The Yankee was a 19th-century Sandy Hook pilot boat built by Holbrook & Adams of Boston in 1848.

In 1852 the crew of the Yankee received silver medals from the Massachusetts Humane Society for rescuing the captain and mate of the schooner Reaper.

[3] On March 25, 1852, the pilot boat Yankee came across the schooner Reaper of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, that had capsized and sank in a heavy storm off Montauk, New York.

Captain Isaiah C. Kelley and Frederick Cobb clung to the yawl and were picked up by the Yankee, but the other three men drowned.

[4] The pilots on board the Yankee, John Curtis, John Leibby, William J. Murphy and William Champlin, received silver medals from the Massachusetts Humane Society, for rescuing the captain and mate of the schooner Reaper.

[6] The names of the rescued men were pilots John McGee and Charles W. Harthorn; crew members Andrew Collier, William Gatenby and Thomas Dennis.

The steam tug Titan was chartered by the Board of Underwriters with pilot William J. Murphy conducting the search.