$5.95 THE WATTS SEAPOWER LIBRARY U.S. COAST GUARD In this fact-filled and reflective vol- ume, a veteran Coastguardsman tells the story of his own arm...
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THE WATTS SEAPOWER LIBRARY
138692
GUARD
U.S. COAST
^^
and reflective volume, a veteran Coastguardsman tells the story of his own armed service — In this
fact-filled
smallest
among
OJ
those of the United
States, yet surely one of the most val-
Captain Walter C. Capron (usee, Retired), in detailing the Coast
iant.
Guard's story from
its
beginnings in en
the early days of the Republic to the
present day, stresses that
its
and
duties
missions (except in wartime
when
it
operates under the U.S. Navy) are basically
humanitarian. Saving
tecting U.S. property,
basic quarantine
lives,
pro-
and enforcing
and other laws
is
the
Coast Guard's everyday business. But the course charted by the Coast Guard during its evolution was a stormy one clear
in
— as
Capt. Capron makes
volume. Today's U.S.
this
end result Revenue of four earlier Cutter Service (first urged and sponsored by Alexander Hamilton as the
Coast Guard
is
really the
services — the
"Revenue-Marine"); the U.S. Life Saving Service; the U.S. Lighthouse Service;
and the Bureau
of
Marine
Inspection and Navigation. Eventually the
government created the Coast
Guard which,
in time of peace, oper-
ates under the Treasury Dept.
Personal accounts as well as exciting events in Coast Guard annals come
under Capt. Capron's scrutiny as he recalls Coast Guard activities in capturing "rummies" during Prohibition, effecting such rescues as that of Morro Castle, searches on the high seas, amphibious operations during World War II,
and many
others. (See back flap)
fe^
THE WATTS SEAPOWER LIBRARY
THE U.S. COAST GUARD by Captain Walter C. Capron, U.S.
COAST GUARD (RET.)
Preface by Admiral E.
COMMANDANT,
J.
Roland,
U.S.C.G.
Franklin Watts, Inc.
575 Lexington Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022
Marin County Free Library Civic Center Ackninistration
San
Buiiding
Rafael, California
FIRST PRINTING
© 1965 by Franklin Watts, Inc.
Copyright
Library of Congress Catalog Card
Number 65-21639
Printed in the United States of America
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I
am
indebted to
many
of
my
former associates in the Coast Guard for
their very kind assistance in obtaining various
and
government publications
reports. Several retired, as well as active duty, ofiBcers
with helpful
hints, particularly for the
The wholehearted cooperation
provided
me
period 1917-39.
of Capt.
Warner K. Thompson,
Jr.,
USCG, Comdr, James D. Doyle, USCG, and Lt. Comdr. Adrian L. Lonsdale, USCG, all of the Public Information Division of Coast Guard Headquarters, made much of this work possible. To Mr. Hyman Kaplan of the Public Information Division
I
give
my
thanks for his encouragement and
timely advice.
Comdr. John Natwig, USCG, was gracious enough
me
copies of the
USCG,
oflScial
to
make
reports of his father. Boatswain
covering the loss of the CG-245
S.
available to B. Natwig,
San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1925. I had originally heard only a very modest fragmentary narrative by Capt. Norman C. Manyon, then of the Lighthouse Service, later of the Coast Guard. I particularly wish to thank Miss Agnes McGeehan whose untiring assistance in preparing and editing my manuscript was invaluable. To all who assisted me in the preparation of this work, my sincere off
thanks.
Arlington, Virginia
138692
c
Walter C. Capron
To my
wife, Gertrude,
whose prevailing good humor helped me over the
many rough spots.
Contents PREFACE, by
Adm.
E.
J.
Roland, Commandant, U.S.C.G.
1
3
PROLOGUE Part I 1789-1917 1
ALEXANDER HAMILTON'S FLEET: The Revenue Cutter Service
2
BUILDING A tradition:
The Lifesaving 3
9
22
Service
29
LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE:
The Lighthouse Service 4
STEAMBOAT 'rOUND THE BEND: The Steamboat Inspection Service The Bureau of Navigation
40
Part II 1917-1939
5
MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY: World War I and Demobilization
55
6
SAMARITANS OF THE SEA: The New and Old in Assistance
64
Work
7
THE SEAGOING HANDYMAN: Some Other Coast Guard Tasks
76
8
THE HERITAGE OF THE
89
'tITANIc':
International Ice Patrol
9
10
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT: The Coast Guard During Prohibition
FROM TRADE SCHOOL TO COLLEGE: The Coast Guard Academy
97
114
11
LIGHTS ARE BURNING BRIGHTLY:
The Later Lighthouse 12
121
Service
OBJECT— MARITIME SAFETY: Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation
129
Part III 1939-1946
13
V^^ATCHFUL WAITING:
139
Prewar Neutrality 14
CONTINENTAL DEFENSE: Port Security and Beach Patrol
144
15
COMBAT assignment:
151
Escort and Amphibious
Duty
16
SAFETY at sea, WARTIME VERSION: The Coast Guard's Regular Duties— Expanded
160
17
CONFUSION DRILL:
169
Demobilization Part
IV
18
CHARTER FOR THE FUTURE: Postwar Rebuilding and Korea
175
19
FARAWAY PLACES: The Loran Stations
181
20
A DECADE OF PROGRESS: New and Better Ways of Performing Old Tasks
185
21
NEW
HORIZONS: Continuing New Developments in the U.S. Coast Guard
196
22
THE FORWARD LOOK: where We've Been— Where We're Going
204
INDEX
208
Preface This
is
an
insider's
book on the United
States Coast Guard. Into
it
Capt. Walter Capron has poured experience accumulated over nearly
Coast Guard oflBcer. It has the accuracy and authenticity which only a conscientious, well-informed professional can bring to such work. As an officer who served as my Deputy Chief of StaflF at Coast thirty-five years of distinguished service as a
Guard Headquarters
in
Washington, D. C, and as a
member
of the
Interagency Steering Committee on Coast Guard Roles and Mis-
Captain Capron has had an unusual opportunity to view this many-faceted service as a whole from an excellent vantage point. It has placed him in the mainstream of the thinking which is now molding the future of this 175-year old service. With this volume. Captain Capron has made a valuable contribution to history by providing the sions,
first
in
depth treatment of the Coast Guard's complex organizational
development.
For anyone seeking an understanding of the history and operation of the Coast Guard, this book is indispensable reading. E.
J.
Roland
Admiral, U.
S.
Commandant
Coast Guard
Prologue unique among the nations of the world in developing a military service— the Coast Guard— whose reason for being is basically humanitarian, and concerning itself entirely with services to the citizen, collectively and individually, in a broad scope of functions. All of these services are performed to some degree in other countries, divided between private and government sponsorship; when within the government, they are assigned to various military, commercial, and transportation departments. In the United States, this broad spectrum of missions over the years has been gradually assigned to the Coast Guard, supporting one major theme— the dignity, importance, and worth of the individual human life. It is this theme, usually unspoken but strongly inferred throughout the history of the Coast Guard, which has inspired the unswerving loyalty of the thousands of persons who have served in it. The service has borne the name United States Coast Guard since 1915 when Congress passed and the President signed "An Act to create the Coast Guard," thus joining the existing Revenue Cutter
The United
Service
States of
America
and the Lifesaving
is
Service,
".
.
.
which
shall constitute a
part of the military forces of the United States." Since 1915 two other
bureaus in their
own
right,
make up
the present-day Coast Guard,
a total of five different services, which originally existed as separate
bureaus in their own right, make up the present day Coast Guard. These five— Revenue Cutter Service, Lifesaving Service, Lighthouse Service, Steamboat Inspection Service, and the Bureau of Navigation —were all originally in the Treasury Department. The Lighthouse Service, the Steamboat Inspection Service, and the Bureau of Navigation subsequently became a part of the Department of Commerce. They were all first established to deal with the sea and its effect on the American citizen. The two oldest components of the Coast
3
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Guard, the Revenue Cutter Service and the Lighthouse Service, stemmed directly from the bold economic plan of Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. The other three services had their genesis in the humanitarian feelings of the American public, and the recognition by a new maritime nation of its responsibility to its seafaring citizens. In each case either changing conditions, outstanding incidents, or some of both, led to the establishment of the
new
service.
When
Alexander Hamilton proposed to Congress the legislation which would authorize what would be in effect a seagoing military force, he could not possibly have foreseen the future developments in which this force became the nation's sea police, but he must have had some idea as to the potential of the revenue cutters. He urged Congress to create the professional corps of commissioned officers for, to give the officers military rank, he said, "would attach them to
duty by a nicer sense of honor." the Coast Guard, with its Reserve, is one of the five armed forces of the United States. Organizationally, the other four— Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps— are in the Department of Defense. With a few exceptions, such as the Army Engineer Corps and their
Today
the
Navy Oceanographic (formerly Hydrographic)
OfiBce, these serv-
ices have the primary mission of defending this country in time of
war.
The Coast Guard operates under the Treasury Department in Navy Department in wartime, or when the
peacetime, and under the President so directs.
When
the expression
"Armed Forces"
is
used, a large segment of
the public does not know, or has forgotten, that States Coast Guard. Unfortunately,
many
of Defense, as well as a considerable
it
includes the United
officials in
number
the Department
of congressional
mem-
bers, share this misunderstanding. As a result, important proposed legislation vitally affecting the personnel of the Coast Guard, is frequently introduced without the Coast Guard or the Treasury Depart-
ment having had any opportunity to comment on it. The tasks of an organization like the Coast Guard,
itself
the suc-
cessor to several separate agencies, often appear to be completely
unrelated.
The
casual reader of the daily newspaper in one of our
large seaports will find
many
references to the Coast
4
Guard which
PROLOGUE seemingly have no connection with each other.
A
routine marine
rescue; the estabhshment of an aid to navigation; a notice of inspec-
and
tion of a large seagoing vessel;
a report of ice conditions
on a
navigable river are but a few examples. The failure to recognize the relationship
among
The
by the general and members of
the Coast Guard's varied duties
public often extends to federal government
oflBcials
and variety of these tasks frequently raise the question, "Are they all necessary?" and then the corollary question, "Is the Coast Guard the logical agency to be performing them?" In recognition of this problem, and faced with the fact that the Coast Guard's physical plant was old and "falling apart at the seams," Congress.
requiring
multiplicity
secretaries.
Secretary of the Treasury C. an action somewhat reminiscent of earlier directed that a study be made of Coast Guard roles
extensive
Douglas Dillon
He
replacement.
initiated
and missions in order to provide a sound basis for long-range planning and budgetary justification. Studies of the Coast Guard and its separate predecessors were nothing new.
Where
Secretary Dillon
departed from tradition was in the why and the how. Earlier studies had always started with the basic assumption that something was wrong with the Coast Guard, and attempted to find the cure. They
had been made by outsiders with little or no knowledge of the service and its problems, and often even less personal interest. The Roles and Missions Study group represented the Coast Guard, the Treasury Department, and other government agencies having dealings with the service. Their reports, with the findings and recommendations, were quite broad and extensive. These reports fully answered the question, "Why is the Coast Guard?" In answering this question, however, the Roles and Missions Study raised still another—"How did the Coast Guard come about?" The Coast Guard is not like Topsy; it did not "just grow." It is a product of evolution, developing as the United States itself developed. Sometimes this has been gradual, with no obvious or weUdefined cause.
More
Titanic, or the
enactment of a
tion
)
Act,
was the
ice's missions.
often
some
disaster,
new law
direct cause of a
Some
such as the sinking of the Volstead (Prohibi-
like the
change or extension of the serv-
of these significant events are related in the
ensuing chapters.
5
PARTI 1789-1917
CHAPTER ONE
Alexander Hamilton's The Revenue Cutter
Fleet:
Service
Revenue Cutter Hudson cruised slowly back and forth oflF the entrance to Cardenas Bay. It was early May 1898, and already the northeast tradewinds, which usually cooled this coast of Cuba, had begun to die away. The tiny cutter, built for harbor duty in the United States, had been assigned the unexciting task of blockading Matanzas and Cdrdenas bays. Inside Cardenas Harbor lay three Spanish gunboats, showing no desire to come out and fight. Although the main entrance to Cardenas was choked with debris, a narrow channel had been discovered by the Hudson a few days previously; it had been reported by her commanding oflBcer, First Lt. Frank H. Newcomb, with the suggestion that a raid with possible destruction of the gunboats was entirely
The United
States
feasible.
On May
United States gunboats Machias and Wilmington, with torpedo boat Winslow, arrived off Cardenas with orders to conduct a raid into the bay. The plan of action called for the Machias to He offshore and shell the beaches and thickets near the channel, while the Winslow, Wilmington and Hudson entered the bay. These three 11,
would cover the south, central, and northern shores of the bay respectively. As the vessels approached the wharves, Spanish batteries opened up, the attacking vessels returning the fire. In the ensuing engagement, the Hudson fired over a hundred rounds from her two six-pounders. The Winslow, being closest inshore, was receiving the brunt of the Spanish fire, although there was plenty left over for the other vessels. Suddenly the Winslow was observed to ships
9
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
slacken speed and zigzag erratically. Spanish shells had found their
mark. Newcomb, in the pilothouse of the Hudson, immediately recognized the situation for what it was: an American vessel drifting helplessly near the shore, under the hot
fire
of
enemy
batteries.
Without hesitation he brought the Hudson through the shoal water to the Winslow's side. Both vessels continued to return the Spanish fire, which was increasing in tempo and accuracy. A heaving line was passed as the tiny cutter came near the torpedo boat. Even as the first recipients of the heaving line were killed, other members of the Winslow's crew took their places, securing the precious hawser. Slowly the Hudson and her helpless tow worked out to seaward until they reached safety beyond the range of the Spanish guns. The gallant action of First Lieutenant Newcomb and his crew of the Hudson was recognized by the President, and later Congress, when medals of honor were voted to the officers and enlisted men of the Hudson. But the action also symbolized two of the traditions of the Revenue Cutter Service that had evolved in the little more than one hundred years of its existence— cooperation with the Navy in time of war and the rendering of assistance to vessels in distress. When the first Congress of the new United States of America convened in 1789, there were a number of housekeeping chores to take care of. Of top priority was the problem of where the new republic was to obtain its operating funds. Congress' first act, passed on July 31, 1789, related to this problem and the protection of industry and agriculture in the United States. This act established a protective tariff "to regulate the collection of duties imposed by law on the tonnage of ships or vessels, and on goods, wares, and merchandises imported into the United States." The act also authorized "the employment of boats which may be provided for securing the collection of the revenue."
For the next few months, Alexander Hamilton was busy setting up the machinery for collection of revenues due the United States, and
planning
how best
to
meet current expenses and lower the mounting
national debt. Early in 1790, Hamilton prepared his report to Congress
on the
first
year's operation of the Treasury
10
Department, along
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
S
FLEET
with his recommendations for improvement. He analyzed the TariflF Act section by section and, inaugurating a custom carried on by many secretaries since, he attempted to interpret the will of Congress. His comments on the section which dealt with the employment of boats were quite to the point: "This section contemplates a provision of boats for securing the collection of the revenue; but no authority to provide them is anywhere given." Hamilton then proceeded to ask for a fleet of ten boats, thirty-six to forty feet in length, properly manned and armed to assist in the collection of customs revenues.
On August
4,
1790, Congress enacted the law
ton what he felt he
needed— authority
which gave Hamil-
to build ten cutters for the
protection of the customs revenue, their cost to be paid for out of the duties collected. This act, which came to be known as the Organic Act of the old Revenue-Marine, authorized a total of forty officers, four to each cutter, and made them "Officers of the Customs." Although the act referred to "Revenue Cutters," it was many years before the service itself had an oflBcial name. The new cutters were scheduled to operate in specific areas. Hamilton determined that each should be built in the general vicinity of its future operating area, and he therefore delegated the responsibility and supervision of building to the collector of customs, under whom the vessel would operate. As might be expected under such an arrangement, some details of the various vessels differed considerably. The vessels were in general, however, quite similar. Officers for the new ships were recruited from officers of the old Continental Navy. Capt. Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire was at the top of the list of masters, and his commission, dated March 21, 1791, is believed to be the first commission issued by President Washington to an officer afloat. By the end of 1791, the ten cutters had been built, manned, and put into operation against the all too active smugglers. The small cutters were a good beginning, and within their capabilities, they did an excellent job. Yet they proved to be too small and too limited to perform all the duties expected of them. Seven new and larger vessels were built for duty near the larger ports, and
by 1798 had joined the
fleet,
replacing some of the older vessels. 11
On
THE April 30, 1798 the
number
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Navy Department came
into being, but for a
months the revenue cutters continued to be the major combat force. Less than a year later, on March 2, 1799, Congress laid down the rule v^hich was generally observed until 1915: Whenever the President directed, revenue cutters were to operate with the Navy under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy. This authority referred to individual cutters, and not until the formation of the Coast Guard in 1915 was there authority to transfer the service as a whole. From 1799 until 1801, during the quasi war with France, most of the cutters served at one time or another with the Navy. Three of them, Pickering, Eagle, and Scammel, served for the whole period. The next ten or twelve years saw first a contraction and then an expansion of the Revenue-Marine; actions which were to be repeated many times in the next one hundred and fifty years. Thomas JeflFerson's administration began with a drive for governmental economy. This extended to the revenue cutters, and many vessels were sold at auction or permanently transferred to the Navy. Most of the ofiicers and crews were discharged. The foreign poficy of the administration was such as to nearly destroy the seaborne commerce of the United States. Although the intent of this policy was to stop aggression by Great Britain and France, it failed dismally. To enforce some of the restrictions on commerce, more revenue cutters were needed. To help meet this need Congress, in 1809, authorized twelve new vessels. When war broke out with Great Britain in 1812, the new revenue cutters and some of the old ones were available for service with the Navy. There are many accounts of the exploits of the cutters in this war. The names Eagle, Surveyor, Madison, and Vigilant were well known to the public. By the end of the war in 1815, some ten cutters were stricken from the list as war casualties. That same year also found the Treasury Department sorely in need of new vessels. of
part of the naval
For the
first
time in the history of the revenue cutters, an attempt
were drawn up for the same in essentially were three different classes of cutters. They rig and hull lines, the basic difference between classes being in size and armament. Two cutters of the medium-size class were built in
was made
to build several vessels of a class. Plans
12
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
S
FLEET
summer of 1819 for duty in the Gulf of Mexico and, appropriately enough, were named the Alabama, and Louisiana. At this time, the the
Gulf of Mexico was infested with pirates, who estabhshed towns as hangouts on the islands and deltas along the coast. One of the most famous, or rather infamous pirates, was Jean Laffite. Both the Ala-
bama and
Louisiana were busily engaged in the work of suppressing and destroying the buccaneers. At times, the American and British navies even cooperated in this effort. Ultimately, after many of the pirates were killed in action, and still others executed following conviction in civil courts, the Gulf and the Caribbean became a safe place for shipping.
Another which was
new
A number
of this class
still
was designed in the early 1830's, and carried quite a respectable armament. were built and stationed along the Atlantic
class of cutter
larger
Coast. During the Seminole class,
War
ten cutters, mostly of this
operated in Florida waters, cooperating with the
new
Army and
providing protection to various towns and settlements.
