The Friend was one of the last of the low sided, straight sheared schooners built in the 1840s for Boston pilots.

The Friend was one of the last of the low sided, straight sheared schooners built in the 1840s for Boston pilots.

On February 2, 1859, Dolliver and Patrick Henry Chandler launched a yawl from the Friend to rescue the captain of the British schooner Caroline that went ashore on the rocks near the Boston Light in heavy weather approaching Boston.

[6][5][7] Artist Alfred Waud did a marine pencil drawing of the Boston Pilot Boat Fleet in 1859, which appeared in the Ballou's Pictorial of 1859.

The story in the Ballou's Pictorial said: These boats are all well-built, of exquisite model and crack sailors, and manned by as fine a set of men as ever trod a deck or handled a sheet.

They ride the waves like sea-ducks, and with their hardy crews are constantly exposed to the roughest weather.

[9] On March 31, 1860, one of her pilots boarded the bark St. Jago, off Cape Cod coming from Matanzas for Portland.

[10] On January 15, 1861, Captain James M. Dolliver was on the Friend when he met up with the ship Flying Dragon, which was going from New Orleans to Boston.

[6] The pilot boat Friend from Boston was reported as lost on the beach of Santa Rosa, Florida on November 20, 1868.

At Provincetown, she boarded the bark Benjamin Dickerman, 12 miles from the Highland Light, headed for Portland.

[14]: pp49-50 On May 15, 1893, pilot-boat Friend, with pilot Joe Fossett, picked up the two-masted schooner Modesty of Bangor, Maine, that was full of water.

Cooper wanted a more up-to-date vessel to challenge the Hesper, Varuna, and other boats in the Boston fleet.