A sailor’s biggest fear is fire. That’s why firefighting is such an essential part of any ship’s training program, and why the Waterfront Museum in New York City was required to install a state-of-the art fire detection and protection system.

The Waterfront Museum was created in 1986 to ensure public waterfront access and to provide maritime/environ-mental education and cultural arts programs aboard an historic vessel. It is housed aboard the Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge #79, the last surviving wooden, covered railroad barge in America.

The barge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was designated by the United Nations as a “Regional Craft of the International Year of the Oceans” in 1998 for its work in opening up waterfronts for the use and enjoyment of the general public.

Incidentally, it was in 1998 that the Museum’s owner David Sharps’ luck began to turn. Showing its age, the barge began to experience a number of leaks. Summoning a diver to the scene, Sharps learned that the leaks could be repaired, but with that his luck continued to sour: the diver informed him that the ship had a bad case of shipworms, which were gnawing hungrily at the barge’s wooden structure. Due to the successful cleanup of the New York Harbor estuary over the past 20 years, shipworms have returned to the harbor in epidemic proportions. Their unchecked exponential proliferation is likely a result of the fact that one female lays a million eggs in her lifetime and that there are no known predators.

After embarking on a far-reaching dry-dock project, replacing the vessel’s hull, bow, sides, and stern at about a quarter of a million dollars – it seemed that Lady Luck had vented all of her anger. Then, about three weeks prior to returning to port, the ship’s dock fell into the water, a victim of the same shipworms Sharps had defeated in dry-dock. As he so eloquently put it, “The Old Lady was all dressed up with no place to go.”

After the dock, too, was replaced, it seemed that the museum was ready for visitors. Among the visitors, however, which included school groups, civic associations and music lovers, was the United States Coast Guard, which called the dock’s integrity into question. After performing a thorough risk assessment, the Coast Guard pronounced that the dock was fine, and The Waterfront Museum  could stay.

Then Sharps stated his vision for the Waterfront Museum to be a “showboat” barge, one that could travel and stop at various ports of call along the water highway. Doing so would require that the museum be “re-categorized” from a permanent building to a boat – specifically,an attraction vessel. Inspecting the vessel with this new designation in mind, the Coast Guard provided Sharps with a list of 20 deficiencies that would need to be addressed.

The most egregious and hardest to solve was the substandard fire detection and prevention systems installed on the barge. Sharps did have some battery-operated smoke detectors on board, along with a fire extinguisher. But the system that the Coast Guard had in mind, while not actually subject to its approval, would be far more comprehensive than what was in place. After an exhaustive search, Sharps became intrigued by the offerings of Fire-Lite Alarms, part of Honeywell’s Life Safety Group and a manufacturer of life safety systems. After personally visiting the vessel in late November 2005, John Dewey, the regional sales manager from Fire-Lite, and Luis Barros from System Sensor worked with Sharps – as well as representatives of the installer and cable provider — to design a system that would meet all of the museum’s unique fire-protection needs. Ultimately, once installation is complete, the barge will be equipped with a commercial grade fire panel, monitoring stations for manual evacuation and heat and smoke detection throughout the vessel.

Specifically, the team created a system that includes a 10-zone, 24-volt Fire alarm control panel with built-in DACT and remote-site Upload/Download capability; a LED-10 remote fire alarm annunciator with remote control of critical system functions; and manual fire alarm pull stations. System Sensor will provide the I-3 intelligent conventional photo electric smoke detectors and heat detectors. Also, the barge will be equipped with SpectrAlert selectable output Horn/Strobe units; SpectrAlert selectable output Strobe only units; and alarm bells.

The fire system will be able to accommodate every conceivable fire situation to notify people both on and off the ship either dockside or at sea. For instance, if the vessel is empty and a fire event occurs, two strobes will flash, alerting outside observers that there is a problem.

If there are people on the upper deck and a fire breaks out down below, three separate horns will alert the occupants. If the crew is on the main deck and a fire starts on top, horns in the crew office and down below will sound.

While the museum is at sea, it is being towed by a tugboat or other vessel since it has no propulsion system of its own. In the event of a fire, the crew and/or passengers can escape onto the powered vessel to get out of harm’s way.

Of course, if the ship is in port, evacuating will be as simple as walking ashore.
“Early detection is obviously critical,” Sharps emphasized. “With so many smoke detectors, heat detectors, and strobes, there are more than ample ways for people to be made aware of a fire event before it becomes a major problem.”

In addition to having such an abundant collection of detectors and strobes, the system has a central station alarm that will allow a call to directly alert the fire department in the event of an emergency.
The system can be powered in a number of ways — through shore power via an on-board generator, or by battery back-up if the generator is not working — virtually guaranteeing 24/7 protection.
In fashioning the system, Dewey emphasized that The Waterfront Museum presented some interesting challenges.

“We had to figure out how to adapt the system to the environment, which can, at times, be quite harsh,” he said. “The main concern is temperature as some areas of the vessel are unheated, and the products must be located in areas that are at least 32º F.”

Also contributing to The WaterFront Museum’s Coast Guard compliance project were Johnson Pumps of America, East Penn Manufacturing, Parker Hannifin Corporation, Thomas & Betts Corporation, Taylor Made Products, Big Beam Emergency Systems, Inc., Pauluhn Electric Manufacturing, LLP and Watts Radiant.

When the installation is complete, The Waterfront Museum will boast a fire-protection system that will serve as a model for other attraction vessels. From then on, Sharps’ luck could only change for the better.
 FSM