During the first forty years of their existence, the revenue cutters accumulated various additional duties. Whereas in the beginning they had been practically uni-functional, enforcing laws pertaining to the customs, many of their new duties bore no direct relationship to the primary one. They were now expected to enforce navigation laws; anti- wrecking, plundering, piracy, and slave trade acts; quarantine regulations; and neutrality laws. Of course, the cutters also lived up to the unwritten law of the sea— rendering assistance to vessels in distress whenever possible. Because of their frequent cruises in performance of their enforcement duties, they were usually first on the scene when a distress call occurred. In 1831, Secretary of the Treasury Louis
McLane
took
ojBBcial
notice of the cutters'
and issued orders to seven commanding on assigned stations during the winter months. These orders directed that all vessels sighted be spoken to, to determine if any aid was needed, and if so to provide what was necessary. As a sequel to Secretary McLane's action. Congress, in an act of December 22, 1837, authorized the President "to cause any suitable number of public vessels ... to cruise upon the potential for assistance work, oflBcers,
directing
them
to cruise
13
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
coast, in the severe portion of the season
...
to aflFord such aid to
distressed navigators as their circumstances and necessities
may
re-
was carried on by the revenue cutters, and later the Coast Guard, for the next hundred years. But it was about time for the pendulum to swing back again. The country suflFered a business depression from 1837 to 1840, which spurred Congress to seek more economy in government operations. The Committee on Commerce took a hard look at several agencies operating under the Treasury Department and made a report to Congress which attacked the system of cutters as well as the Coast Survey and the Lighthouse Establishment. It was particularly critical of the manner of operating under the collectors of customs and reported that "the crews, ships, and boats are subject to their orders, for pleasure, interest, or public service." Although the committee's report was strongly critical, its recommendations were rather innocuous, and accomplished little. It did, however, focus attention on the revenue cutters to the point where, a year or so later, an attempt was made to abolish them and to substitute naval units. To this proposal, the Committee on Commerce remained cold, and insisted on overquire." This "winter cruising"
hauling the cutter system rather than abolishing it. Secretary of the Treasury John C. Spencer agreed with
much
of
the committee's report, realizing that central control of the cutters
by the department was
practically nonexistent.
As a
first
step,
he
established a Revenue-Marine Bureau within the Treasury Depart-
ment, and to head it he brought in an experienced revenue cutter captain, Alex V. Fraser. Captain Fraser, who might be called the first
Commandant, took During Captain
made
office in April 1843.
Revenue-Marine was drawn up and
Fraser's five years in office, the
great progress.
A new
set of regulations
published, replacing the ineffectual regulations in effect at the time.
The merit system for promotion of commissioned officers, first introduced by Secretary McLane, was strengthened. Steam propulsion were experimented with. Although several ships were built using different methods of applying steam to propulsion, the service's overall success with steam at that time was not very good. The lessons learned, however, were ultimately put to good use in later vessels. For a good part of Fraser's tour as head of the Revenue-
and
iron ships
14
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
S
FLEET
Marine, the country was at war with Mexico. Cutters worked with
both the
Army and
the Navy, proving their versatihty in the various
George M. Bibb, gave the same support that Fraser had been receiving from Spencer. In 1848 Fraser was succeeded by Capt. Richard Evans. Captain Evans had httle opportunity to do anything constructive, for within the year he was transferred without rehef. The Revenue-Marine Bureau, which had been estabhshed administratively, rather than by legislation, fell completely apart. Control of the cutters reverted to local collectors of customs, with cutter captains and oflBcers being judged more by their political influence than their abilities. This low period in the history of the Revenue-Marine lasted until the outbreak of the Civil War. Ironically, it was during this period, in the year operations. Secretary Spencer's successor,
1852, that a sister service, the Lighthouse Establishment, through the Lighthouse Board came successfully under centralized authority free from serious political interference. One of the few bright spots in this otherwise drab period was the building of the side-wheel steam cutter Harriet Lane. Built of wood
from a design submitted by a leading naval
architect, the Harriet
Lane belatedly justified Eraser's belief in steam. Completed in early 1858, she was assigned to duty with the Navy in a little-known expedition to Paraguay.
No
hostile action took place
because "showing
the flag" accomplished the purpose of the expedition.
The
cutter
rendered valuable service by floating vessels of the fleet which had grounded in the shallow river waters. She was returned to the Rev-
enue-Marine in 1859, and was engaged in patrolling
off
the Florida
coast to prevent violations of the slave trade law.
War, many of the revenue cutters were ordered The Harriet Lane herself, as a part of the naval expedition to relieve Fort Sumter, fired the first shot from any vessel in the war. Many oflBcers of the Revenue-Marine were faced with the same decision that oflBcers of the Army and Navy faced: they were from southern states and had to decide where their loyalDuring the
Civil
to duty with the Navy.
lay— to state or nation. A number of them, including commandoflBcers, decided in favor of their home states and turned their vessels over to the Confederacy. Cutters assigned to the Union Navy performed various missions,
ties
ing
15
38692
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
most of which were connected with blockade duty. Those cutters which remained under the Treasury Department carried on their regular duties, which probably contributed as much to the war eflFort as blockade duty. Sea trade was vital to the Union cause, and assistance to vessels so engaged directly helped. Enforcement of the revenue laws was vital, for Congress, in order to help finance the war, continually raised import duties. To perform all of its duties, the Revenue-Marine purchased many private vessels and built a number of fast steamers. Inevitably some cutters, such as the Harriet Lane, were captured by the Confederates. After the war, Revenue- Marine operations were returning to normal when, in 1867, at the urging of Secretary of State WiUiam H. Seward, the United States agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia. The cutter Lincoln was immediately sent north carrying the first United States ofiicials to Alaska. Other cutters followed. For about ten years a few American troops were stationed in Alaska at scattered stations, but these were withdrawn in 1877, and the cutters became the sole symbol of United States sovereignty. Upon their commanding officers rested the responsibility for preserving law and order in most of Alaska. It was from these small beginnings that the famous Bering Sea Patrol began. For many years the Revenue and Coast Guard cutters, by means of the Bering Sea Patrol, brought medical aid, law and order, and protection to the scattered Eskimo villages. To the natives and American prospectors, they were the United States. The names of the early vessels, Lincoln, Wolcott, Corwin, Bear and Thetis, are still remembered among the older settlers.
Aside from opening a
new
frontier
and establishing new and
greater requirements for revenue cutters, the purchase of Alaska
had an even greater impact on the Revenue-Marine. The Alaskan duty and attendant publicity focused the attention of Congress and the Treasury Department again on the RevenueMarine and emphasized the need for proper administration. George indirectly
Bout well. Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant, took the bull by the horns. He estabhshed an interim bureau within the Department consisting of the Revenue-Marine, Lifesaving Service, Steamboat Inspection Service, and Marine Hospital S.
16
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
S
FLEET
Service. To head this bureau, he appointed N. Broughton Devereux, with a directive to study and implement measures for putting these services on a sound basis. Devereux appointed two commissions to consider the Revenue-Marine. One, headed by revenue cutter Cap-
was concerned with personnel matters. This commission and through its "plucking" powers, was largely instrumental in making the officer corps an efficient group. The second commission, headed by Capt, C. T. Pattertain Faunce,
established criteria for fitness of oflBcers,
son of the Coast Survey, concerned
itself
largely with the subject of
equipment, recommending that cutters be vessels specifically designed to meet the needs of the service, with emphasis on power, ease of maneuverabihty, and efficiency in use of manpower. Both commissions touched on administration. Secretary Boutwell reestablished a Revenue- Marine Bureau in the Treasury Department, placing under it both the revenue cutters floating
and the lifesaving stations. He deviated from the principle estabby Secretary Spencer, and placed a civilian rather than a cutter captain at the head of the new bureau. His choice of an able, career civil servant from the Treasury was a happy one. On February 1, 1871, Sumner I. Kimball became head of the Revenue-Marine Bureau, supervising the activities of both the revenue cutters and lished
the lifesaving stations. In 1875, Congress officially established the
Revenue-Marine Division, with Kimball as its head. Kimball's conwere of lasting effect. In furthering the objectives of Captain Faunce's commission, he completely changed the methods for officer procurement. His efforts in this area are more completely covered in Chapter Ten. Under Kimball's direction, a new fleet of cutters was built to meet the exacting requirements of the service. Kimball centralized the control and administration of the cutters, making them a part of a close-knit organization. Kimball did not lose sight of the lifesaving stations and inaugurated new methods which further demonstrated his tributions to the cutter service
extraordinary organizational ability.
When
Congress, in 1878, estab-
lished the Lifesaving Service as a separate bureau in the Treasury
Department, Kimball became
its
first
and only General Super-
intendent.
The Lifesaving
Service's gain
was the Revenue-Marine's 17
loss.
Sub-
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
sequent civilian heads of the bureau were undoubtedly capable men,
but they failed to appreciate and utilize the cutter officers' capabilities in administrative positions. There were no officers on duty in the Washington headquarters, and again the evils of misunderstand-
The condition of the cutters deteriorated because maintenance funds. As the earlier overhaul of the officer appointment and promotion system had no provision for retirement of officers, they normally remained on duty much longer than their efficiency warranted. This in turn slowed promotion almost to a standstill. This deterioration of the Revenue-Marine did not pass unnoticed by Congress and the public. There soon came a popular demand, pinpointed by newspaper editorials, that the Revenue-Marine become a separate corps with its own commandant, with a status something like that of the Marine Corps. In deference to these opinions, Secretary of the Treasury William Windom on December 14, 1889 appointed Capt. Leonard G. Shepard Chief of the Revenue-Marine Division. Less than five years later, Congress by an act of July 31, 1894, required that the head of the division be a captain of "the Revenue Cutter Service." This was apparently the first use of the
ing were evident. of insufficient
name Revenue Cutter Service. Under the new military chief
rapid strides were made.
of Instruction for officer candidates gress,
having been given the
became
straight,
The School
active once again.
unvarnished
facts,
Con-
passed
which weeded out by retirement the aged or infirm offiholding up others' promotions. Under Captain Shepard, a technical staflF which included naval engineers and architects was established at headquarters. With the blessing of Congress, several new cutters were designed and built embodying new principles of propulsion and design. As we have seen, one of them, the harbor cutter Hudson, became quite famous in the Spanish-American War. By 1900 five new seagoing cutters of advanced design and capable of nearly 18 knots had gone into service. When the battleship Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor, triggering the Spanish-American War, six revenue cutters had already been
legislation
cers
who were
patrolling the waters off Florida for three years enforcing neutrality
18
ALEXANDER HAMILTON laws.
During
these laws.
S
FLEET
time they had seized seven ships for violation of was a simple matter for these and other revenue
this
It
be ordered to duty with the Navy. When war broke out, the new cutter McCulloch was proceeding from her building yard on the East Coast to her new station at San Francisco via the Suez Canal and the Far East. Upon her arrival at Singapore orders were waiting, directing her to report to Commo. George Dewey on the cutters to
Asiatic station for duty. After reporting to
Commodore Dewey
at
Hong Kong, she and the rest of the squadron proceeded to the Philippines where the battle of Manila Bay established the new American position in the Orient. The McCulloch acquitted herself nobly and after the battle, because of her speed, Dewey sent her to Hong Kong
bearing the
first
dispatches of his great victory.
At the end of the war, the revenue cutters returned to their regular tasks under the Treasury Department. During the preceding years, their duties had been steadily increasing. Enforcement of anchorage regulations had come in 1888. Then came responsibility for derelict destruction in United States waters and the high seas, followed by the new duty of patrolling marine regattas and parades in order to protect life and property. Replacement of obsolete cutters continued and, during the next fifteen years, the Revenue Cutter Service was able to replace most of its fleet with fast, able new vessels. New developments in related fields were not neglected, as evidenced by the installation of wireless equipment on a revenue cutter in 1904. By 1910, seventeen cutters were so equipped. The appointment of Captain Shepard as Chief of the RevenueMarine Division ushered in the era of military commandants. Yet there was still an inherent weakness in the system which defeated any attempt at establishing a logical chain of command. Individual cutters operated under the orders of the various collectors of customs, while the collectors themselves were responsible only to the Secretary of the Treasury. A gap was left between the commandant and the ships. Because of the peculiar situation in Alaska, a militarv command had been set up directly under Washington, and proved by its success the soundness of the principle of the direct chain of command. In 1911 two Revenue Cutter districts were set up on the 19
THE West
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Coast, and one on the East Coast.
The commanders
of these
were originally designated inspectors of ships, but gradually assumed operational authority over the cutters. This change in organization became official when, in 1913, the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and New York divisions were established. Each was headed by a senior Revenue Cutter Service officer with a small staff. Soon shore depots were added, and the service finally had an administrative setup capable of operational control and logistic quasi-districts
support.
During the
life
of the
Revenue-Marine there were frequent
sporadic attempts to eliminate the service, usually by proposing
Navy or by the assumption of cutter duties by the Navy. The attempts generally took place during economy drives, and frequently during low periods in the Navy's history. Nor did these attempts stop with the formation of the Coast Guard, the most recent one being in 1933. In 1911 President William Taft established what became known as the Cleveland Commission, naming F. A. Cleveland as its head. This commission was charged with making a detailed study of the federal government and its departments and bureaus, with a view toward governmental economy by ehminating unneeded and overlapping functions and agencies. In its study of the various maritime bureaus it found a number of functional overlaps. Among its many recommendations, two are of particular interest. One recommended the amalgamation of the Lighthouse Service and Lifesaving Service under the Department of Commerce and Labor. The other suggested breaking up the Revenue Cutter Service, assigning some cutters and duties to the Navy, the rest to the other maritime agencies. This report aroused considerable interest and inspired still other recommendations. To the proposition of abolishing the Revenue Cutter Service, Congress was somewhat cold. transfer to the
The
task of analyzing
and summing up the disadvantages
of the
commission's recommendations remained for Franklin MacVeagh, President Taft's Secretary of the Treasury. In a letter to the President, he took violent exception to
many
of the commission's basic
assumptions, thus attacking the validity of
20
its
recommendations.
ALEXANDER HAMILTON
S
FLEET
MacVeagh then proposed another plan of consohdation was much more logical. This plan envisioned making the Lifesaving Service a part of the Revenue Cutter Service. And lest there be any doubt as to his sincerity, MacVeagh directed Captain Bertholf, Commandant of the Revenue Cutter Service, and Mr. Secretary
which he
felt
Kimball, Superintendent of the Lifesaving Service, to draft a
bill to
drew strong bipartisan support and easily passed the Senate in March 1914. With President Woodrow Wilson's strong backing, it passed the House on January 20, 1915, becoming law eight days later. It began, "There shall be established in heu of the Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service, to be composed of those two organizations, the Coast Guard, which shall constitute a part of the military forces of the United accomplish the merger. This proposed
States.
bill
." .
.
Thus, on January 30, 1915 the merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service took place, forming the United States Coast Guard.
Within a
little
the acid test of the validity of
its
forces of the United States."
21
more than two years would come place as a "part of the mihtary
CHAPTER TWO
Building a Tradition: The
Lifesaving Service
Concern for shipwrecked people along
the shores of the oceans
is
actually a relatively recent symbol of civilization. For centuries the
cargoes and personal possessions washed ashore after a wreck were
considered the rightful property of the
first finders.
It
was but a
short step from salvaging valuable items of cargo to keeping pieces of personal property of the shipwrecked people.
On many
shores,
including American ones, the occupation of wrecker was sometimes
considered an honorable one. The label "wrecker" covered a broad category of fittings
men
ranging from those
from wrecks
to those
who
salvaged cargo and ship
who, by display of
false lights, actually
caused wrecks and plundered the survivors. The earliest concerted thought in America for the welfare of shipwrecked people was evidenced by the establishment, in late 1785, of the Massachusetts Humane Society. Patterned after the British Royal
Humane Society, the the shipwrecked coasts.
The
first
by
Massachusetts society began
its
ministrations to
establishing small houses of refuge along the
ones were erected near Nantasket Beach and on
Lovell Island, Boston Harbor. These small structures were stocked
with material for building
was unfortunate that
rats,
fires,
and supplies of clothing and food.
human and
It
otherwise, often pillaged the
supplies.
America was built William for gunwales Raymond, constructed the boat with cork inside the
As
far as
can be ascertained, the
first
lifeboat in
in Nantucket, Massachusetts for the society. Its builder,
22
BUILDING A TRADITION better flotation,
Massachusetts
and provided
Humane
and steering
for ten oars
oars.
The
Society stationed this boat at Cohasset, on
Massachusetts Bay, thus estabhshing the
first
hfeboat station in
By 1846 the Humane Society was maintaining eighteen Hfeboat stations along the Massachusetts coast, in addition to numerous houses of refuge. Each station was under the supervision of a America.
had a vokmteer crew, which was
paid, trained keeper; the keeper
paid by the it
drill
and by the
operated on a much smaller
Association of
The
first
New
A
rescue.
scale,
similar organization, although
was the Lifesaving Benevolent
York, estabHshed in 1849.
year that Congress recognized in
responsibility of the federal
government
its
appropriations any
for the saving of life along
our shores was 1847. The system of lighthouses was designed to prevent shipwreck. Revenue cutters had been given the task of saving
life
and property
at sea. In
March
1847, Congress appropri-
shipwrecked from the shore," and placed it in the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury "for furnishing the lighthouses on the Atlantic Coast with means of ated $5,000 "for rendering assistance to the
rendering assistance to shipwrecked mariners." It was just as well that there was no comptroller general of the United States in those days, because the next we hear of that money it was placed in the
hands of the collector of customs of Boston for the Massachusetts Humane Society to build and equip new lifeboat stations along the Massachusetts coast. This appropriation was just a beginning, however, since money was appropriated each year thereafter for lifeboat stations until, in 1854, there were 137 lifeboats stationed along tlie coasts of the United States, and the Great Lakes. Congress made the Treasury Department responsible for lifeboats and stations, and in its various appropriations acts specified that Revenue-Marine oflBcers
should inspect and administer the stations.
The establishment
much toward pended on
of these stations along the coasts contributed
the saving of hfe.
volunteers.
The
The
stations
entire system, however, de-
were often kept locked
to pre-
vent pilferage and the key placed with a cooperative citizen nearby. As a natural consequence of the failures in the system Congress, in
an act of December
14, 1854,
authorized the Secretary of the Treas-
23
THE ury to establish
new
U.S.
stations,
COAST GUARD
and
superintendents of stations for
to appoint paid keepers
Long
Island and
New
and two
Jersey. This
change improved the situation, for now there was a man in charge at each station to insure that equipment was always ready when needed, and to round up the volunteer crews when a shipwreck occurred. Unfortunately, however, wrecks often happened when the volunteers were elsewhere, and long, sometimes fatal, delays resulted. The advent of the Civil War naturally focused congressional and public attention on other matters, although shipwrecks continued and lives were lost. Also, due to the war there were fewer passengers carried at sea, and hence there was a corresponding lack of interest in lifesaving.
In the winter of 1870-71 there were a number of disasters along our coasts. Their consequent investigations emphasized the weaknesses of the existing lifesaving system, and demonstrated the need for
new and
better methods as well as a complete reorganization of
the system. As one result of the investigations, Congress appropri-
ated $200,000 for the stations and authorized the Secretary of the
Treasury to employ full-time surfmen where needed. Early in 1871, Secretary George S. Boutwell reestablished the Revenue-Marine
Bureau in the Treasury Department, placing under it both the revenue cutters and the lifesaving stations. To head this bureau, he appointed the Chief Clerk of the Treasury Department, Sumner I. KimbaU, whose work with the cutters has already been discussed. Kimball assigned several revenue cutter officers to inspect and report on the condition and efficiency of the stations. Their reports confirmed the worst of his suspicions. During the Civil War and immediately afterward, the physical condition of the stations had so deteriorated that much of the equipment was either useless or had disappeared. Training and discipline among the volunteer crews was nonexistent. With the full support of the Secretary, Kimball began his reorganization. He assigned officers of the Revenue-Marine as his field supervisors. Inefficient keepers were dismissed and new, expert boat-
men
hired in their places. The cutter officers supervised the overhaul of the stations, drilled the crews, instituted beach patrols,
24
BUILDING A TRADITION bought new equipment, and
assisted in the
drawing up of new regu-
lations. Full-time professional crews were hired. As part of the
reorganization, control
by twelve
istered in the field
own
Washington, and adminsuperintendents, each with his
was centralized district
in
These efforts so improved the service that in the first year of operation under Kimball not a life was lost due to shipwreck where a station was available. In 1878, Congress created the United States Lifesaving Service as bureau under the Treasury Department. This act, called separate a district.
the Organic Act, authorized a headquarters principle of district superintendents,
construction and inspection.
It
staff,
reaffirmed the
and retained cutter
officers for
established the position of General
Superintendent as head of the bureau. The General Superintendent's duties were to administer the Lifesaving Service and to keep abreast of all new developments in the lifesaving field. Kimball was selected
and accepted the position
of General Superintendent of the
new
Lifesaving Service.
The deplorable
state of the lifesaving stations in the period im-
mediately following the Civil
War and
the resulting investigations
proved a blessing in the long run for the United States Lifesaving Service.
an
growth. it
The establishment
to the
Its
of a strong centraHzed organization, with
able administrator as
efficient,
its
head, started an era of steady
record for efficient and often dangerous rescues endeared
pubhc.
