The pilot boat Mary E. Fish was built in 1861 from the Edward F. Williams shipyard of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

[2] On April 24, 1861, the Mary E. Fish was launched from the Edward F. Williams shipyard for the New Jersey and Sandy Hook pilots.

He was 70 miles south of Sandy Hook when he encountered the wreck of the schooner Saxon, with a cargo of yellow pine lumber, that had been run into by the steamship Leo.

When attempting to board the pilot boat Charlotte Webb, he drowned when the yawl he was in capsized.

Of the pilot-boats, the Thomas S. Negus took first place and the Widgeon was second, the Mary E. Fish third, the James W. Elwell fourth, and the Edmund Blunt was last.

The schooner was carrying 153 pieces of granite when the vessel was caught up in a storm causing her to sink.

The Brooklyn pilots were Frank Nelson, Robert Sylvester, William Maxwell, and Jeremiah Reardon.

[11] On September 9, 1885, the pilot owners filed a suit for damages with the US District court against the schooner Frank Harrington.