The thing about the boating community is that, while you may prefer sailboats to powerboats, or a deck boat to a speedboat, you are always, first and foremost, a boater. There is unity in that title.
Boaters exhibited such unity on this day in 2001, where, in southern Manhattan, people ran away from the falling twin towers to find themselves trapped on an island. Their only hope off was by boat.
Ferries filled up while hundreds of people crowded the shoreline, and the Coast Guard sent out a call for all available boats to come to the rescue. Within ten minutes, watercrafts were coming from all directions to aid those onshore.
Within the course of nine hours, about 500,000 people were rescued from the isle of Manhattan, making this boatlift the largest in history — beating out Dunkirk during WWII.
This is a demonstration of some things we all already knew: boats save lives, both literally and figuratively, and the boating community is incredible.