In order to carry out the requirement that he keep abreast of de-
velopments in the lifesaving field, and be acquainted with methods in use in foreign countries, Kimball appointed a Board on Lifesaving Appliances. This board met formally about once a year, and tested and reported on the many inventions and methods submitted. Dur-
two radiequipment had been introduced in the United States— Raymond's lifeboat, and the life car invented by revenue cutter Capt. Douglas Ottinger. Now improved boats, line-throwing guns, pyrotechnics, and breeches buoys were tested and recommended for use by this board. The Lifesaving Service developed a breed of strong men, who ing the
first
three-fourths of the nineteenth century, only
cally different pieces of lifesaving
25
THE were excellent service culties.
U.S.
COAST GUARD
boatmen and thoroughly imbued with a spirit of that many times kept them going in the face of great diffiWhether they were from the East Coast, West Coast, or as
proved equally courageous. A rescue like the men no matter where they served. Shortly after daybreak on July 17, 1893, the SS Emily of San Francisco arrived oflF the bar at the entrance to Coos Bay, Oregon. A heavy sea was running, due to a storm offshore. All night long the small ship had been rolling and pitching heavily as she pounded her way up the coast. Most of her thirty-six passengers were seasick and very glad that the voyage from San Francisco was nearly over. The heavy seas pounding on the bar were fighting the strong ebb tide Great Lakes, they
all
following was typical of these
was running. Patches of fog frequently blotted out the sight of Empire City, the Emilys destination, lay inside Coos Bay. Despite the weather, and probably spurred on by the desire to get his uncomfortable passengers into calmer water, Captain Lucas of the Emily decided to cross the bar and enter Coos Bay. As the ship that
the coast.
passed through the troubled waters, her afterbody struck the bar with a shuddering crash, and immediately she began to broach. With her rudder useless, she lay in the trough of the heavily pounding sea.
Not
far to the north, the
patrolman from the Cape Arago Life-
saving Station heard the frantic screaming of the steamer's whistle,
he saw her in the breakers. Racing to the stahe reported the wreck to the keeper, H. E. Wilcox. The lifeboat was immediately launched and proceeded to the Emily, a distance of two miles, in the almost incredible time of thirty minutes from
and
as the fog lifted
tion,
the
first
alarm.
Keeper Wilcox rapidly sized up the situation, recognizing the danger of capsizing or smashing his lifeboat if he attempted to go alongside the steamer. He made his decision and anchored his boat to windward, letting her drop back near the ship. Women, children, and old men were to constitute the first load, and the willing hands of the crew placed them on a life raft alongside the Emily. The life raft was then drawn across to the lifeboat, where the passengers were quickly taken aboard. When the lifeboat was filled, the life26
BUILDING A TRADITION began the long pull to the comparatively quiet waters of the bav, where the survivors were placed aboard a tug. Three more trips were made to the Emily, with the boat taking off a load of people each time. Wind and sea had increased, and by the last trip it seemed to the tired lifesavers that each stroke of their oars might be the last. As the boat reached quiet water after the fourth trip, those looking astern saw the battered Emily roll over and disappear. Thirty-five of the thirty-six passengers and all twenty of the crew had been rescued. The missing passenger had fallen overboard from the stranded steamer early in the operation. Although they were almost completely exhausted by their four hours of strenuous boat work, the Cape Aragon Station crew continued their unsuccessful savers
search for the missing passenger for several hours.
Let us take a look
The
at a typical lifesaving station of the early 1900's.
was divided
combined mess and living room, keeper's room, kitchen, boat room and apparatus room. Wide "barn" doors and wooden ramps permitted rolling out the boat and beach apparatus. The second floor contained two dormitory-like rooms, one for the crew and one for rescued persons. There was a lookout tower, mounted either on the roof or as a separate structure, from which a good view of the ocean and shore could be obtained. Each station was furnished with at least two boats, boat carriages, breeches buoy apparatus, beach cart, rockets, and signal flags. Beach stations had the inevitable horse to draw the boat carriages along the beach. Sometimes the horse would be furnished by the government; other times it would belong to a crew member and just be leased by Uncle Sam. Lifesavers had always depended upon oars to propel their boats, since steam engines were far too bulky and heavy for such use. However, the development of the internal-combustion engine gave promise of a suitable power source for lifeboats. In 1899, Lt. C. H. McLellan, a revenue cutter oflicer, built the first motor lifeboat. He first floor
into five rooms: a
placed a commercial engine in a standard lifeboat and, with a clever gearing arrangement, found he could drive two propellers. The trials of this lifeboat
were so convincing that 27
in 1905, the Lifesaving
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Service undertook a program of mechanization. Lieutenant McLellan
was placed in service.
in
charge and within the year twelve motor lifeboats were the service was operating 80 motor lifeboats and
By 1915
over 140 motor surfboats. All of these boats were self-bailing, an indispensable feature
The Lifesaving officially
more
when working
Service and the
in the surf.
Revenue Cutter
Service, although
divorced, found themselves working together
in assistance work.
The
more and
increase in size of most seagoing ves-
sels, the use of iron and steel in construction, and the spread of power propulsion so changed the character of marine casualties and wrecks that more and more joint ship and shore-based assistance was
required.
When
the amalgamation of the Revenue Cutter Service and the
Lifesaving Service was proposed in 1912, priate that
it
Sumner Kimball should be one
drafters of the necessary legislation.
28
was singularly approof the planners and
CHAPTER THREE
Lights Along the Shore: The Lighthouse One of the most came a
Service
interesting of the various services that later be-
Guard is the Lighthouse have been in use for centuries, and if it were possible to single out one as the most important, the lighthouse would win by a heavy vote. It provides a prominent marker by day, and a beacon by night. The earliest lighthouse of which there is any record was the Pharos of Alexandria, The Pharos was a tall tower erected near the mouth of the Nile about 280 b.c. The signal sent out from this lighthouse was generated by an open fire atop the tower, providing a column of smoke as a day signal and a glow of fire after dark. The Pharos' role in history, and its imposing height and solidity, make it easily the world's most famous lighthouse. It was in use as a lighthouse for more than fourteen hundred years. In fact, as late as the early 1800's, an open coal fire was the source of light in some prominent European hghthouses. Since lighthouses were (and still are) important aids to mariners, it is small wonder that the American Colonies should have erected a number of them along their coastlines, Boston Light, built in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor, was the first on record in the colonies. It operated financially on the principle of "user pay," That is, Boston Light was first supported by a tax on all shipping entering or leaving Boston, foreign as well as part of today's United States Coast
Service. Aids to navigation
domestic, Boston Light also boasted another
fog signal in the colonies was installed there. that
was
fired in
answer
to foghorns
29
and
first.
It
In 1719, the
first
consisted of a cannon
bells of passing vessels.
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Boston Light was blown up by the British in 1776, but was rebuilt in 1783.
Another early American lighthouse was Sandy Hook Light, which was built by the New York Colony in 1764. Interestingly enough, its erection was financed by a lottery that was held for the sole purpose of building the light. All told, twelve lighthouses were built by the various colonies between 1716 and 1789. The United States Congress early recognized the importance of lighthouses to the struggling young maritime nation. The ninth law passed by the first Congress and approved August 7, 1789, accepted title to and jurisdiction over existing lighthouses and aids to navigation on the coasts of the several states. This act placed in the Secretary of the Treasury the authority and responsibility for the maintenance of aids to navigation, including the construction of
new
aids.
This responsibility remained in the Treasury Department until the
Commerce and Labor in 1903. But it was six years before the several states had ceded to the United States all of the lighthouses in question. Much of the delay was apparently due to a lack of faith in the federal government. A provision in the Massachusetts Act ceding its aids to the United establishment of the Department of
States partially explains the reluctance:
That
the United States shall at any time hereafter neglect to keep
if
lighted,
and
in repair,
any one or more of the lighthouses aforesaid,
that then the grant of such lighthouse or lighthouses so neglected shall
be void and of no
effect.
During the early years of the Lighthouse Establishment, the Commissioner of Revenue was assigned superintendence of lighthouse matters. In 1820, the fifth auditor of the Treasury
came
Department be-
the general superintendent of lights, while in the field the col-
lectors of
customs acted as local superintendents. Anyone reading
the early history of the Lighthouse Service, the Bureau of Navigation,
and the Revenue Cutter Service
customs were busy
The
first
men
will see that the collectors of
indeed.
forty-five years or so of
United States history saw a rapid
30
LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE growth of the Lighthouse EstabHshment, with many new units being estabhshed along the coast. Cape Henry Light, built in 1792, had the distinction of being the first hght actually built by the United States government, although the materials had been gathered by the colony of Virginia.
Montauk Point
Light,
New
York, built in
1797, was the first lighthouse for which Congress specifically made an appropriation. The original tower, 108 feet high, is still in service. During this period a number of significant events occurred— many of them notable firsts in the young Lighthouse Establishment. In 1820, the first fog bell in the United States was placed in operation at West Quoddy Head Light, Maine. This was a hand-operated bell, the forerunner of the more modern power-operated signal. That same year saw the first lightship established in the United States oflF Craney Island, Virginia, at the entrance to the Elizabeth River. Three years later, the first outside lightship was stationed off Sandy Hook, New Jersey at the entrance to New York Harbor which, when later moved a short distance, became Ambrose Channel Lightship. A lightship was placed on Diamond Shoal, off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1824, but broke from her moorings soon after placement. This became somewhat of a habit of the vessel on this station, and she was finally wrecked in 1827. Seventy years elapsed before another lightship was placed off Cape Hatteras. In 1831, Southwest Pass Light, Louisiana, in the Mississippi Delta Country, was built on a foundation of 185 long wooden piles driven into the marshland. This was the first United States Lighthouse constructed on other than dry land. Beginning in 1827, Congress passed liberal appropriations for additional lighthouses. Apparently in the Treasury Department and in Congress, these additional hghthouses were supposed to be a cure-all for coastal navigation difficulties. It was not long, however, before complaints from mariners and ship operators came to the attention of Congress— that the efficiency of United States lighthouses was below that of their European counterparts. In the Appropriation Act of 1837, Congress directed that a Board of Navy Commissioners look into the aids to navigation facilities requested, determine if they were needed, and recommend the most suitable for each loca-
31
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
tion.
The board reported
and
to Congress, resulting in the indefinite
its
opinions to the Secretary of the Treasury
deferment of the con-
some hghthouses. Another result of this was a congressional directive to carry on experimentation with various optical systems (including foreign) and other types of lighthouse equipment. As a part of these experimentations, in 1841 a Fresnel ^ lens and optical equipment was installed in the south tower of Navesink struction of
New
Light,
1898, this
Jersey, the
first
so
equipped
same lighthouse became the
United States to use an
United States. In primary light in the case an electric arc).
in the
first
electric light (in this
Over the next few years numerous studies were conducted and various reports to Congress were made. However, nothing really constructive took place until that body, in the Appropriation Act of
March
3,
1851, instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint
officers, two Army engineer officers, whose duties would be to study, report, and recommend a program to extend and improve the Lighthouse Establishment. The board was established, and in its report stated that the aids to navigation in the United States and the method of their administration was much inferior to those of European countries. Among the board's recommendations were two which, when adopted, placed the Lighthouse Establishment on a firm foundation for the future. The first of these recommended that aids to naviga-
a board composed of two naval
and a
tion
civilian scientist,
be operated
number
as a single system, rather than as a heterogeneous
of unrelated lights.
really in
two
The second recommendation, which was
parts, called for a
complete reorganization, and the
establishment of a board to take over the entire supervision of the
By an
August 31, 1852, Congress and created the Lightgoverning head. This board was to consist of
Lighthouse Establishment.
act of
dii"ected the reorganization of the service,
house Board as
its
The Fresnel apparatus (optical system) consists of a polyzonal lens enclosing the lamp, which is placed at the central focus point. The lens is built up of glass prisms in panels, the central portions of which are refracting only, and the upper and lower portions both reflecting and refracting. This system provides extreme brilliancy, in that the greater part of the light given out by the source is concentrated into horizontal beams. The Fresnel lens was invented in France and is named after its inventor, Augustin Jean Fresnel. ( The Lighthouse Service by the Institute of Government Re*
search.
)
32
LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE three naval officers, three
Army
officers,
and two civihan
scientists,
and was to be attached to the Office of the Secretary of the Treasury. was to administer the Lighthouse Estabhshment under the secretary's supervision. The Lighthouse Board administered the United It
States aids to navigation until 1910.
The eflFects of the supervision by the Lighthouse Board were almost immediately apparent. Carysfort Reef Lighthouse, just off the coast of Florida, was constructed in three feet of water. It was an iron skeleton tower with the light 100 feet above the water. This was the first light to be successfully constructed on a submarine base in the United States. While it is true that plans and initial work had been completed before the establishment of the Lighthouse Board, its final construction was under the supervision of one of the board. In 1857 the first steam fog whistle was installed at Beavertail Lighthouse, Rhode Island. This lighthouse had been the location of the first
mechanically operated
air
fog whistle in 1851, the power for
operation being actually obtained from horses.
By
its
1859, Fresnel
and optical apparatus had been substituted for the earlier inferior equipment at nearly all of the existing lighthouses. And Farallon Light was built on the bleak Farallon Islands off the entrance to San Francisco Bay in 1855— truly a remarkable engineering feat. Through the years, the devotion of lighthouse keepers to their duty of keeping their lights burning has become legendary. As a youth I lived in Newport, Rhode Island and attended high school there. In the inner harbor was a lighthouse located on a large rock. Everyone in Newport knew its name— Ida Lewis Light. We all knew the reason for the name, although many of the earlier details concerning it had become blurred from retelling. But it seems that in 1854 a revenue cutter's pilot, Capt. Hosea Lewis by name, being in ill health was transferred to the Lighthouse Service, and was appointed keeper of Lime Rock Light in Newport Harbor. Captain Lewis then lived in Newport with his wife and twelve-year-old daughter, but when two years later a new keeper's house was built on Lime Rock, the Lewis family moved there. Within less than a year Captain Lewis suffered a stroke, at first incapacitating him although he later recovered enough to be able to walk with a cane. lenses
33
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
As was customary, the family carried on with the keeper's duties. It was only that fall that Ida Lewis, Captain Lewis' teen-age daughter, performed the first of the many rescues for which she became famous, saving four young men from a capsized sailboat. During the ensuing years many other rescues followed. Ida's skill with a rowboat was outstanding for either a man or a woman. Ida Lewis' fame spread throughout the United States and numerous honors and awards were bestowed upon her. In 1869, the residents of Newport presented her with a new lifeboat, and President Ulysses S. Grant personally visited her. In 1879, after her father's death, Ida was appointed keeper of Lime Rock Light by Act of Congress. Her last brave act was performed at the age of sixty-four when a close woman friend rowing out to the hghthouse lost her balance and fell overboard. Ida, seeing the accident, launched a lifeboat and hauled the woman aboard, performing her twenty-third rescue. When she died on October 24, 1911, the bells of all the vessels in Newport Harbor were tolled in her memory. As might be expected, the Lighthouse Establishment became much involved in the Civil War. In the war areas many lighthouses were destroyed, or at least temporarily made useless. Practically all of the light vessels in Chesapeake Bay were captured, as well as those to the south.
were
and
When
operations permitted, important stations
were placed at strategic points tq, assist military operations. It was during the war (in 1862) that a bill was introduced in Congress to reorganize the Navy Department, having as one of its several objectives the transfer of tlie Lighthouse Establishment to the Navy Department. The entire Lighthouse Board, as well as the Treasury Department, opposed the transfer and the bill failed. Many of the district engineers and inspectors prior to the war were members of the Army or Navy assigned to duty with the Lighthouse Service, and naturally their recall to strictly military duties during the war seriously handicapped lighthouse operations. This emphasized the inherent weakness in using military members of the Army and Navy during peacetime in occupations which, in the event relighted,
special aids
34
LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE of war, they could not continue. After the
end
of hostiHties
cleaning-up process, but by the end of 1866, nearly
all
came the
of the lights
which had been for one reason or another discontinued during the Civil War had been relighted. In 1874, by an act of Congress, the Lighthouse Board was given jurisdiction over the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio rivers, and directed to establish "such beacon-lights, day-beacons, and buoys as may be necessary for the use of vessels navigating these streams." Lighthouse Establishment had, officially at least, maintained aids to navigation only on the seacoasts and Great Lakes of the continental United States. In 1884, after several bad wrecks Before
in
this the
Alaskan waters, fourteen iron buoys were sent to Alaska and straby the naval officer in command of United States
tegically placed
ships
on the Alaskan
Station.
In 1881 the Lighthouse Board was responsible for the erection of Tillamook Rock Light off the Oregon coast. The light was built on a wave-swept rock, one mile of the
Columbia
off
the coast, and nineteen miles south
River. It consisted of a stone building 62 feet high,
supporting a square stone tower, with the light 150 feet above the
an extremely exposed station and, often during severe storms, waves sweep over the entire station. The story of this light and its building would fill an entire book. Some miles south off the California coast stands St. George Reef Light. St. George was completed in 1891, and for many years had the distinction of being the most costly lighthouse built in this water. Tillamook
country.
The
is
construction of this lighthouse required ten years.
According to people who have been on board both Tillamook Rock and St. George Reef Lights, the former is more dangerous and difficult to board. Yet the method of getting on board each light is similar. A hoisting boom stands out over the water from a point on the lighthouse structure. From this boom is lowered a hook, to which is fastened either a hoisting bucket or a hoisting sling for a specially built boat. In the case of St. George Light, this boom is about 90 feet above the water, with a hoist operated by a compressed air engine.
As operations
officer of the
Twelfth Coast Guard District in 1955, 35
THE it
was necessary
for
me
U.S. to
COAST GUARD
make
inspections of
all
lights in the
George. After a several-hour trip on board the buoy tender Balsam we reached the hght. Since the small powerboat district,
in
including
St.
which we went the few hundred yards from the tender
rock was equipped with the special sling for hoisting,
to the
we decided
to
have the boat and occupants hoisted to the rock rather than use the slower bucket. Between swells, we hooked on and were hoisted clear of the water. Immediately we found ourselves swinging on the end of a 90-foot pendulum. We were then hoisted some 60 feet to the lighthouse platform, where the boat was secured and we disembarked. After the inspection, we again entered the boat, and were lowered to the water, where the boat was unhooked. During this maneuver one of the members of our party went overboard in the swirhng sea, but was pulled back aboard with no damage other than a good wetting. The captain of the Balsam, Lt. Cmdr. James A. Hodgman, told me later than this was the closest he had ever come to losing a man while boarding the hght. A small inside lighthouse was built in Alaska in 1895, but the first outside light to be built in Alaska was Scotch Cap Light in 1903. Scotch Cap was on the southwest end of Unimak Island on Unimak Pass into the Bering Sea. It was originally constructed as a wood building, 45 feet high, with the light 90 feet above the water. Its companion. Cape Sarichef Light, on the west end of Unimak Island, was built in 1904. During the days of the Lighthouse Service, these two lights were considered the most isolated in the service. Cape Charles Lightship No. 49 was one of the last of the light vessels without its own motive power. Although earlier lightships had been equipped with sail alone, the refinements of the marine steam engine, coupled with the desirability of having power when necessary to assist in remaining on station, caused the gradual transition to power. Cape Charles Lightship was stationed off the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, some six miles north of the present Chesapeake Light Vessel. When she parted her station moorings in a heavy northeast gale, sails were immediately set and the vessel attempted to enter Chesapeake Bay. A southerly current took charge, however, and she was set rapidly toward Cape Henry, the southern limit of 36
LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE
Even though her remaining anchor was let go, she was soon in a perilous position oflF Cape Henry, The lighthouse tender Orchid was sent to her rescue and, although at times both vessels were in the breakers, the rescuers managed to run a towing hawser to the lightship. Finally the Orchid was able to tow her out of the breakers and into the bay. the entrance.
During the first century of its existence, the character of the United States had been changing. From a small republic of only 13 states bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, relying on agriculture and foreign commerce for its economy, it had become an industrial nation of 45 states stretching from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west; from Canada on the north to the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande River on the south. Due to these changes. Congress, by an act of February 14, 1903, created the new Department of Commerce and Labor. Various bureaus were transferred to this department, including the Lighthouse Establishment. Under the Lighthouse Board, the Lighthouse Service had kept well abreast of the times in utilizing
ments.
