Fixing up a piece of history

June Casagrande

John Matthews remembers Old No. 9 when she was like new, cruising

the harbor for the safety of everyone around. In fact, Matthews

remembers more than one time that the old fire boat had to rescue

him. So when he saw her rotting at the Sea Scout Base in 1999, he

knew something had to be done.

“This is a piece of history,” said Matthews, a lifelong Newport

Beach resident. “This is something that should be preserved.”

Thanks to Matthews, the 1941 fire boat -- the first-ever fire boat

in Newport Beach -- is getting a loving and thorough restoration.

Just in time, too.

“We had a bunch of cosmetic improvements done since 1999, but

there were more serious problems,” he said. “She can’t just get by on

her looks anymore.”

Matthews, a district chairman for the Boy Scouts and a volunteer

at the Sea Base, has taken it upon himself to restore Old No. 9 to

her original glory.

After he took the job in 1999 to restore the historic fire boat,

he realized that the paint job and other beautifications wouldn’t be

enough. So on June 22 of this year, the boat was hauled to The Boat

Yard in Costa Mesa. Now up on blocks with the paint peeled off,

Matthews and friend Robert Payon are correcting the decades of

damage: Everything from dry rot to holes in the hull.

And for Matthews, this means preserving some of his own history.

For example, in 1963, he was piloting some friends to Catalina aboard

his father’s boat when an oil pump malfunctioned. After the Coast

Guard hauled Matthews back into Newport Harbor, it was Old No. 9 who

hauled him the rest of the way home.

It was just one of the tasks that the Harbor Department put Old

No. 9 to use for.

“They cited me for a couple of youthful indiscretions out there on

the water, too,” Matthews recalled.

In her long history, Old No. 9 saved parts of Newport Beach from

burning on several occasions. Notably, she helped save Balboa Island

from burning in the big fire of 1954. And she saved the day in

Mariners Mile in 1975, when the fire trucks that responded to a huge

blaze there couldn’t get enough water pressure to effectively fight

the flames. Old No. 9 pumped water straight out of the harbor into

the fire trucks, saving the day.

“I hate to see a piece of history thrown in the scrap pile,” said

Matthews, who has poured in thousands of dollars of his own money and

untold hours of his own time. “It’s a labor of love.”