, joining a flotilla of roughly 150 vessels, spending 17 hours at the helm and helping evacuate people pushed toward the piers by smoke and fire.
Captain James Schneider left Norwalk after hearing the North Tower had been hit, assembled a 13-person crew and headed to Manhattan aboard the fishing boat James Joseph II.
Schneider spent 17 hours at the helm, rescued people including a woman eight months pregnant, and later searched for a missing dockhand, Jake Jacoda, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald but was never found.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Captain James Schneider was on the water with customers and anchored in Norwalk, Connecticut when his brother, an NYPD detective, called to say the World Trade Center's North Tower had been struck. Hearing a Coast Guard radio call soon after, Schneider dropped off his passengers, assembled a 13-person crew, and steered his fishing boat, the James Joseph II, toward Manhattan.
Within a short time, dozens of civilian and official vessels were responding. Schneider joined a flotilla of police boats, tugboats, ferries, yachts and other craft. He recalled about 150 boats descending on Manhattan to assist with evacuations.
Among those Schneider's boat helped rescue was a woman eight months pregnant. Years later she recognized the James Joseph II docked at a marina and spoke with Schneider, telling him she thought she had lost her baby that day. Schneider said meeting her and seeing her child later had a powerful personal effect.
Schneider spent 17 hours at the helm that day. He also searched for a former dockhand, Jake Jacoda, who had started a job at Cantor Fitzgerald five weeks earlier. Schneider said no part of Jacoda was ever found.
Despite his role in the rescue effort, Schneider framed his work as a responsibility rather than heroism. He said people on the water do not turn their backs on someone in need.
Schneider's recollection adds a grounded, eyewitness dimension to the broader picture of the boatlift that moved hundreds of thousands off Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
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