To
evaluate
its
installed experimentally
On December
new
inventions and develop-
use in lighthouse work, radio equipment was
on Nantucket Lightship
in
August
of 1901.
No. 58 on the Nantucket Shoals Station sprang a serious leak. There being no recognized radio distress signal at that time, the operator could only repeatedly spell out the word "help." Although no reply 10,
1905
while riding out a severe gale, Lightship
was received from any ship, Newport Navy radio station intercepted the call and passed it on to the proper authorities. The lighthouse tender Azalea was dispatched to the assistance of Lightship No. 58, and upon arrival at the scene passed a towline. The long tow to a safe harbor began, but after a few hours it was quite evident that No. 58 was sinking. The Azalea took oflF her crew of thirteen men only minutes before she sank. This pioneer use of radio had indeed proved its worth in rescue operations. Up to now one type of aid to navigation has had little or no mention. That is the buoy— an unattended floating aid. The first buoys used in this country were moored in the Delaware River about the 37
)
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
year 1756. These early buoys were usually
wooden
barrels or spars.
Until standardization and adoption of the "lateral" system
authorized by Congress in 1850, they were rather
was
inejffective, al-
though iron buoys had begun to replace the barrels. Under the Lighthouse Board, the system began to develop rapidly. Some very significant innovations were sponsored and introduced by the board. These are the more important, with their dates of introduction: 1852-First bell buoy
1876— Courteney whistle buoy 1881— Lighted buoy (oil gas, sometimes called Pentsch gas) 1888— Lighted buoy (electric cable powered— unsuccessful 1910— Lighted buoy (acetylene)
By bringing
the aids to navigation system from a low point in
where the United
was at least the equal of any foreign system, the Lighthouse Board had been very successful. Administration by committee, however, was cumbersome, uneconomical, and inefficient. Moreover, there was considerable friction in the lighthouse districts because of the lack of one executive head. In its reports to Congress, the Department of Commerce and Labor had pointed out these defects in organization. Congress noted these recommendations and on June 17, 1910 passed an act which completely reorganized the Lighthouse Establishment. This act abolished the Lighthouse Board and created within the Department of Commerce and Labor a Bureau of Lighthouses. A Commissioner of Lighthouses was authorized to be the civilian head efficiency to a position
States system
of the Lighthouse Service, reporting to the secretary. The act further provided that within three years the naval and military superin-
tendents of
all districts,
its tributaries,
except those including the Mississippi and
should be replaced by civilian heads. The
intendents were to be called lighthouse inspectors.
The
new first
super-
Com-
missioner of Lighthouses, appointed by the President on July 1, 1910, was George R. Putnam, who served continuously until 1935. The
improved administration was almost immediately demonstrated by a saving of personnel and a marked decrease in the use of lighthouse tenders.
38
LIGHTS ALONG THE SHORE
On March Department
4, 1913,
of Labor.
Congress established a new department, the Many of the bureaus in the old Department
of Commerce and Labor were transferred by this act. However, the Bureau of Lighthouses, along with the other marine services which had been transferred from the Treasury Department, remained in the Department of Commerce. In 1914, the "European War" broke out. Although at first there was no question as to the hoped-for neutrality of the United States, the trend of events gradually pointed toward America's eventual participation. In 1916, German submarines appeared off our coasts. One of them, the U-5S, made the vicinity of Nantucket Lightship its hunting ground, sinking a number of merchant ships, the crews of which ultimately took refuge on the lightship. As many as 115 shipwrecked men were on board at one time. The location of the sinkings being far out to sea and the weather being what it was, many of these men would have been lost without the haven of the lightship.
As American involvement in the "European War" became more and more inevitable, thought was given to the Lighthouse Service's participation in the hostilities.
time of war was provided tions
for, of all places, in
of the service in
the Naval Appropria-
Act of August 29, 1916.
With United
War
The mobilization
I,
what had now become World Lighthouse Service had come of age.
States participation in
the United States
39
CHAPTER FOUR
Steamboat 'Round the Bend: The Steamboat The Bureau
Inspection Service of Navigation
In the year 1807, Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont made its historic trip up the Hudson River, covering the 150 miles from Nevi^ York to Albany in 32 hours. Although the Clermont was an open vessel, only 140 feet long, she was the first successful steamboat to operate in the United States. Belching smoke and exhaust steam, she was an awe-inspiring sight as she steamed through the highlands. The story is told that a farmer, seeing and hearing her approach, clapped his hands to his ears and took to the tall timber for safety.
Some twelve years later, the Savannah became the first American steamboat to cross the Atlantic. Because of fuel difficulties, she had to sail a
good part
adverse winds
of the
made
it
way, using her engines only when strong
necessary. As she approached the British Isles
under power, she was sighted by a British cutter. The smoke streaming from the Savannah's stack convinced the cutter's captain that she was on fire and needed assistance. Only after an all-day chase did he finally realize that this was a seagoing steamboat. In the light of boiler explosions and shipboard fires, which were all too common on early steamboats, the Hudson River farmer and the cutter captain may have been clairvoyant. There is little doubt that the significance of these two events were recognized by some of the persons immediately involved. Yet no one at that time could have possibly foreseen their future impact on the 40
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND United States government and the resulting federal regulation of our waterbome commerce. The Clermont represented power-driven navigation on the navigable waters of the United States. The voyage of the Savannah signaled American entry into steam navigation on the high seas. The safety on board American ships— first of passengers, and later of property and crewmen— gradually became of prime interest to the federal
government.
In 1824, due to the increasing number of lives being lost in steamboat accidents. Congress directed the Secretary of the Treasury to conduct an investigation to determine the various causes. In the
though more steam boilers blew up than ran. After his investigation, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford made an extensive report to the House of Representatives. The Secretary's opinion was that legislative enactment early days of steamboats,
was more apt
it
seemed
as
to "do mischief" than prevent disasters. This investi-
gation, however, reflecting congressional interest in steamboat acci-
Steamboat Inspection Service. The first actual recognition of federal responsibility in the marine safety field was contained in an act of Congress approved July 7, 1838. Looking toward the "better security of the lives of passengers on board of vessels propelled in whole or in part by steam," it specified that the owners and masters of steam vessels were required to employ an adequate number of experienced engineers; provide lifeboats, fire pumps, hose, signal lights and other safety equipment; have the hulls of their vessels inspected every twelve months; and see that their boilers were inspected every six months. These inspections were to determine the strength and durability of vessels and boilers. A license certificate attesting to compliance with these requirements was necessary before passengers could be carried. To dents, heralded the
need
for the
provide competent inspectors to carry out these inspections, certain district judges of the United States were authorized to appoint competent persons as inspectors. This act in reality was the beginning of the
Steamboat Inspection Service, although the service
itself
was
not formally established until some years later.
Dating from an act of Congress approved August 30, 1852 and known as the Steamboat Act, the Steamboat Inspection Service 41
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
existed as a separate service until the early 1930's. This act provided for the appointment of nine supervising inspectors
with
tlie
by the President,
advice and consent of the Senate. These supervising inspec-
were required to meet once a year to establish and promulgate rules and regulations for the uniform administration of the inspection laws. Among other duties, these supervising inspectors were required to supervise the activities of the local inspectors. Whereas the early inspectors had been paid fixed fees for inspection by the owners or masters of the vessels inspected, under the terms of the Steamboat Act they were to be paid fixed salaries, the fees collected being remitted to the United States Treasury. The act also provided for the licensing and classifying by the inspectors of all engineers and pilots of steamers carrying passengers. There was hostility and opposition to the inspection laws immediately following the passage of the Steamboat Act. Quite naturally it was centered among the officers and owners who were most afi^ected. During the next ten years this attitude was considerably changed as the benefits of its provisions were increasingly recogtors
nized.
As
efficient as the service
proved
to be,
operated under
it
handicaps, particularly in the organizational
field.
The
many
closest thing
head of the service, which was under the Secretary of the Treasury, was the president of the board of supervising inspectors. Actually he was little more than chairman of the board which met annually. Moreover, the powers of the Secretary of the Treasury himself were extremely limited. Another act of Congress, approved February 28, 1871, remedied some of the diflBculties under which the Steamboat Inspection Service was operating. It provided for the oflBce of Supervising Inspector General, under the Secretary of the Treasury, to have immediate direction and supervision over the entire work of the service. In addition, the principles of inspection were extended to all steam vessels navigating any waters of the United States which were common highways of commerce, or open to gento a
eral navigation, excepting public vessels of the
United
States, vessels
and steamboats built for navigating canals. There was, however, one significant aspect of the act that requires
of other countries,
42
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND specific
comment. By
its
own
definition the act
was directed toward
the promotion of the safety of the fives of all persons on board steam vessels. It thus
extended to the
officers
and crews of steam
vessels
the lawful protection that formerly existed only for passengers.
Over the next
thirty years
tion laws to other types officers
and
Congress extended the various inspecThe requirements for
classes of vessels.
and crews were made more
strict.
One
significant action
was
the recognition in 1897 of the internal-combustion engine, in that large vessels mechanically propelled
by means other than steam
should be subject to the same inspection requirements as steam vessels.
During the long period from 1838
to 1903, the
Steamboat Inspecwith very few
tion Service consisted largely of field personnel,
centrally located administrative personnel. Before the establishment
of the office of the Supervising Inspector General in 1871, the
effi-
ciency of the service was seriously impaired by the lack of central coordination and direction. Yet service, the
it is
significant to note that a sister
Bureau of Navigation, operated under almost identino field personnel of
cally opposite circumstances, with practically
own. By an act of Congress, approved by the President on February 14, 1903, a new department of the Executive Branch was established. It was called the Department of Commerce and Labor. All the duties, power, authority, and jurisdiction previously imposed or conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury by acts of Congress, and relating to the control of American and foreign shipping, or to the Steamboat Inspection Service, was transferred to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The new department had been in existence only about a year when a disaster occurred which must have shaken the secretary's
its
faith in his subordinates.
In the mid-morning of June 15, 1904, the excursion steamer GenThird Street Pier on the East River for
eral Slociim departed the
Long
Sound and return. There were 1358 passengers on board, women and children, who were looking forward to a pleasant sail away from the city. The band was playing on the promeIsland
mostly day's
43
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
had attracted a large audience. Soon after the vessel passed through Hell Gate, a crew member discovered fire in the forward cabin space, and he immediately notified the first mate. The nade deck and
it
mate, after reporting the
charge of the
fire
fire to
the master in the pilothouse, took
fighting efforts. Practically
no water reached the
flames because hoses burst almost as soon as water was turned on.
When
was reported, the master seemed to completely lose was to order full speed ahead, which only served to fan the smoke and flames, carrying them aft toward the passengers. Shortly thereafter he ordered the pilot to beach the vessel on North Brother Island nearby. At this part of Long Island Sound the
fire
his head. His first act
the channel passes close to North Brother, so that after grounding
bow
all
Slocum was in deep water. The master and pilot then proceeded to jump overboard. Completely unchecked, fire continued to sweep aft where most of the passengers were gathered. These people were faced with the grim decision of either burning to death or jumping overboard into the swift current. Most of those who jumped had no life preservers and were subsequently drowned. Only the presence of two tugs, the John L. Wade and Walter Tracy, which came alongside the Slocum's stern soon after she was beached and took off some passengers, prevented much greater loss of life. Of the more than 1300 passengers on board, 955 lost their lives, mostly by drownbut the
of the
ing.
The Slocum tragedy shook
the nation. President Theodore Roose-
commission to investigate the causes recommendations for future action. suitable and make of the disaster The report of the commission submitted on October 8, 1904, placed responsibility largely upon the officers of the Steamboat Inspection Service. The President approved the report and ordered the dismis-
velt immediately appointed a
concerned with the disaster. Stirred by the report. Congress passed an act approved on March 1905, which embodied many of the recommendations of the com-
sal of all officers of the service
3,
mission.
The more important changes authorized
the supervising
and extinguish fire and establish regulations governing the exact number and types of lif esaving equipment to be kept on board. The authority of superinspectors to prescribe measures to guard against
44
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND and inspectors was markedly increased. The Secretary of Commerce and Labor was given authority to alter, amend, or repeal rules and regulations upon advice of supervising inspectors to meet emergency conditions. In 1906 and the years immediately following, a number of acts were passed by Congress which imposed new duties on the Steamboat Inspection Service and extended the scope of its work. These were all in the direction of increased authority of the inspectors and the federal government with respect to safety of operation and equipment. One of the most important of these was an act of June 9, 1910, commonly known as the Motorboat Act. Motorboats were defined as vessels not more than 65 feet in length propelled by machinery, except tugboats propelled by steam. All such vessels more than 40 feet in length and propelled by steam were made subject to inspection of the power plant. Safety regulations relating to equipment were established. By another act of Congress approved March 4, 1913, a new Executive Department was organized— the Department of Labor. It took over many of the duties and bureaus of the old Department of Commerce and Labor. However, the Lighthouse Service, the Bureau of Navigation, and the Steamboat Inspection Service were among the bureaus which remained in the Department of Commerce. vising inspectors
The
steamer Titanic after collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic is so familiar that only passing reference need be made here. The sinking of this "unsinkable" ship led to the calling of loss of the
the International Conference on Safety of Life at Sea. This confer-
which was held in London from November, 1913 to January, was attended by representatives of the principal maritime nations of the world. One of the United States delegates was the Supervising Inspector General of the Steamboat Inspection Service. The United States Senate failed to ratify the convention, although practically all of the recommendations as to lifesaving equipment made by this international conference were embodied in the Seamen's Act, approved March 4, 1915. One of the most important features of the Seaman's Act was the authority granted to local inspectors to issue, after examinations, certificates of service to able seamen ence,
1914,
45
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
and
certificates to persons qualified to serve as lifeboatmen. In 1914, the Supervising Inspector General recommended that a corps of experts (naval architects) be stationed in Washington, and
that blueprints and plans for proposed vessel construction be submitted for their approval prior to construction. The board of inquiry appointed to investigate the sinking of the Eastland in 1915, with its
812 lives, made a similar recommendation. In spite of these recommendations, the Congress did not see fit to act on the proposal, and it was many years and several disasters later that such a requireloss of
ment was enacted Since
its
into law.
inception, the Steamboat Inspection Service has
had the
task of placing responsibility for marine accidents through the in-
vestigation of the actions of licensed officers involved in the accidents.
However, there was no authority
for investigations of
accidents as such. Conceivably, therefore, in a
marine accident were
killed, there
if all
marine
the oSicers involved
would be no authority
for the
service to conduct an investigation.
These investigations into the conduct of a licensed officer were conducted by the local boards of inspectors. The boards could and did summon witnesses from anywhere within their respective districts. If after conducting such an investigation the board felt that a licensed officer was incompetent, or had been guilty of misbehavior, negligence, or unskiUf ulness, then the board was required to suspend or revoke his license. These investigations then, as far as the individual officer was concerned, were of serious import. For example, there is the case of the master of a steamer involved in a collision in the fog off San Francisco. After days of conflicting testimony, the local board came to the conclusion that the master was at fault. The presiding inspector, before announcing the board's finding, asked the master if he had anything further to say to the board. His reported answer was a classic: "Gentlemen, I had thirty seconds to make a decision. It has taken you thirty days to determine its propriety." Before leaving the Steamboat Inspection Service, a listing of its 1917 activities is in order. For purposes of description and presentation they fall under the following categories:
46
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND 1.
Inspection of vessels— their construction and equipment.
2.
Examination and licensing of marine
3.
Examination and
4.
Determination of necessary complement of
and accommodations 5.
Conduct
certification of
ojBBcers.
seamen and lifeboatmen. oJBBcers
and crew
therefor.
of investigations of
marine casualties and violations
of the inspection laws. 6.
Establishment of regulations to prevent coUisions.
7.
Regulation of the transportation of passengers and merchan-
dise.
Although the Steamboat Inspection Service came into being as an agency designed to prevent loss of life and property aboard ship, it did not represent the earliest attempt by Congress to regulate the merchant marine. The need for this was early recognized by Congress, as two of the first acts of that body vitally affected the merchant marine of the United States. An act approved July 20, 1789, imposed a duty on the tonnage of vessels. More important still from the standpoint of pure regulation, an act approved September 1, 1789 provided for the registering and clearing of vessels, and the
which is still the foundation of the navicontinued to build on this foundation a system Congress gation laws. of laws to regulate our waterborne commerce. Enforcement of these
regulations of coastal trade,
laws was
first left
to circuit courts, collectors of customs, the
Revenue
Marine, and later the Steamboat Inspection Service. In 1872 Congress passed an act of June 5 which provided for the
appointment of shipping commissioners at the more important ports of the country. These officers were expected to administer the navigation laws having to do with the shipping, discharge, and care of seamen on American merchant vessels. They were to be appointed by judges of the circuit courts, in whose jurisdictions there were customs districts or ports of entry. No salary was provided, the law specifying that they be compensated
47
by
fees for shipping
and
dis-
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND charging seamen, paid by owners of vessels. This was the first official recognition by Congress of the necessity for government administration and supervision of those regulations affecting the relationships
between merchant seamen and
their employers.
The
inherent weakness in the system was the fact that their remuneration
came from fees paid by the owners of vessels, who were often being judged by the commissioners. An act of June 26, 1884 remedied this, providing that shipping commissioners should be appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and that the fees be paid into the Treasury of the United States, thereby constituting a fund to
pay the com-
pensation of the commissioners and their legitimate expenses. Shortly thereafter Congress
by the
act of July 5, 1884 authorized
the creation of a special service under the Treasury Department, to
be known
as the
Bureau of Navigation
for the purpose of supervising
The new bureau was to be under a Commissioner of Navigation appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The bureau was permanently organized July 1, 1885 under the direction of the first Commissioner of Navigation, Capt. Jarvis Patten. Over the following years additional duties were assigned to the commissioner and the Bureau of Navigation by Congress as well as the administration of the navigation laws.
by the Secretary
of the Treasury. In 1886 the
payment
of fees
by the
owners of vessels for the services of shipping commissioners was abohshed. An act of December 21, 1898 contained a sweeping revision of the law with respect to governmental supervision over the shipping and discharge of merchant seamen. The Commissioner of Navigation in his annual report for 1899 described this act as "the most comprehensive measure ever passed in this country for the benefit of seamen. It is probably within bounds to assert that no parliamentary body ever before adopted legislation which has worked so radical a change in the historical relations between the seaman and the master or owner." The act creating the Department of Commerce and Labor transferred the Bureau of Navigation and all jurisdiction in respect to the enforcement of the navigation laws to the newly created department. Regardless of the logic behind it, the transfer created many
48
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND diflBculties for the
commissioner. With the exception of the shipping
commissioners, the bureau had practically no field force of
and
relied largely
upon customs
officers,
who were
its
own
not affected by
the transfer. In many cases these customs officers found themselves working for two bosses, namely the Treasury and Commerce and Labor departments. Some unavoidable embarrassments arose, particularly over questions of jurisdiction.
Under the new department, the Bureau of Navigation found its them being extensions or amplifications of existing tasks. In 1910, Congress passed two acts which had a marked effect on the bureau and its activities. The first of these, the act of June 9, 1910, more commonly known as the Motorboat Act, placed in the Secretary of Commerce and Labor the duties further increased, the majority of
responsibility for the enforcement of the provisions regarding the
operation of motorboats.
The second, the
act of June 24, 1910 (the
Commerce and Labor the enforcement of certain sections of that act. In both acts, the Secretary delegated to the Bureau of Navigation the enforceWireless-Ship Act) imposed upon the Secretary of
ment
duties involved.
Before 1910, motorboats had not been considered a special class of vessel. In fact, specific mention of motorboats in the early navi-
by
its
absence. It
made motorboats
of
more than 15
gation laws was conspicuous
Congress had
is
true that in 1897 tons burden
and
carrying freight or passengers for hire subject to inspection and regulations,
but
The need
this
did not touch the great majority of motorboats.
for special legislation regulating the operation of motor-
boats was pointed out by the Commissioner of Navigation's annual report for 1909.
the
number
He
invited special attention to the rapid increase in
of these vessels
and the large number
of violations of
the navigation laws in which they were involved. These violations
were wholly natural, since the motorboats were subjected to the rules for preventing collisions at sea or on inland waters— rules which were designed to apply to large steam vessels. Otherwise, motorboats were under practically no regulations. The enforcement of laws relating to the operation of motorboats became one of the most important of the bureau's
activities.
