Captain Rick Thornton, 60, has spoken out about the harrowing hours he spent evacuating thousands from Lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center attacks.
Thornton was four hours into his NY Waterway shift aboard the Henry Hudson on Sept. 11 when he spotted white smoke trailing from the towers. The initial radio report suggested a plane had struck the North Tower, and he and his crew assumed it was an accident until a massive fireball erupted 16 minutes later.
“We knew this was some kind of crazy coordinated attack,” Thornton recalled of the sight from his pilothouse, positioned between New Jersey and Midtown.
The Navy veteran immediately abandoned his route and jetted toward the chaos without waiting for permission from superiors. He had also responded during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
“I just immediately told my crew, ‘We’re going down there. We’re gonna start evacuating. Let’s go.'”
Thornton and his crew had aimed for Wall Street but were redirected to Battery Park after witnessing dozens of people jumping into the Hudson River to escape what he called the “horror show.”
“People saw a ferry come in and they just started climbing over the railing along the seawall and swarming onto the boat. My crew, they’re looking up at me, and I say ‘Just start loading!'” Thornton recalled.
More than 500 crying and screaming survivors packed onto the 399-capacity vessel, most clutching life jackets for any sense of security. When no more could fit, Thornton addressed those left behind through the loudspeaker.
“When we couldn’t fit any more people, I got on the loudspeaker and I told them, ‘Don’t worry folks, we’re coming back. We’ve got more boats coming.'”
The desperation only intensified as the ferry pulled away.
“And as we’re backing away from the seawall, people were still climbing over the rail and jumping across the open water to the boat. It was like that scene in ‘Titanic’ where they were trying to get on that last lifeboat,” Thornton said.
The Henry Hudson was halfway to Hoboken when the South Tower collapsed. The screaming aboard suddenly gave way to silence.
“They just were impacted by the same feeling, the same sense that the building is still filled with people. There’s all those people still on the ground. All those lives just winked out in the blink of an eye,” Thornton said.
The vessel made 20 trips that day, navigating through smog so thick the crew relied on radar rather than sight. Thornton also transported Secret Service agents, through whom he learned the Pentagon had been hit and that President George W. Bush was secure. Evacuations continued until roughly 7 p.m.
When finally told to discard their toxic uniforms, the crew complied willingly. Thornton, however, who was in the Navy reserves at the time, tore down the American flag that had flown throughout the mission.
“This was a historic moment. I know how important flags are — those mean a lot. They’re a part of history,” he said.
The ash-covered flag remained in Thornton’s home for two decades until this summer, when he donated it to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, where it now appears alongside victims’ shoes and charred FDNY trucks.
Thornton is now in his 36th year as a Waterway ferry captain and still pilots the Henry Hudson, working alongside others who led the massive water evacuation that rescued as many as 160,000 people from Manhattan that day.
“It’s the highest honor to know that you did something positive that day. Maybe you saved a life, maybe you saved a thousand lives,” Thornton said.
The 9/11 Memorial & Museum continues to display artifacts from the attacks and the rescue operations.