On August 12, 1875, the pilot-boat Edward C. Knight was launched from the C. & R. Poillon shipyard at the foot of Bridge Street, Brooklyn, New York.

Captain Ellis Eldridge was commander of the pilot-boat E. C. Knight of the Delaware Breakwater Squadron.

[7][8] On December 27, 1879, off Cape May, New Jersey on a freezing morning, apprentice 16 year old Joseph Gregory was knocked overboard and drowned by the boom of the pilot-boat E. C. Night.

Knight.”[10] In 1882, the pilot-boats Knight of the Pennsylvania pilots and Bayard of the Delaware service raced for the steamship Indiana.

[12] During the Great Blizzard of 1888 the pilot boats E. C. Knight and J. Henry Edmunds were blown out to sea during the storm.