49
THE As has been said
U.S.
earlier,
COAST GUARD
customs
forcers of the navigation laws.
Many
officers
were the primary en-
of the violations of these laws
occurred on the water, thus requiring the enforcement officers to be afloat at such times. The change in character of vessels of the Rev-
enue Cutter Service
to large seagoing steamers left the customs without means of properly executing their duties. At the request of the Commissioner of Navigation, the Treasury Department included in its appropriation request for the fiscal year 1911 the
officers
sum of $15,000 to be used for the employment of motorboats by customs officers to assist them in the enforcement of navigation laws and inspection of vessels. The following year this same amount was included in the appropriation of the Department of Commerce and Labor. The success in the use of motorboats for enforcement of the navigation laws led to the purchase and commissioning by the small
bureau of the motorboat Tarragon in 1912. A great part of the enforcement activities of these motorboats was directly traceable to the Motorboat Act. Subsequently, in 1915, another motorboat was obtained by the bureau. Thus
is
a fleet born.
The Wireless-Ship Act required certain ocean steamers to be equipped with apparatus and operators for radio communication before leaving any port of the United States. It is significant to note that the United States was the first nation to require the installation of radio equipment on ocean passenger ships. In 1912 the WirelessShip Act was extended to include cargo vessels. The enforcement of this act called for an enlargement and extension of the personnel of the bureau. The law required that radio equipment "be capable of transmitting and receiving messages over at least 100 miles, night or day." Through the cooperation of the Navy Department, Navy coastal radio stations conducted tests with ships at sea, and those vessels not meeting the required standards were so advised. The Bureau of Navigation adopted a system of examining and licensing radio operators similar to that used by the Steamboat Inspection Service in examining and licensing of pilots and officers. Practical examinations on knowledge of equipment and its operation were given in various Navy yards, using Navy equipment. The Seamen's Act provided that the commissioner should make 50
STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND regulations governing allotments of seamen's
wages and
to other-
wise supervise payment of seamen's wages. Governmental concern for the welfare of the seafarer had gone a long way since the first
appointment of shipping commissioners.
With World War I just over the horizon, the Bureau of Navigation was soon faced with entirely new problems, and what may be considered as its formative period was over.
51
PART
II
1917-1939
CHAPTER FIVE
Making
the
World Safe
World War
I
for
Democracy:
and Demobilization
"President Wilson asks Congress to declare a state of war existing
between the United
With this and
States
and Imperial Germany."
American pubhc and the world at large was notified on April 6, 1917, that the United States was no longer turning the other cheek. The Kaiser's unrestricted submarine warfare against the unarmed merchant vessels of neutral nations as well as combatant and armed merchant vessels of belligerents had finally had its efi^ect. The United States was entering on a war for which, by later-day standards, she was ill prepared. Later that same day, a terse, laconic three-word message went out by radio, telephone, and in some instances by mail, to all Coast Guard units— "Plan One Acknowledge." As it became more and more apparent during the early days of 1917 that the policies of the Imperial German Government were not being changed, and thus were inevitably leading to United States involvement into what had been the European war, conferences had been held between highranking Navy and Coast Guard ofiicers. Plan One transferred the entire Coast Guard to the Navy. The wisdom of the Congress in making the Coast Guard a part of the similar headlines, the
Navy war was now being demonstrated. The Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service had participated in the various wars of the United States. However, in every previous case it had
military forces of the United States to operate as a part of the in time of
55
THE been a piecemeal
U.S.
COAST GUARD
with no advance planning. According to and even those in effect at the beginning of World War II, Plan One was woefully inadeaffair
today's standards for mobilization planning,
it did immediately place the Coast Guard in maritime versatility could be effectively utihzed
quate. Nevertheless,
the Navy, where in the
war
its
effort.
After the entrance of the United States into the war, the convoy
system for getting merchant ships safely from point to point, including across the Atlantic Ocean, made the greatest demand on the American Navy. The arrival of the first United States destroyers— the broken-deck four-pipers— at Queenstown for escort duty was well publicized and provided the
first
concrete evidence of the participa-
American fighting forces in the war. The most urgent requirements at the time were escort of convoy and antisubmarine warfare. For this type of duty small, readily maneuverable vessels, capable of taking the sea in almost any kind of weather and remaining at sea for long periods of time, were in demand. The seagoing cutters of the Coast Guard, although nowhere near as fast as destroyers, had all tion of
the other capabilities.
During August and September of 1917, six Coast Guard cutters were sent to Gibraltar where they became Squadron Two of Division Six of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces. These were the Ossippe, Seneca, Yamacraw, Algonquin, Manning, and Tampa. Upon arrival they immediately assumed their wartime duties of escorting trade convoys between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom, and performing antisubmarine work in the Mediterranean. These duties were continued until the end of the war. As the war progressed, the Kaiser's submarines became more proficient in attacking escorted convoys. The cutters of Squadron Two performed valiantly, protecting their charges from enemy submarines. It is difficult to single out any of these Coast Guard cutters for specific mention, but in the records the names of two, the Seneca and the Tampa, stand out. By September, 1918, the U-boats had become more daring in their attacks on convoys. On the morning of September 16, the Seneca was carrying out her regular duty of patrolfing the waters in the vicinity of her convoy, bound from Mifford Haven to Gibraltar. 56
MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY Suddenly the sounds of an explosion were heard. Off the Seneca's starboard quarter, the British colher Wellington seemed to stagger, then slowed and fell off into the sea. The Seneca immediately went to full speed, and stood over to the stricken vessel, attempting to screen the rest of the convoy at the same time. Fortunately, the submarine, which had surfaced after the torpedoing, made no effort to attack the rest of the convoy and almost immediately re-submerged. As the Seneca maneuvered to pick up the Wellingtons survivors, her master signaled that she probably could stay afloat for
some
time.
The
Seneca's navigator, Lt. Fletcher
W. Brown,
at his general
quarters station on the bridge, read the various signals
mined sible.
to save the collier
With the
and her
blessing of his
critical
cargo of coal
commanding
oflBcer,
if
and deterat all pos-
he asked for
volunteers to try to take the crippled vessel to port. Since nearly
all
crew volunteered, he was able to select a good sallast minute some of the Wellingtons own personnel, including the master, volunteered to return. Using the colher's lifeboat, the salvage crew went aboard the vessel. The sequence of events passed so quickly that within less than an hour and a half there was enough steam to permit getting underway at of the Seneca's
vage crew. At the
slow speed.
With a rest of
final
good luck message, the Seneca had departed with the
her convoy toward Gibraltar. The Wellington proceeded
During the afternoon, with the weather relatively good, the straining boilers were able to maintain a speed of several knots and still keep the level of water in No. 2 hold from rising. As darkness came, the wind and sea increased alarmingly, and the vessel, with her shattered bow and down by the head, became unmanageable. She would not steer a course, her stern now light in the water, falhng off from the wind so that the damaged toward the French
bow
coast.
took the brunt of the pounding.
It
soon became obvious she
could not stay afloat very long under these sea conditions. Lieuten-
Brown made
abandoning ship. The one lifehands on board, but discretion dictated that some form of hfe rafts be available ff the lifeboat for ant
his preparations for
boat available could carry
all
57
THE
U.S.
some reason became unusable.
COAST GUARD
was fortunate he did make these preparations because the hfeboat with a small crew of the Wellingtons personnel immediately drifted away and was unable to return against the rising sea. The balance of the crew were ordered to abandon ship on the makeshift life rafts, leaving Brown on board alone. With dramatic suddenness the collier made her last plunge, throwing him into the water. Meanwhile the USS Warrington, a destroyer called by the Seneca early in the day, was proceeding to assist. She arrived at about 2:30 It
A.M., just before the Wellington took her final dive. Lieutenant
Brown had time
one message by flashlight, "My men are By superb seamanship and careful maneuvering through the wreckage, the Warrington was able to rescue eight of the Coast Guardsmen and nine of the Wellingtons crew. Eleven of the Seneca's men and five of the Wellingtons were lost. Brown himself was brought aboard unconscious, and he later to signal
in the water," before she sank.
recovered.
No
War I would be comTampa. Originally named the Miami, she had been one of the last Coast Guard cutters to arrive in the war zone. During her period of war service she had acted as ocean escort for 18 convoys comprising 350 vessels. She had steamed account of the Coast Guard in World
plete without mention of the cutter
an average of 350 miles a month with only one request for repairs, and this for relatively minor items. Capt. Charles Satterlee, her
commanding
officer,
received a special letter of commendation citing
the vessel's record from Rear Admiral Niblack,
USN, Commander
United States Naval Force, Gibraltar. Admiral Niblack said: "This is an evidence of a high state of efficiency and excellent ship's spirit and an organization capable of keeping the vessel in service with a minimum of shore assistance. The squadron comexcellent record
mander
takes great pleasure in congratulating the
commanding
and crew on the record which they have made." Then, in less than three weeks' time, the Tampa and her crew were gone. On the evening of September 26, 1918, the Tampa, having completed her mission as escort of convoy from Gibraltar to the British Isles, disappeared. Leaving the convoy, she had headed for officer, officers,
58
MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY her base in Great Britain— Milford Haven, Wales. At 8:45 p.m., the
Tampa had
just
disappeared over the horizon
when
a tremendous
explosion was heard from the direction of her departure. Other than
few bits of floating wreckage which were identified as being from Tampa, no trace of the vessel was ever found. With her, 115 men of whom 111 were Coast Guardsmen and the rest United States Navy, disappeared and presumably perished. a
the
The records
of the
German submarine
U-53, available after the
war, reported the torpedoing of a United States vessel that night.
Adm. William
S.
Sims, senior American naval officer in
European
waters, received the following letter from the British Admiralty.
"Their Lordships desire to express their deep regret at the loss of the USS Tampa. Her record since she has been employed in Euro-
pean waters
as an ocean escort to convoys has been remarkable. She has acted in the capacity of ocean escort to no less than 18 convoys from Gibraltar comprising 350 vessels wih the loss of only two ships
through enemy action. The commanders of the convoys have recognized the ability with which the Tampa carried out the duties of ocean escort. Appreciation of the good work done by the USS Tampa
may be some consolation to those bereft, and their Lordships would be glad if this could be conveyed to those concerned." It was with great pride that I, as a Goast Guard cadet in 1925, and again as commanding officer of a Goast Guard cutter on escort duty in 1944, read the plaque to the memory of the Tampa placed by the Admiralty near the entrance to the Royal Naval Dockyard at Gibraltar.
Early in 1917, Congress passed a law which was to have considerable significance to the Coast Guard, particularly in the distant
law was called the Espionage Act of 1917. Under the if the President found the safety of the United States endangered, he was authorized to place in effect regulations and safeguards governing the ports of the United States, which formerly could have been invoked only in actual wartime. It authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to assume virtual control of the ports of the United States, controlling movements of vessels, establishing anchorages, and supervising the handling of explosives. To perform future. This
terms of
this act
59
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
these missions, the secretary designated Coast
Guard
officers as
cap-
major ports of the United States. This was the beginning of what in later years was to be known as Port Security. In performing these duties in World War I, the Coast Guard supervised the loading of explosives and munitions in the tains of the port at ten of the
harbors of
New
York, Philadelphia, and
From December, 1917
Hampton Roads,
Virginia.
June 30, 1919, where the Coast Guard had hundreds of thousands of tons were loaded in these ports without the loss of a life or even a minor explosion. In the early days of weather forecasting and weather data accumulation, the Army Signal Corps had worked out a mutual agreement with the Lifesaving Service, wherein that service collected and recorded data for the Signal Corps. To facilitate the forwarding of that data, a system of telephone landlines and submarine cables was established, connecting many of the lifesaving stations along the coasts, particularly the Atlantic. By an act of October 1, 1890, the weather forecasting function was transferred to the newly created Weather Bureau under the Department of Agriculture. In this manner the inter-lifesaving station telephone system came under what had been its principal user— the Weather Bureau. As time went on the value of a communications link between the stations for lifesaving purposes became more and more evident. The capability of the keeper of a station when confronted with a situation beyond the capacities of his own men to call reserves from adjacent stations was so valuable that many more lines were constructed. to
responsibility,
In 1917, after the Lifesaving Service had become a part of the
new
Coast Guard, and the defense capabilities of the stations were more and more realized, the entire system was transferred to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard was given the responsibility of its operation and maintenance, and directed to continue the cooperation with the
Weather Bureau by providing weather information and
display-
ing storm warnings at specified stations. At the same time the system
was extended to include isolated lighthouses, particularly those ofiFshore. A young officer, R. R. Waesche, later Commandant of the Coast Guard, was charged with the responsibility of planning and carrying out the extension of this telephone service, which ultimately 60
MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY more than 5,500 miles of overhead, underground, and submarine wiring. For many years the Coast Guard operated a cable ship and several cable boats for the laying and maintaining of submarine cables. The type of war being fought in 1917-18 was not apt to bring the lifesaving stations of the Coast Guard into direct contact with hostilities. Yet, while the lifesavers at the stations along the coast envied their brothers on the cutters in the war zone, there were several instances where the station men did see action of a kind, and at least two of them are worthy of note. The submarines of World War I were by no means capable of the extended cruising that characterized later submarines. Before America's entry into the war, one German submarine had proved its capability of crossing the Atlantic by entering Newport, Rhode Island and taking aboard a commercial cargo for Germany— which of course enraged our future British allies. In the summer of 1918, at least one and possibly three German U-boats made their presence known off our coast. On the forenoon of July 21, the lookout at the East Orleans Coast Guard Station on consisted of
Cape Cod was standing a routine watch
in the lookout tower. It
was
a slightly hazy day in midsummer, and the likelihood of vessels getting into serious trouble
There was nothing
was
slight.
Idly he scanned the horizon.
in sight except a seagoing tug
with a string of
four barges. Suddenly, the surfman was startled to hear the sound of
on the tug and barges he could see a distress signal going up, and nearby a submarine started firing her deck gun at the tug. Sounding the alarm, the lookout advised the keeper, Robert F. Pierce, of what he had seen. In minutes a motor lifeboat under command of the keeper, and carrying most of the crew of the station, was proceeding underway to the scene of the firing. The submarine, gunfire in the distance.
by now
As he focused
definitely identified as a
his binoculars
German
U-boat, continued firing
until the lifeboat was within a hundred yards of the tug Perth Amboy. As suddenly as it had appeared, the submarine submerged and was seen no more. The crew of the tug, having taken to their boats, were met by Pierce and his men, who administered first aid to one severely injured man. Whether the U-boat captain suspected
61
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
that the unarmed Coast Guard lifeboat was a decoy, or was impressed by the sheer audacity of an unarmed boat entering the firing
be known. This exploit of the crew of Station No. 40 headlines throughout the United States and served to further publicize the new Coast Guard. Less than a month after this episode, the lookout at Chicamacomico Coast Guard Lifesaving Station, North Carolina, was watching a tanker oflFshore through his telescope. As he watched, a great column of smoke and a geyser of water rose high into the air. It took little imagination to realize that the tanker had probably been torpedoed. When the alarm sounded, keeper John A. Midgett gathered his crew and started his motor surfboat for the scene of the now fiercely burning tanker. As they neared the stricken vessel, the British tanker Mirlo, they met one of her lifeboats with six men aboard, including the master. Midgett told the captain to head for the beach, but not to enter the surf until the surfboat's return. The Coast Guard boat then headed for the tanker, which by this time was surrounded by flaming gasoline. Working his way carefully through the flames, the keeper came upon one of the remaining two lifeboats, capsized in an open space. There were six men clinging to the sides of the boat— all that were left of the original sixteen who had abandoned ship in that boat. Quickly they were lifted into the surfboat, after which Midgett carefully brought it back through the flames into open water. The third lifeboat, with twenty men aboard, was soon located drifting helplessly without oars and it was taken in tow toward the beach. At the surf fine and safely anchored was the lifeboat containing the tanker's master. In the meantime, the fresh northeasterly wind which had been blowing had increased to a near gale. Fearing that the lifeboats would never make it through the now heavy surf, Midgett made three trips with his surfboat to the beach, area, will never
made newspaper
safely transferring all thirty-six survivors.
The
armistice
came on November
men under arms this was
11, 1918,
and
to the millions of
the end of the war. Gradually United States
came home. Among these were the Coast Guard cutSquadron Two of Division Six, based at Gibraltar. That is, all except the Tampa. The United States, however, was still technically vessels overseas ters of
62
MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY and so the Coast Guard remained under the Navy Department. At this point there came anew the agitation which had arisen several times in the history of the Revenue Cutter Service (the latest time being in 1912). Briefly it was this: Keep the Coast Guard in the Navy. There were many prominent members of Congress, as well as in the Administration, who felt this way. One of the strongest supporters of the proposal to keep the Coast Guard within the Navy, it is said, was the young Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin at war,
D. Roosevelt.
But Secretary of the Treasury Carter Glass
felt just as strongly
Guard should return to the Treasury Department. He argued that if the Navy swallowed up the Coast Guard as proposed, without any provision for the Navy to perform Coast Guard duties for the Treasury, then within a short time the Treasury Department would be obliged to establish and organize a new marine service. that the Coast
On
January
18,
1919 Secretary Glass in a communication to Con-
gress pressed for the passage of a resolution that the Coast
Guard
should return to the Treasury Department. After a month. Congress
months more passed by before any action was taken by the Executive Branch. Finally, on August 28, 1919, President Wilson issued the long-awaited Executive Order returning the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department. adopted the resolution. Yet
six
63
CHAPTER
SIX
Samaritans of the Sea: The New and Old in Assistance Work The return
of the Coast
gurated the
full
Guard to the Treasury Department inauresumption of the duties of the former Revenue Cutter Service and Lifesaving Service. Although the amalgamation
of these
before
two
Guard had taken place two years had been little opportunity to develop
services into the Coast
World War
I,
there
operating techniques for the
new
organization.
Then, in the spring of 1919, the International Ice Patrol was reinaugurated. The Secretary of the Treasury's Annual Report for 1921 noted that in the winter of 1920-21, winter cruising had been reestablished with eight vessels: the cutters Ossippe, Androscoggin, Gresham, Achushnet, Seneca, Manning, Seminole, and Yamacraw. That spring the Bering Sea and North Pacific patrols began again with the Bear, Unalga, Algonquin and Bothwell participating. In 1921 a four vessels
new
class of
making up
Coast Guard cutter joined the
fleet.
The
Mojave, Modoc, Haida, and Tampa, principle of propulsion for seagoing
this class,
introduced an entirely
new
vessels. These vessels had turbo-electric drive, a plant in which power was transmitted from the steam-driven turbine to the propeller electrically. Briefly, the power plant consisted of a relatively
constant speed steam turbine, driving an alternating current gen-
which in turn provided power for a motor turning the proand propeller. By changing the electrical field to the motor, the speed and direction of turn of the propeller could be easily controlled. Before the construction of these new vessels, most erator,
peller shaft
64
SAMARITANS OF THE SEA had been built for assignment to specific seaports, and even some cases to particular duties. For example, the Seneca, built in 1908, was built as a derelict destroyer for assignment to New York. The Mojave class, however, was built for what might be called "gencutters
in
eral duty."
Removing the revenue
cutters from the control of the collectors and placing them under an officer of the service ashore— who, acting as division commander, was responsible directly to the Commandant in Washington— had been a great step forward
of customs in 1913
in providing operational control of the cutters.
command was originally
Now
the chain of
completely within the service. Although there had
been only four
divisions, the early 1920's
saw the
estab-
lishment of nine divisions within the continental limits of the United States.
The
were retained and division boundaries superintendents were renamed
thirteen districts of the Lifesaving Service
with slight readjustments, so that
district
were compatible. The old district commanders. Each district commander of the lifesaving districts was technically responsible to a division commander. Theoretically, this organizational setup was excellent, but in practice the old district superintendents for many years retained almost complete independence. Cooperation between the cutter and lifesaving branches was usually evident only at the unit level. This was noticeably true in the anti-smuggling law enforcement field. World War I had caused a revolution in radio communications, both in equipment and in techniques involved for its use. During the war the Navy had furnished nearly all radio equipment to its own vessels, Coast Guard vessels, and United States Shipping Board vessels. In addition, the Navy had operated all United States coastal radio stations. Under the press of wartime requirements, new equipment went almost entirely to new construction. Thus at the end of the war, the Coast Guard found itself with its vessels equipped with old spark-gap wireless transmitters and crystal receivers. Moreover, the service was entirely dependent on Navy or commercial shore radio stations for communications with its cutters. And since both the Navy and commercial stations were heavily burdened with their own radio traffic, there was little time left to handle other traffic. district
65
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD to build a
new
radio communications system, starting almost from scratch.
The
It
was therefore necessary
for the Coast
Guard
coastal telephone system very effectively tied together the lifesaving
now
new radio equipment and provide each division commander with a communications center through which all communications would pass. The communications center would necessarily be physically a part of the division commander's office and in fact be his command post. The Coast Guard at this time made the decision to locate their radio stations directly on the coast, away from the metropolitan centers where electrical interference was the greatest, connecting them with the communications centers, first by telephone and later by teletype. As funds became available, the vessels were furnished new equipment, radio stations were built, and communications centers established. By the mid-1920's the Coast Guard was well on its way to having a communications system second to none. And the requirements of the Prohibition era helped add an impetus to this transformation. The radio beacon, together with its necessary companion the radio compass, was first developed as an aid to navigation. The first installation of radio beacons in the United States was established in 1921 at the approaches to New York Harbor. As more and more ships were equipped with the radio compass or radio direction finder, ingenious shipmasters found additional uses for the instrument. For example, by taking bearings on each other's radio signals, stations.
But
there
was
a
need
to obtain
for the ships, establish coastal radio stations,
vessels in the fog assured themselves of passing well clear.
One
of
was made by Jack Binns, radio operator aboard the Republic, when that ship sank south of Nantucket in 1909. Radio distress signals since the day of Jack Binns have saved many lives at sea. Distress signals of themselves, howthe
first
successful distress calls
ever, are of little value unless the position of the distressed vessel
known. Several marine tragedies are on record where the distress signal was heard, but the distressed vessel could not be found. The radio direction finder, when properly used, can provide bearings by which a distressed vessel may be found. One of the most publicized rescues at sea where the radio direcis
66
SAMARITANS OF THE SEA tion finder
was used occurred
in 1926. In a
Atlantic, the British freighter Antinoe
wind and
sea.
With some
was
howling gale
in the
mid-
drifting helplessly before
of her hatches stove in, she
was taking
aboard much more water than her pumps could possibly handle. The vessel being in immediate danger of foundering, her master directed the sending of an SOS, giving the ship's estimated position. Not too many miles away, the radio operator of United States Lines ship SS President Roosevelt heard the distress message and advised the master, Capt. George Fried. Captain Fried immediately turned his ship toward the Antinoe and ordered his direction finder to be
manned. The Roosevelt took radio bearings every fifteen minutes, steering the course indicated by the bearings. Some six hours later the distressed vessel was reached. After more than three days of terrific struggle, working only when temporary lulls in the weather permitted. Captain Fried and his brave crew rescued the twenty-five men on the sinking Antinoe. This rescue was publicized throughout the world. Actually, the position of the Antinoe as given in the dis-
be fifty miles in error and without the aid might never have been found. The Coast Guard had early recognized the value of radio beacons and the direction finder for navigational purposes. All Coast Guard vessels, from 75 feet in length on up, were equipped with radio direction finders. As most distress cases happened in bad weather with poor visibility being the rule, it was vitally important for rescue vessels to be able to accurately locate themselves and the distressed vessel at any time. Thus the use of the direction finder whenever a radio distress call was received became standard operating procedure. Receipt of any type of potential distress message called for the direction finder to be manned and radio bearings taken. These bearings were then transmitted to the division communications center where they were plotted. Since all cutters and larger patrol boats stood continuous radio watches at sea and in port, sufficient radio bearings would be taken in nearly every case to provide an accurate position of the distressed vessel. Not every distress case depended on radio alone to spread the alarm. The night of March 9, 1928, was a wild one along the Massachutress
message proved
to
of radio bearings she
67
THE setts coast.
reduced
Snow and
U.S.
sleet,
COAST GUARD
driven before a strong northeast wind,
visibility to nearly zero.
Cape Hatteras
Storm warnings were hoisted from
to Eastport, Maine. During the early evening, the
SS Robert E. Lee, one of the Boston-New York steamers, stood down Cape Cod Canal. Under normal conditions her course would have taken her several miles off Manomet Point, at the coast toward
the southern extremity of Plymouth Bay.
met Point Coast Guard
Station
The lookout
watched her
at the
Mano-
closely through his
seemed unSuddenly he started. She had not moved for several minutes, and must be aground. Hurriedly giving the alarm, he joined the officer in charge and the rest of the station crew in an attempt to launch their pulling surfboat through the surf. After three futile attempts, they were forced to postpone further attempts until daylight or until the weather moderated. No sooner had the Robert E. Lee gone aground on Mary Ann Rocks just below Plymouth than an SOS was sent. At 9:40 p.m., the 125-foot patrol boat Ronham departed Gloucester Harbor where she had sought shelter, for the scene. The cutter Tuscarora, oflFshore on patrol, and the Coast Guard destroyer Paulding, on rum patrol, also responded. The Ronham was the first to arrive, reaching a point just offshore of the Lee at 2:50 a.m. Upon being advised by the master of the Lee that the passengers were in no immediate danger, Boatswain Brown, officer in charge of the Ronham, decided to await daylight before making any rescue efforts. By 8:00 A.M. the weather had cleared, although there was still a heavy sea running. The Ronham moved in closer to the stranded vessel. Carefully maneuvering through the reefs. Brown was able to bring the Ronham momentarily alongside the Lee's starboard quarter, but he could not hold on. By dint of excellent seamanship, he was able to back out to sea from this dangerous position and anchor just offshore. In the meantime, two motor lifeboats had arrived, one from Wood End Coast Guard Station, the other from the Auxiliary boathouse of the Manomet Point Station located at telescope, for, even allowing for erratic visibility, she
usually close
in.
Cape Cod Canal.
By now
quite a fleet
had gathered. The Tuscarora, Boston 68
division
SAMARITANS OF THE SEA commander, the
Redwing, the destroyer Paulding, the and the 75-foot patrol boat CG-176 were all standing by. Boatswain Brown on the Bonham was placed in immediate charge of operations, while the larger vessels remained farther offshore. The two motor lifeboats and the CG-176 began removing passengers from the Lee, transporting them to the Bonham, the Redwing, and the town of Plymouth, until all 323 passengers and crew had been rescued. It is on this note that the story should end. Unfortunately it doesn't. The pulling surfboat from Manomet Point Station had finally been launched through the surf at about 10:00 a.m. and proceeded to the scene of the wreck. Manned by five Coast Guardsmen and a civilian volunteer, this boat, because of its small size and maneuverpatrol
cutter
125-foot patrol boat Active,
ability,
rendered valuable service running
Upon being
lines for the other rescue
its retmn trip. But as was capsized. The Wood End lifeboat by heroic measures was able to rescue Surfmen Ducharme and Wood and civilian Douglas. Boatswain's Mate First Class Cashman, Surfmen Griswold and Stark lost their lives. Some years later I was visiting the Point Allerton, Massachusetts, Lifeboat Station. The officer in charge of Point Allerton was Boatswain Isaac L. Hammond, and in the course of our conversation the rescue of the passengers and crew of the Robert E. Lee came up. Hammond had been the ofiicer in charge of the motor Hfeboat from the Cape Cod Canal entrance. He had arrived at the scene with his crew during the night, and when the decision was made to await
vessels. it
relieved, the boat
passed through the
began
surf, it
daylight to complete rescue operations, the lifeboat kept position It was bitterly cold that night, and Hammond's most vivid memory was their waiting, with frostbitten faces, for daylight and further rescue operations. From its inception, the Revenue Cutter Service had conducted its operations essentially on a single-ship basis. In the days of little or no radio communication, each cutter commander once away from port was on his own. Vessels in distress at sea were dependent on being found by a cutter or some other vessel. A breed of rugged
near the stranded steamer.
individuahsts
among Coast Guard
officers
69
was thus developed. The
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
advent of radio, however, placed vessel operations on an entirely difiFerent basis. As the communications center gave the division com-
mander more information and
better control of his vessels at sea,
there developed a requirement for a single
with
whom
he could
deal.
The Division
commander on patrol Commander was
Patrol
usually the senior vessel on patrol and he performed this duty in
addition to others.
On Sunday
morning, March 6, 1932, the weather ojff the Delaware Capes was dirty as only the North Atlantic can be in winter. The cutter Seneca, which was acting as commander. New York division patrol, was in the vicinity of Five Fathom Bank Light Vessel experiencing northeast winds and driving rain, when she received the forenoon marine weather forecast predicting northeast gales from Cape Hatteras to Sandy Hook. Heading into the entrance of Delaware Bay, the Seneca dropped anchor under the lee of Delaware Breakwater. During the afternoon the wind increased to gale force with rain, sleet, and snow. Shortly after dark, with practically no lull or other warning, the wind shifted to northwest. The breakwater, instead of providing a lee for the anchored vessel, had now with the change in wind become a menace. With the sweep of the length of Delaware Bay to build up a sea, the Seneca was in an uncomfortable position. The captain's immediate decision was to get underway from the anchorage. As the anchor windlass was hove around, it became evident that for some unknown reason the anchor engine did not have enough power to heave in the chain against the wind and sea. Going ahead slowly on the main engines helped slightly— but it was not enough. Soon the Seneca began to drag anchor toward the breakwater. Under these conditions there was only one possible maneuver to prevent piling up on the rocky breakwater. Ordering full speed ahead and dragging anchor and chain, the captain headed into the wind, then turned out to sea. All hands were praying that the anchor would not catch on a rock or submarine cable. These prayers seemed to be answered, for the Seneca was able to maneuver to a position outside the breakwater that now provided some protection. Then, when additional chain was let out, the anchor held. For most of the night,
70
SAMARITANS OF THE SEA the engineering officer and his of the anchor engine.
men worked
At times the
ship's
repairing a broken valve
anemometer registered
90 knots of wind— the highest it could go. Later it was learned that this extra-tropical hurricane sometimes reached 120 knots. It was with a deep feeling of thankfulness that the engineering officer's
was received. During the night the Seneca's radio room was busy. A patrol boat belonging to Coast Guard Base 9, Cape May, New Jersey was missing. The CG-218, a 75-foot patrol boat, had been sighted by the lookout at Rehoboth Beach Coast Guard Station at about 4:00 p.m. beating her way northward in the general direction of Cape May. Shortly thereafter, she had reported to Cape May radio that under existing weather conditions she could not find shelter any nearer than Cape May. After that— silence. All Coast Guard vessels in the area had been alerted, and at daybreak a search was to begin, with the Seneca coordinating. Getting underway in the morning, the Seneca stood out to Five Fathom Bank Light Vessel and then laid a course along the most likely line of drift of the missing patrol boat. The wind, still from the northwest, had settled down to a steady 60 knots. Doubled lookouts searched the dim horizon from ahead to either beam with their binoculars. About mid-forenoon one of the lookouts shouted "Object ho!" The Seneca stood over, and through the mist could be seen a deeply loaded oil barge, her decks and oil pipes coated with ice, her deckhouse itself so icy that it was nearly indiscernible. Although no sign of life was evident, the blast of the Seneca's whistle was answered by an arm frantically waving a shirt out of a porthole. The barge proved to be the Oil Transfer No. 20 from Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, with at least one man aboard, practically awash and drifting rapidlv to seaward. This was the end of the Seneca's search for the CG-218. Someone else would have to do that. Shortly thereafter the cutter Champlain sailed from New York and assumed report of the successful completion of the repairs
command
of the patrol.
wind and sea, the Seneca could no nothing but It would have been impossible for anyone on the Oil Transfer No. 20 to even come out on deck, to say nothing of
With the
fierce
stand by the barge.
71
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
handling a towline. For two days and two nights the Seneca maintained position close to the barge, rain and spray at times almost completely obliterating her searchlight beams. Finally on the morning of March 9, the weather moderated sufficiently for the two men
aboard the barge to venture out on the icy deck. After much careful maneuvering, the Seneca approached the barge close enough to pass a heaving line to the men, and by a supreme effort they were able to haul aboard and make fast a ten-inch Manila hawser. Then began the long tow back to port. The hawser was made fast to one corner of the barge's square bow, that being the only point available. When she was first discovered, the Oil Transfer No. 20 had been twenty-five miles from Cape Henlopen Breakwater. When the tow finally began, drift had increased this distance to 125 miles— a long tow indeed at a speed of only 2 or 3 knots. Late in the afternoon of March 10, the Five Fathom Bank Light Vessel was sighted slightly on the starboard bow, and speed could be increased a bit. When the navigator went oflF watch at 8:00 p.m., the lightship's beacon was cheerily flashing off the starboard bow. When he came back on watch at 4:00 a.m., the light was still in sight, flashing on the quarter. Finally, at about 10:30 a.m. on March 11, the Seneca entered Delaware Bay and turned her tow over to the commercial
tug Samson.
Her engines
disabled, the CG-218, after being missing for about was picked up by a freighter, about 50 miles southeast Nantucket Shoals Light Vessel. She was towed into port with no
eight days, of
casualties.
Several letters of appreciation were received by the Coast for this particular rescue.
One
briefly
but graphically
tells
New
York
March
To
Guard
the story.
17, '32
Sec. of Rev. Cutter Service
Dear Sir: I would like to call to your notice on Mar. 7, 1932 Oil Transfer Barge #20. I was anchored at breakwater Sunday Mar. 6th, '32, N.E. gale blowing Tug Samson towing when gale shifted to N.W. strong. We dragged and lost both anchors. Drifted to sea. Rev. Cutter 72
SAMARITANS OF THE SEA Seneca found us on the morning of Mar. the
7th, sea very heavy,
could
not do anything but stood by night and day until Mar. the 9th
when
we were to
able to get a hawser from the Seneca and towed barge in
Cape Henlopen, Del., breakwater. We were 7 pump room 3/2 feet in forepeak, 9000
gine and
ft.
water after en-
barrels fuel oil in
tanks, boat smashed. I must say the Master and crew showed the best of seamanship and judgment and men like them are a credit to the service and the flag, and if it was not for them would not be able to be here today as it looked as if we were lost.
Respectfully yours,
Capt. David Mackerson (signed)
187 Meserole Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mate Allen Wilson.
Between 1928 and 1932 ten new
cutters v^ere
added
to the fleet,
replacing some of the older ones and increasing the overall
The new^
number
was also of the turbo-electric drive type, with many refinements and improvements over the older Mojave class. These new craft were 250 feet in length and, being named for various lakes in the United States, were called the "lake of vessels available.
class
class." It
was
in the
middle 1930's that the amalgamation of the Revenue
Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service really began to work. This
may be
attributed to several causes. For one, the lifesaving district
commanders who had grown up
in the days of almost complete independence were, as they reached retirement age, gradually replaced by younger men. Whereas the operations of the lifeboat stations had been somewhat of a mystery to many of the older officers of the former Revenue Cutter Service, the newer division commanders were quite familiar with them. In addition, improved com-
munications, including voice radio at the stations,
made
a sizable
contribution.
The Coast Guard does not engage
in salvage
work
as such.
There
engaged in this business that are capable of performing practically any marine salvage work. However, in its are commercial firms
73
THE role of saving life
U.S.
and property
prevent further property
COAST GUARD Coast Guard, in order to
at sea, the
loss or loss of life,
must frequently under-
take assistance jobs which border on salvage. v^egian freighter Chilclar off the Oregon coast
On May
The is
case of the Nor-
a good example.
1932, the Childar sailed from Longview,
Washington was a motor vessel of some 4,000 tons, and was carrying a crew of twenty-nine and one passenger. A southerly gale was blowing, and as the vessel passed the mouth of the Columbia River she struck North Spit Bar with a shuddering crash. As each successive sea struck her broadside, she drifted farther over the shoals and ended up with her bow on the rocks and her stern in deep water. By this time seas had wrecked all her boats and carried away a good part of her deck load of lumber. The Childar s SOS was picked up by several ships, including the Coast Guard cutter Redwing at Astoria, Oregon. The commanding officer, Lt. A. W. Davis, immediately called his crew from liberty, and within an hour was underway, standing down the river. As the Redwing crossed the bar, the weather lifted momentarily, revealing the Childar aground on the spit. The Redwing continued on out to sea and approached the freighter from seaward. Heavy seas were breaking over the grounded vessel and there was every indication that she soon would break up. Without her lifeboats, there was no way for the crew to abandon ship. To Davis it was evident that the only way to save them was to tow the Childar into deep water. Approaching the vessel, the Redwing fired her line-throwing gun and 4,
for South Africa with a cargo of lumber. She
managed
to
put a light line aboard. The
first
attempt to pass the
towline, a steel hawser, failed because the Childar
her winch. cessfully
A
had no power
at
twelve-inch Manila hawser was then passed and suc-
made
fast after
which, taking a strain on the hawser, the
Redwing pointed her bow seaward. As each
sea struck the grounded and passed under, she lifted and moved slightly seaward. Finally she was afloat, and could be towed into deep water. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard stations along the coast had been alerted by the commander, Seattle division; soon, two motor lifeboats, one from Point Adams Station, and the other from Cape Disappointment, arrived on the scene. While the Childar had been freighter
74
SAMARITANS OF THE SEA pounding on the spit, three men had been washed overboard, her cook killed, and several others had been injured, three seriously. At Davis' direction, the two Coast Guard lifeboats removed the three badly injured men, who were then taken into Astoria and transferred to a Public Health Service Marine Hospital. Weather conditions being what they were, the Redwing made no attempt to tow the Childar into the Columbia River, but instead headed northward for distant Puget Sound. Darkness was falling as the two vessels slowly drew abreast of Gray's Harbor, Washington, At this time Captain Matthisen of the Childar requested that any excess of his crew not needed aboard be removed. A radio message from the Redwing requested the services of the Gray's Harbor Station to remove the men, and around midnight the lifeboat from this station transferred eighteen men to the cutter. The motor lifeboat then took station near the Childar in case of further need.
The following afternoon
and commercial tug Roosevelt arrived, but because of the weather their assistance was limited to convoying the tow. Meanwhile, the freighter was slowly but surely sinking, and it now was a race with time to get her into calmer water. The next morning the convoy entered the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and at 5:00 p.m., the Roosevelt took over the tow. The Redwing's job was finished. During the years 1936 and 1937, the Coast Guard placed in commission seven new cutters, known as the "secretary class." These vessels, 327 feet long and 2,200 tons displacement, were capable of better than 20 knots. Appropriated for and built at the behest of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., they were the largest vessels to ever join the Coast Guard fleet. Secretary Morgenthau had long felt that the Coast Guard needed vessels large enough and fast enough to keep up with modern merchant vessels, and capable of staying at sea for long periods of time. These vessels were to prove the cutter Chelan
extremely valuable in the years to come, both for peacetime Coast
Guard use and
for duty with the
Navy
75
in wartime.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Seagoing Handyman: Some Other Coast Guard Tasks While many
of the Coast Guard's activities are exciting and glamsome others appear to be humdrum and monotonous. Certainly on the glamorous side is Coast Guard aviation. Shortly after the new service came into being, thought was given to the use of aircraft by the Coast Guard, particularly for the time-consuming
orous,
task of searching for missing or distressed vessels.
Norman
and Third Lt. Elmer F. Stone were serving on boaid the cutter Onondaga, then based at Hampton Roads, Virginia. Nearby was a flying school, and the two officers used to spend much of their spare time watching operations there. The two young men became imbued with the idea that here was a means by which the long, tedious searches then performed by surface craft might be speeded up. After carefully exploring the various possibilities, they broached the subject to their commanding officer, Capt. Benjamin M. Chiswell, who immediately recognized In the year 1915, Second Lt.
B. Hall
the possibilities in their suggestion. Subsequently, Captain Chiswell to interest Coast Guard headquarters and the Treasury Department. Through Navy cooperation, two Coast Guard officers. Lieutenants Sugden and Stone, were assigned to pilot training at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, becoming, officially at least, the Coast Guard's first pilots. Lieutenant Hall, already a marine engineer and naval architect, was assigned to the Curtiss airplane plant where he could study aircraft engineering and construction. In 1916 legislation was introduced in Congress with the hope of
was able
76
THE SEAGOING HANDYMAN authorizing the establishment of a Coast
Guard
air
arm. Although
the final legislation was considerably different from that
first
pro-
posed, the act signed by the President on August 29, 1916, author-
Guard air stations along the and safeguarding property. However, as so often happens, no funds were appropriated at that time. A number of oflficers were trained by the Navy as pilots, and when World War I broke out they were absorbed into the naval ized an aviation corps and ten Coast coasts to be
employed
aviation service. It flying boat
is
in saving lives
interesting to note that
NC-4 made
the
first
when
the famous
Navy
successful flight of the Atlantic after
the war. Lieutenant Stone was copilot.
Using the authority contained in the act of August 29, 1916, the Coast Guard established its first air station in 1920 at Morehead City, North Carolina. Although no specific funds had been appropriated, six flying boats were borrowed from the Navy, and the station was operated on an experimental basis for over a year, demonstrating to the Coast Guard's and Treasury's satisfaction the value of aircraft in Coast Guard work. The following year, with still no appropriation for aviation, the station was closed. This ended Coast Guard avia-
number of years. By 1925 the Coast Guard was engaged in the greatest struggle of modern times against smuggling. Fostered by Prohibition, the smuggling of liquor and alcohol into the United States by sea had reached
tion for a
alarming proportions. In that year the Coast Guard established an air station at Gloucester.
Ten Pound
An
Army
old
tent hangar
was erected on
Island in Gloucester Harbor which, with the arrival of
an old seaplane borrowed from the Navy, became the new air station. The value of the new establishment was soon demonstrated as, with the beginning of regular patrols by the plane, there was a sharp curtailment of rumrunning activity in the area. The following year Congress appropriated $152,000 for Coast Guard aviation,
and the
service
was then able
to
purchase three
new Loening am-
phibian planes and two Vought seaplanes. In addition, these funds
permitted operation out of Cape
May Naval
Air Station as well as
Gloucester.
Although the new planes had been obtained primarily 77
for anti-
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
smuggling work, they soon demonstrated their versatihty in other types of searches. In his report to Congress in 1927, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon said, "In addition to law enforcement these planes have searched for missing vessels of the New England fishing fleet, and for transatlantic aviators." He pointed out that, as evidenced by the original act of 1916, such additional employment carried out the intent of Congress. Again in 1930 Congress appropriated funds for aviation, providing for additional planes and more air stations. Some of the additional planes were flying boats, which by their employment earned the sobriquet of "flying ambulances." The larger planes were given names as well as numbers. One of these, the Arcturus, became almost as well known as the star for which it was named. On one occasion, the USAT Republic, bound from the Panama Canal to New York, was in the vicinity of the Bahama Islands when one of the passengers, an Army officer returning to the United States, was taken critically ill. The ship's doctor determined that an emergency operation beyond the capabilities of the transport's personnel and facilities was necessary. The Coast Guard air station at Miami was advised by radio, and assistance requested. The message indicated a great degree of urgency stating that the patient might not last through the night. The flying boat Arcturus was lowered down the ramp with her pilot for the night, Lt. Carl B. Olsen, and a crew of three aboard. It was about 5:00 p.m. when Olsen taxied out into the waters of Biscayne Bay and took off. Three hours of flying, most of it in complete darkness and with the last hour through numerous thunder squalls, brought the Arcturus to the position of the Army transport. Using radio bearings, and finally by sighting the ship's searchlight, Olsen was able to find the Republic in record time. He made a few circles over the vessel and then set the plane down on the ocean just off her bow. A lifeboat was immediately lowered from the Republic which, with considerable hazard to the plane, transferred the patient. Major .
.
.
Gullion,
and
his wife.
With the Republic indicating the wind direction by searchlight, Olsen was able to take off from the rough sea and head back for 78
THE SEAGOING HANDYMAN Miami. Because of
it was necessary he was unable to bypass any of the storm area. After having been away from the station for more than seven hours, the Arcturus landed and was brought up the ramp where an ambulance waited. An emergency operation was performed that night and soon the major was well on the road to recovery. Several years later I met an Army officer who had been among the passengers on the Republic that night, and he described the thrill everyone experienced as the Arcturus landed out of the blackness of the night onto the sea, received its passengers, and then took off. The pilot. Lieutenant Olsen, was typical of the young Coast Guard
for
him
his limited supply of gasoline,
to fly direct, so that
officer attracted to aviation.
He
was, as
be, a nearly perfect physical specimen.
all pilot
He
candidates had to
entered flight training at
the age of twenty-eight, having been graduated from the Coast
Guard Academy
for four years
which had been spent on sea duty.
In 1934, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau decided that one organization flying airplanes in the Treasury
was enough. At
this
Department
time the customs border patrol and the alcohol
tax unit as well as the Coast
Guard were
ury Department order he transferred
all
flying planes.
By
a Treas-
treasury airplanes to the
Coast Guard, and also transferred to the service the responsibility for
making
One
all
necessary
more
flights.
performed by the Coast Guard was patrolling marine regattas and parades. Whenever an organization wished to hold any kind of regatta or race on the navigable waters of the United States that might interfere with waterborne commerce, it was necessary for that organization to apply to the of the
Secretary of the secretary
interesting duties
Commerce would
for a permit. After issuance of the permit,
issue regulations to insure
ence to commerce. Under the law
it
was the duty
minimum
interfer-
of the Coast
to patrol these races or regattas to enforce the Secretary of
Guard
Com-
merce's regulations, and to protect lives and property.
Many
of these races
were annual
affairs,
and they attracted hun-
dreds and sometimes thousands of spectators. For example, the Har-
Thames were held every year, and each course was patrolled by the Coast Guard. Another annual
vard-Yale crew races on the
time the
79
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
event was the intercollegiate crew races on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie. Spectators would follow these events by train along the railroad tracks on the banks of the river. There would be many private yachts
and motorboats, and
it
was precisely such spectator most cases they were
craft that usually created the problems. In
who were not always expert. Quite often enthusiasm for watching a particular race they would approach dangerously close to the racers, or even block the race course altogether. And because the Coast Guard during the 1920's and
navigated by their owners, in their
1930's
was somewhat unpopular due
smuggling laws,
ment
its
to
its
anti-
in the spectators.
Thus, in the
summer
of 1930, there
was held the
ever held in the United States. For years. Sir Britain
Cup,
enforcement of
regatta patrols often aroused additional resent-
had challenged the
ocean race of Great
New York Yacht Club, holder of America's
to a series of races. Since the first races,
yacht America
largest
Thomas Lipton
off the British Isles in 1851,
which were won by the the United States entry
had won every series, the last previous series having being held in 1920. The 1930 series were to be run off Newport, Rhode Island. Although this was after the stock market crash, the effects of the Depression were as yet little felt. A large number of spectator craft was expected. The United States defender, selected after a summer of elimination races, was the yacht Enterprise, sailing under the colors of the New York Yacht Club. The British entry, owned by Sir Thomas Lipton, came across the Atlantic on her own bottom, in accordance with the rules then governing the cup. The winner of the America's Cup would be the vessel that first won four races. Each race was to be for a distance of about 24 miles, alternating between triangular races and windward and leeward races. In view of the large number of spectators anticipated, the Coast Guard gathered a veritable armada of patrol vessels. All told, there were seven large electric-drive cutters, seven destroyers, and sixteen 75-foot patrol boats assigned to the actual patrol of the course.
An
additional cutter and destroyer carried radio broadcasting and press
personnel, and assisted in the patrol
80
when needed. The
general plan
THE SEAGOING HANDYMAN The destroyers and cutters would behind which the spectator craft were to remain. When the yachts were tacking or reaching (wind on the beam), the patrol vessels formed a right-angled "V," with one side to leeward of them, the other side astern. When the racers were running before the wind, the patrol vessels formed two lines on either beam, several miles apart. The patrol boats with their greater maneuverability were to keep spectators behind the lines of patrol vessels, and sweep the course clear ahead of the racing yachts. It was anticipated that for the patrol
was
relatively simple.
establish reference lines
the entire fleet of patrol vessels and spectator craft
would move along
the course with the race.
The
first
race proved that the
number
of spectators
had not been
overestimated. Almost every type vessel that could get off-shore,
from motorboats through the larger seagoing yachts to steamers of the Fall River and Hudson River Day Lines, were present. Anyone near the starting est of
line,
looking off to right or
left
saw
a veritable for-
masts and smokestacks.
The races came off generally as scheduled. There were days when, due to lack of wind, they had to be postponed. There were postponements requested by the racing captains. One or two races ended in fog, and there was much confusion as many hundreds of vessels tried to find their way back to Newport Harbor in the fog. It was soon evident that the British entrv. Shamrock V, was no match for the Enterprise. The United States defender was a finely-tuned-up racing machine using every modern device and instrument to insure that each sail was drawing to its utmost. Enterprise won the series in four straight races.
There were numerous incidents that occurred during the races, ranging from near tragic to humorous. The destroyer Poiier, under the
command
There were
of
Comdr.
S. S.
Yeandle, carried
members
of the press.
hundred reporters on board, representAmerican newspapers and magazines. The
at times fifty to a
ing foreign as well as
Porter usually stayed in the near vicinity of the racers.
The
cutter
Champlain carried radio broadcasters, several of whom gave on-thespot reports by shortwave radio. One day during a period when the race was rather uninteresting, 81
THE a
number
U.S.
COAST GUARD
of reporters gathered in the chief petty officer's quarters
of the Porter well aft in the fantail, drinking coflFee
The announcer,
to a radio broadcast of the race.
and
idly listening
rather famous for
background descriptions, was describing the scene in the vicinity of the Champlain. "I see the Hudson River Day Line Steamer DeWitt Clinton near us. Her decks are jammed with spectators. She is maneuvering near that Coast Guard destroyer. It looks very much as if the Clinton were going to hit her. Just a minute and I will try to identify the destroyer. Yes, I can see now, it is the Porter." As the reporters continued to listen, one of them suddenly awoke to what was happening. "My God, we're on the Porter." They all rushed on his
deck, just in time to see the Clintons
bow
strike the Porter a glanc-
ing blow. Fortunately, neither vessel was materially damaged.
When
Cup
were held oflF Newport in 1934 and and interest of the 1930 races was repeated. The Coast Guard again patrolled them with nothing other than minor incidents occurring. 1937,
the America's
much
races
of the excitement
The establishment
by the Revenue regular work in
of the Bering Sea Patrol in 1867
Cutter Service signaled that service's entry into
Alaskan waters. As a result of experiences with ice in these waters, tlie service procured at intervals the three vessels, Corwin, Thetis,
and Bear. These vessels were not true icebreakers in that they were not designed to break a way through the ice; however, they were specially reinforced at the waterline and at the bow, so that they could resist the crushing e£Fect when caught in the ice, and if necessary ram ice floes. Their use in the ice was incidental to their main missions of conducting the Bering Sea Patrol and rendering assistance to vessels in distress. In 1927, the modern diesel-electric cutter Northland was built to replace the old Bear. But she, too, was not a true icebreaker. The first real icebreaker in the Coast Guard was the cutter Kickapoo, later stationed at Rockland, Maine. The Kickapoo was a large seagoing tug which had been obtained from the United States Shipping Board soon after World War I. The Coast Guard had her practically rebuilt, reinforcing her sides and fitting her with a special 82
THE SEAGOING HANDYMAN cutaway bow which permitted her to ride up on the ice and crush it. Unfortunately this same bow made her nearly unmanageable in heavy weather at sea. She was primarily used in the vicinity of Penobscot Bay, Maine, on general duty and in the bays and rivers in that region as an icebreaker when the ice began to go out in the spring.
Before the 1930's, there was
little
or no
need
for icebreaking
within the continental United States. Most of the tidewater ports ice free in normal years, and traditionally the little icebreaking was required was performed by the local authorities. During winter the closing of navigation on the Great Lakes was taken as a matter of course. Practically all communities were served by rail and no harm was done when the rivers and smaller harbors froze over. It was the substitution of oil for coal in domestic and commercial usage that was one of the more important precipitating causes for icebreaking. With coal it was a relatively simple matter for dealers and large users to lay in a large supply during the summer months, storing it on any suitable piece of real estate. But with oil, the sheer
were that
economics of maintaining tanks of suflBcient size to hold a winter's supply precluded using the same system. These same economics dictated the use of barges on or near the waterways and the ocean rather than of railroad cars or trucks. The Coast Guard's entry into the icebreaking business stemmed originally from the mission of rendering aid to a vessel in distress. The first of a new class of vessel which was designed to have an icebreaking capability in addition to performing general duty as a cutter was built in 1932 and assigned to Grand Haven, Michigan.
was not as efficient in icebreaking as a true icebreaker, her success was enough to cause five more of the class to be built. The winter of 1933-34 was unusually severe. New England experienced sub-zero weather during most of January. Calls for assistance in breaking out vessels and barges flooded into the office of the commander, Boston division. The 125-foot patrol boats were used in shallower waterways extensively even though they were quite inefficient, and because of their twin screw construction suffered frequent damage. Large cutters were used to attempt to keep the apAlthough
it
83
THE proaches to the Cape
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Cod Canal
sufficiently
open
to
permit passage
The same conditions prevailed as far south as lower Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake-Delaware Canal presented the same problem as Cape Cod Canal. On December 21, 1936, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 7521 which directed the Coast Guard ". to assist in keeping open to navigation by means of icebreaking operations channels and harbors within the reasonable demands of commerce." This order also directed the Navy, upon request of the Coast Guard, to assist as practicable. Under this directive, icebreaking was extended to keep open to navigation some rivers and harbors which in the past had completely frozen each year. During the years since World War I the Coast Guard's role in law enforcement had been ever increasing. In the beginning this had been largely due to the influence of Prohibition and anti-smuggling enforcement. There was a reviving interest in enforcement of other of large vessels.
.
.
.
.
.
customs and navigation laws. In his early days as secretary. Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau found an astonishing lack of coordination of Treasury Department enforcement activities in the field. It appeared that the enforcement agencies, which included Coast Guard, Secret Service, Special Customs Agents, and the Alcohol Tax
were sometimes working at cross purposes. In recognition of he established in 1935 a Coordinator for Treasury Law Enforce-
Unit, this,
ment
in each geographical area throughout the country. It
icant that in nearly
all
commander was made
the coastal regions, the Coast
is
Guard
signif-
division
the coordinator.
was small wonder, then, that Congress by an act of June 22, Guard as the agency for the enforcement all United States laws generally on the high seas and navigable
It
1936, designated the Coast of
waters of the United States.
The
basic legislation of the Coast
Guard provided
that,
upon
re-
quest of a responsible organization, the Coast Guard could send
men, boats, and other equipment inland This authorization specified that
all
to areas devasted
Undoubtedly
this legislation
84
floods.
expenses of the Coast Guard
forces utilized, except for pay, should be borne
organization.
by
by the requesting
envisioned the American
THE SEAGOING HANDYMAN Red Cross
as the requesting body. However, other responsible organwere not barred. In March, 1936, the Connecticut River, swollen by melting ice and snow and heavy rains near its headwaters, threatened to overflow its banks in western Massachusetts. During this period there had been close liaison between the ofiice of commander, Boston division, Coast Guard and the Massachusetts State PoHce. Then, on March 18, the expected happened and the river overflowed, inundating the Connecticut River Valley near Northampton, Amherst, and Holyoke, Massachusetts. Almost immediately telephone wires and cables were swept away, and secondary floods miles from the river nearly isolated the flooded communities. Late on the eighteenth a request from the state through the police was made to the Coast Guard for radio communication facilities. Sent to the area immediately were one officer, one communications truck, and four radiomen with portable radio equipment. By the time their detachment had arrived a few hours later, conditions had worsened to the point that the mass
izations
evacuation of people became necessary. for boats sent
twenty-eight
two motor
men
surfboats,
to the flooded area.
trucks equipped with winches,
A request to the Coast Guard New England skiffs, and
two
The boats
traveled on rented
which permitted launching and
re-
trieving wherever a road or sloping spot approached the river.
Boats and radio equipment were stationed strategically along the river valley.
The
skiffs
rendered heroic service
particularly in East Hatfield.
Guard
Station
was
first
The motor
surfboat from
Northampton and down as far The other motor surfboat was assigned to
across the river to
had now
felt
its
as the
operations
dam
at
Hol-
Springfield,
which
the effects of the flood. As the crest of the flood
moved
downriver, rescue operations followed and boats and Springfield.
Nahant Coast
stationed in Hadley, evacuating persons from
inundated houses in that town and later extending yoke.
communities,
in small
men moved
to
Here the major duty was in assisting the Red Cross and and providing boat transportation
police in transporting evacuees
to officials studying rehabilitation.
At the end of a week's hard work in the flooded area, the Coast Guard detachment returned to Boston and the parent units. For the 85
THE
U.S.
greater part of the time the
COAST GUARD
men had been
sleeping on floors and
benches whenever they could catch a few winks. During the first days, the only communication that Hadley, South Amherst, and other communities had with the outside world was by state police radio or Coast Guard portable radio. The flood continued to move
few
down
the river, menacing Hartford and other cities in Connecticut.
Similar Coast
Guard detachments were dispatched
the commander.
New York
to these areas
by
division.
of the Boston and New York divisions in preparing and providing men, boats, and equipment to this rather localized flood stood them in good stead the following year, when in January and February the Ohio and Mississippi rivers also went on a his-
The experience
for
toric
rampage.
Men and boats were
collected from units along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes. As the waters continued to rise, calls came for more and more boats and men, which were drawn from the cutters as well as the stations— bluejackets and surfmen working side by side. Every type of boat that could be carried into the flooded areas by train was sent in. First 26-foot motor surfboats, then 36-foot motor lifeboats, and finally 36-foot picket boats were loaded aboard long trains of gondola and passenger cars. Rehef trains went from Portland, Boston, New London, New York, and Norfolk, as well as the Great Lakes. For the first time aviation was actively used to scout inundated areas. The Coast Guard planes sent in were able to search thousands of square miles that could not otherwise have been covered.
By mid-March, when Coast Guard
were withdrawn, they had amassed a staggering mass of statistics. Three hundred and fifty boats with over 1,800 men, as well as planes and communication trucks, had been sent into the flooded river valleys. According to headquarters records, 1,000 persons had been rescued from immediate peril and 67,000 persons had been evacuated. In addition, many thousands of relief workers had been transported. September 21, 1938, started like any other late summer day. The entire fleet of the New York division— from a 125-foot patrol boat on up— was anchored in Sandy Hook Bay. AU told, there were eight 86
forces
THE SEAGOING HANDYMAN vessels, including the
new 327-foot
cutter Campbell. For the last
two
days the vessels had been conducting annual inspections, with boat drills and boat races breaking the monotony. That day would see all
scheduled inspections completed. There had been reports of a hurricane proceeding up the coast past Cape Hatteras, but the forecasts predicted that it would curve offshore. During the forenoon, the wind increased to "strong" and all vessels looked to their anchorages. The 165-foot patrol boat Icarus was sent out on an apparently routine mission to assist a disabled fisherman off the
By
New
Jersey coast.
wind had reached "gale" force. Boats had already During the afternoon, various vessels began to drag
1:00 P.M. the
been hoisted. anchor and several proceeded in close to Staten Island for shelter. Only now was it realized that a full-scale hurricane was blowing. Radio broadcasts were alarming. Boat anchorages and marinas along Long Island Sound had been completely devastated with vessels sunk or thrown up on the shore. Late in the afternoon a radio broadcast reported that New London, Connecticut, had been badly hit, vessels in the harbor wrecked, and a good part of the business section burning. The Campbell and Mohawk were directed to proceed immediately to New London. The following morning when reports started coming in, the full extent of the damage to New England began to be realized. The hurricane had passed up the center of southern New England causing extensive damage in New London, Newport, and Providence. It had finally spent itself overland in northern Massachusetts. For the next few days. Coast Guard vessels were busy helping communities that had been in the hurricane's path. Because all rail connection between New York and Boston had been knocked out, two vessels carried United States mail along the coast. Several islands in Narragansett Bay, including Prudence Island, were without drinking water, and were supplied by cutters. In New London, many small vessels were high and dry ashore, and had to be floated. It was a long time before Coast Guard vessels and stations were able to return to normal. In 1938 the Coast Guard took on visions of the
still
Merchant Marine Act 87
another task. Under the pro-
of 1936, as
amended, the Coast
THE Guard,
in cooperation
U.S.
COAST GUARD
with the Maritime Commission, took over the
supervision of the United States Maritime Service. Congress, alarmed
by the continuing dechne
of the
American merchant marine, passed
the Merchant Marine Act in an attempt to stimulate interest in the
merchant marine, and restore the United States to a position more its traditions and responsibilities. The United States Maritime Service was established as a voluntary organization of the licensed and unhcensed personnel of the merchant marine. During the next year, three maritime service training stations were established, two for unlicensed personnel and one for officers. HoflFman Island in New York Harbor and Government Island, Alameda, California, were the sites for training of unlicensed personnel. Officers were trained at Fort Trumbull, New London, Connecticut, and Alameda, California. Four training vessels were utilized. Two of them, the square-rigged vessels Joseph Conrad and Ttisitala, harked back to older days. A converted freighter, the American Seaman, and later a sister ship, the American Sailor, served on the East and
in keeping with
West Coasts respectively for the long training cruises. Ultimately two more training stations were set up. The Coast Guard assigned to this task many of its top-notch officers, and made every efiFort to carry out the intent of Congress to restore the
merchant marine
to
its
former
88
status.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Heritage
of the Titanic:
International Ice Patrol
One of the
first
acts of the Coast
Guard following World War
to reestablish the International Ice Patrol.
A
relatively
new
I
was
func-
had been of necessity discontinued during the war years of 1917 and 1918. There had been only three regular patrols by the Revenue Cutter Service, then the Coast Guard itself operating under the terms of the 1913 International Confertion of the service, the Ice Patrol
ence for the Safety of Life at Sea. The Ice Patrol was a completely new type of duty for the Coast Guard. The three prewar patrols had provided an opportunity for developing the mechanical techniques of locating icebergs and broadcasting ice information by radio. But there had been no time
methods for studying ice movements and ocean currents. The basic requirements for the conduct of the Inter-
to explore or establish
by the Coast Guard are now contained in 46 U.S. which formalizes in United States law the responsibilities 738, under the treaties. The study of ice movements and ocean currents was an important corollary to the Ice Patrol itself. The prewar patrols had demonstrated a basic lack of knowledge concerning the drift and habits of icebergs in the North Atlantic Ocean, thus making daily predictions of iceberg positions well-nigh impossible. The Coast Guard determined to make an intensive study of everything concerning ice and the Ice Patrol, including those ocean currents which might affect the movements of bergs. As part of this effort a young officer, Lt. Edward H. Smith, was assigned to national Ice Patrol
Code
89
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
the Ice Patrol staff in 1920; he remained on this duty for about ten
During this period, in the off-season as far as ice was concerned, he studied oceanography and meteorology at Harvard University. In addition, he spent one year at the Geophysical Institute, Bergen, Norway, and a few months at the British Meteorological Office, London, England. There is no mystery as to why he became years.
known
as "Iceberg Smith."
Following the assignment of Lieutenant Smith to the Ice Patrol staff which was for many years on a permanent basis, the Coast Guard adopted the policy of assigning young officers to the patrol as
A special course in oceanography was worked out with Harvard University, which the ice observer would attend during the fall and winter semesters. Upon the inauguration of the Ice Patrol each year, the oflBcer assigned as ice observer went aboard the first vessel to patrol. These assignments usually lasted three or four years, and the Coast Guard gradually built up a nucleus of officers trained ice observers.
in oceanography.
Very early
it became evident that would have to be solved
in the history of the Ice Patrol,
there were two principal problems which
the patrol was to accomplish
primary mission— to provide greater safety for lives and property on the northern transatlantic steamer routes. One was to obtain sufficient and proper data to permit the construction of hydronamic maps for tracing the behavior of currents and ice south of Newfoundland. The second was to be able to forecast the approximate number of icebergs that might be expected to drift south of Newfoundland annually in the vicinity of steamer lanes. Over a period of years observations of drift, water depth, if
its
made by
on Ice Patrol and their post-season cruises in the vicinity of the Grand Banks provided the information necessary to predict daily iceberg movement. Such information would permit the regular ice broadcasts of the patrol vessel to give berg positions that would be accurate and up-to-date without visually sighting each berg. Ultimately, problem number two was solved. The first postwar patrols were conducted by the older cutters. They were all at least ten years old and comparatively devoid of water
salinity,
and the
like
90
vessels
"
GEORGE WASHINGTON, TO ALL WHO KnOV. \v, »
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To MOLJ
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ilurcunto legally appertaining,
and
GREETING. 4toy\JUU
VtOtloYt O^
of a Cutter in the Service of the Unit, a St.
unto him the
faid
to
Law
U.
f,.:
til;
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tojiltu "VOJlAtl|
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United Slattt
to
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Cuy „J^I:iUiJph,a,
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and lulhl the Duties of that Office according
ivceiite
\\'-
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Diligence and good Conducl of
^UiAAleV
him
cauUd th^ Letters
the
E
n thi L,r..j:niv,
PWrur^/^-*iMtT'rei3jli;it of the United States for the Iw".
'J
Prcfulcnt of the United States of America.
be
made Patent, and the Seat of
^ijUcrdd.
.Iwc-wUl
the
ninety Okifc
,
and of
UiiA
.
the
Day of
the Independence if the
be ho'eunio
^WtVl\ United Slala
^
:>i
the i'-u,
f A.i.c'ua
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O
///
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A
coTpy of the first commission in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service signed by George Washington on March 21, 1791. Second signature is that of Thomas
Jefferson, Secretary of State.
The revenue
cutter
Hudson
at
Cardenas Bay, Cuba, 1898.
Photos are Official U.S. Coast Guard Photos unless otherwise credited.
The United
Completed
in
1791
at
States
Revenue Service
cutter Harriet Lane.
Newburyport, Massachusetts, the Massachusetts was the
of the "ten boats" built after Congress passed the bill authorizing their construction. She was 50 feet long and displaced 70 tons. first
First lifesaving station built in the United States ivitJi federal funds was the Spermacetti Cove Lifesaving Station at Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
A
typical station of the early 1900's
Beach, Massachusetts.
was the
U.S. Lifesaving Station at Salisbury
Crew and horse pull Cape Cod, 1908.
lifeboat ashore after surf drill at Orleans Lifesaving Station,
The Carysfort Reef Lighthouse, It
was
built during the years
Florida.
1848-52.
Ida Lewis Rock, Newport, Rhode Island.
A
Coast Guard helicopter hovers over Boston Light, Boston, Massachusetts. The was built in 1716.
light
The
cutter
submarine
Tampa,
built in 1912,
in Bristol
Channel.
A
was sunk on September 26, 1918 by a German total of 131 lives were lost. There were no
survivors.
The
U.S. Coast
Guard
cutter Seneca after conversion.
ss^t'i^siid^i^'-^irr-*-
The
A
cutter
Redwing towing the rescued Norwegian motor
Coast Guard station crew
drills
ship Childar.
with the Lyle line-throwing gun.
A surf boat being
A
launched from a two-wheeled cart
in the 1 930's.
Coast Guard siirfboat going through rough
surf.
The
S.S.
Morro Castle burning
off
the coast of
New
Jersey. (U.S. Information
Agency)
The cutter Comanche breaking ice in the York, 1938. (Photo by the author)
Hudson River
off
West
Point,
New
A Grumman amphibian
Coast Guard planes
fly
plane
over the
St.
flies
over a Secretary Class cutter.
Petersburg Air Station, Florida, 1937.
An
early Coast
The
Guard "Flying Boat." The Arcturus was one
patrol boat
Marion on a special
of this class.
ice observation cruise in 1928.
Titanic memorial services being held aboard the cutter Modoc.
A
Mary Langdon, is flanked by the cutter Redwing and CG-237. The contraband ship was seized on June 10, 1925.
seized rumrunner, the
patrol boat
,.*-
•
K
.-«. t
i^l^irtafc''-^fc'^^
-•-••sjWij^
The
U.S. Coast
Guard destroyer Conyngham,
J
928. (Photo by the author)
A group to
hunt
The
Guard 75-foot patrol boats take off from an Atlantic coast base smugglers. Photo was taken in the 1920' s.
of Coast
down
U.S. Coast
Guard destroyer Beale
side the 12-mile limit off the
trails
North Atlantic
an offshore "rummie" schooner out-
coast.
The
U.S. Coast
Guard Academy,
Two 75-foot patrol hoots from the base two rumladen schooners, 1927.
New
London, Connecticut.
at Gloucester,
Massachusetts picketing
President Lyndon B. Johnson handing Academy graduating class of 1964.
Cadet review
at the U.S. Coast
mmmv^/^ „
out commissions to the U.S. Coast
Guard
Guard Academy. Commencement, June, 1964.
.,
Photos are Official U.S. Coast Guard Photos unless otherwise credited.
l^^fe4i#i**J^M^'i-,tiSafe^-^*'? '
I ;
Above: The U.S. Revenue Mapractice cutter Salmon P. Chase. Cadets manned the Chase on her first training cruise in the
rine
year 1878. As a training ship she was decommissioned in 1907.
Left:
The
Academy
U.S.
Coast
Guard
training ship Eagle.
Lightship Nantucket in heavy weather.
An
early lighthouse tender
was the Crocus.
^
Another early lightship was the Heald, shown here
off
the Texas coast.
The
The
St.
cutter
Ingham on convoy duty during World War
George Reef Light
Station,
II.
Samoa, Calif ornia,under a heavy
surf.
4 1
The
U.S. Coast
The Coast Guard
Guard buoy tender Hornbeam prepares
loran transmitting station on
to
"work" a buoy.
Iwo Jima. (Photo by the author)
Off Talampulan, Philippine Islands. A Coast Guard amphibian plane provides support to loran stations. (Photo by the author)
logistic
The new 210-foot
cutter Vigilant has a raised flight deck designed to quickly
launch and recover
all
types of rescue helicopters.
A
lifeboat from the cutter Pontchartrain speeds to the aid of survivors of a ditched plane. Twenty minutes after the plane was down, passengers and crew were safely aboard the ship.
Buzzards Bay offshore
light station relieves the lightship.
A
sonarman operates an electronic data processing machine in the heart of the Guard Atlantic Merchant Vessel Reporting (AMVER) Center in New York City. U.S. Coast
August, 1962. The training ship Eagle.
late President
John F. Kennedy inspects the Coast Guard
THE HERITAGE OF THE TITANIC comfort for their crews. Their slow speed to and from station added considerably to the time at sea. But in the early 1920's, the new
Majave
class cutters
came on
the scene. Three of these, the Mojave,
the Modoc, and the Tampa, were assigned to the Atlantic Coast and
took up ice patrol duties. With their speed, modern equipment, and
improved crews' quarters, they were able to carry out a more effimuch improved morale. The Ice Patrol started with the appearance of the first icebergs oflF the Grand Banks, south of Newfoundland. This usually occurred about the middle of March and the patrol normally lasted until the latter part of June or early July, when the last dangerous bergs had disappeared. Two vessels conducted a continuous patrol of the area cient patrol with
Grand Banks, relieving each other every fifteen and basing in Halifax, Nova Scotia in their in-port periods. The standby vessel would remain in Boston. The vessel on patrol would receive ice reports by radio from all vessels traversing the area. In addition, she herself would cruise the southern limits of the area, noting and plotting positions of any bergs sighted. All of this ice information was plotted on charts, together with known current and drift factors from the hydronamic maps on board. Plotting all this data, and preparing the two daily in the vicinity of the
days,
radio broadcasts of ice conditions to shipping, the ice observation officer
and
his assistants
were busy people.
In 1898 the Transatlantic Track Conference was formed with
all
of the established passenger companies agreeing to a system of pre-
scribed steamer tracks. These tracks,
confirmed by the
first
known
as lane routes,
were
International Conference for the Safety of
Life at Sea, held in 1913. Essentially, seven lane routes were pro-
vided across the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe: lane routes A, B, and C for steamer traffic between the United States and Europe; D, E, F, and G between Canada and Europe.
A
and west-bound traffic in lane routes A, B, C, and D are separated by 60 miles. The separation on the other routes is somewhat less. As ice moves southward, menacing the more northern United States-Europe route, the commander. Track
is
the southernmost. East-
International Ice Patrol, in cooperation with the
91
United States
THE Hydrographic route
B
OflBce,
U.S.
COAST GUARD
recommends
shifting of steamer traffic to lane
or in extreme ice years to A.
The Canadian
routes
move
northward.
The ice observation officer and his staflF became quite seagoing. Normally the staflF consisted of a chief quartermaster, a chief radioman, and a chief yeoman. These men, together with the ice observation officer, would go aboard the first cutter on patrol, and then transfer from ship to ship, until the patrol season ended. Life on ice patrol was not as monotonous or dull as might be imagined. Movies were shown every night on the mess deck. Routine ship's duties and watches never stopped. At times, when the patrol cutter drifted near a berg at the edge of the gulf stream, swimming call would be sounded and quite a few hardy souls would enjoy a dip in the 60-degree water. Weather permitting, boat races were also held between the crews of cutters relieving each other. After the tragic Titanic disaster in these icy waters, a tradition started in the Coast Guard.
Each
year, the cutter that
happened
to
be on patrol on April 14 held memorial services for those who lost marine disaster of modem times. When practicable, the service was held exactly over the spot where the Titanic went down in 1912. Here is how it is observed: April 14. The cutter Mojave is proceeding at standard speed on a course nearly due east. Gathered on her bridge are the captain, the navigator, and the ice observer, as well as the usual bridge crew. "This is about it. Captain," declares the navigator, and the ship gradually comes to a stop, rolling slightly in the light swell. "All hands to General Muster" closely follows the boatswain's shrill pipe. The crew of the cutter, in carefully pressed dress blues, lines up on the port side of the quarterdeck. They face the officers who, in their full dress uniforms, are on the starboard side. As the captain faces the hues of officers and crew, the church flag flutters out at the masthead. In solemn tones, the commanding officer then reads the burial service for those at sea. At its conclusion, three sharp rifle volleys roll out from the firing squad. "Crew dismissed" is sounded, and another annual service in memory of the Titanic and the more than fifteen hundred persons who perished with her has been observed. their Hves in that worst
92
THE HERITAGE OF THE TITANIC By
the end of the Ice Patrol of 1927, the Coast Guard, from ob-
servations tific
made by
its
own
vessels
on patrol and reports
of scien-
ship expeditions of other nations into the vicinity of Labrador,
Greenland, and Newfoundland, had sufficient data to construct cur-
movements in the was then considered
rent maps, permitting routine forecasting of ice
Grand Banks and Newfoundland
areas.
It
desirable to send a vessel on an oceanographic cruise well north into Baffin
Bay and Davis
Strait,
with the hope that
this cruise
would
provide information on the currents and characteristics of these waters and reveal the sources of the icebergs which ultimately found
way to the Grand Banks and the North Atlantic steamer lanes. The patrol boat Marion of the new 125-foot patrol boat class was selected as the vessel to make this cruise. It would take place during the summer of 1928, immediately following the regular ice patrol. Lt. Comdr. Edward H. Smith was selected as commanding officer of the vessel and expedition commander. Lt. Noble G. Ricketts, antheir
other oceanographically trained
Considerable work was necessary to
was
be executive officer. make the Marion suitable for
officer,
to
was begun early in the spring of 1928. room was constructed on the bridge deck, in the afterpart of the bridge itself. The steel deck over the upper engine room was extended and converted to a platform on which the oceanographic work would be conducted. Two special winches for oceanographic work were installed on this deck. The larger winch 2 -inch wire rope and the smaller winch carried about 10,000 feet of 2-inch wire rope. These winches were so installed 12,000 feet of as to permit both to operate at the same time if desired. Nearby were
her task, and
A
it
special radio
%
%
racks for stowing water bottles.
An
additional generator for ocea-
nographic work was installed. As in nearly all operations conducted by the Coast Guard, then and
now, extreme economy was necessary. Therefore, all the ice patrol's deep-sea thermometers, thermographs, Greene-Bigelow water bottles, water sample bottles, and other articles of scientific apparatus were taken aboard the Marion for use. By early July of 1928 she was ready for sea, and on the eleventh the vessel departed Boston Navy Yard for Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 93
THE addition to the
warrant
U.S.
COAST GUARD
commanding and executive
officers,
she carried two
and A. L. Cunningham J. and twenty-three enhsted men. By today's standards, this crew was small indeed for an extended subarctic cruise. After short stops at Halifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia, she proceeded to the Atlantic end of the Strait of Belle Isle where the actual oceanographic program began. The taking of an oceanographic station by the Marion was not an easy operation. The installation in Boston of a fathometer, an electrical depth-finding device which determined the depth of water by echo sounding, had eliminated the tedious job of finding depths with the deep-sea lead. But there were still several parts of the operation which were arduous and time-consuming. From the depth of water was determined the number of water bottles needed at various depths. One of the wire ropes, equipped with a bottom sampler, would then be lowered over the side of the ship, with Greene-Bigelow water bottles fastened to the wire at appropriate intervals. When the end of the wire had reached bottom, in as near a vertical position as possible, the water bottles would be tripped successively, each filling with water at its particular depth, and recording the temperature of the water at the time. The wire would then be winched in, each bottle being detached as it came over the side. Thus, the temperature and salinity of the water (taken from the samples ) would be determined and recorded for each desired depth, with a record of the character of the ocean bottom at that point. In great depths, both wire ropes and winches were often used simulas
officers,
watch
Boatswains
B. Kristenson
officers,
taneously to save time.
The
first
line of stations
ended at Battle Harbor, Labrador, where Numerous lines of stations were made
a three-hour stop was made.
along the Labrador coast, with the vessel visiting several small harbors.
The Marion then made a 575-mile
line of stations to the north-
eastward from Labrador across David Strait to the west coast of Greenland. This line took six days. She visited Godthaab, and Godhavn, Greenland, firing a national salute of 21 guns at each place. On the return trip from the north, the vessel again stopped at Godhavn, where among other things a soccer game was played between 94
THE HERITAGE OF THE TITANIC the Marions crew and the combined Danish and native team in the
pouring
rain.
only 26 to
0.
The game was Here
also the
close, the Marion losing by a score of Marion was able to refuel, thus assuring
her a full-speed run home.
On
the
way southward
various lines of stations were run, until on
the afternoon of September 11 the vessel entered the harbor of
St.
Newfoundland. For the crew, this was real civilization again. One day was sufficient to take on fresh stores, make officials calls, and ready the ship for the nearly 1000-mile run to New London, Connecticut. Departing St. John's late in the afternoon of the twelfth, the Marion proceeded southward arriving at New London early in the morning of September 18. The vessel's task was finished, although Lieutenant Commander Smith and Lieutenant Ricketts, with their scientific assistants, faced many weeks of work, analyzing and corelating the data gathered. During the trip, the Marion cruised 8,100 nautical miles, and burned 14,000 gallons of oil. A total of 191 stations were taken. The cruise of the Marion established quite conclusively that the majority of the icebergs that found their way to the Atlantic Ocean south of Newfoundland came from western Greenland. It also indicated that, in a normal year, the number of icebergs which would reach the area of the Grand Banks could be reasonably predicted. John's,
The
patrol boat General Greene, a sister ship of the Marion,
post-season cruises to Davis Strait and Baffin
and 1935
to
Bay
made
in 1931, 1933, 1934,
expand the findings of the Marion.
Coast Guard cutter came on the scene and gradually replaced the Mojave, Modoc, and Tampa on Ice Patrol duty. The names Cayago, Chelan, and Mendota began to appear in In 1930 a
new
class of
the reports of the Ice Patrol.
Improved techniques
in forecasting,
communications increased the efficiency of the patrol. Guard cooperated with the Weather Bureau in exploring the feasibility of obtaining upper air observations of temperature and barometric pressure. Balloons carrying thermometers and barometers were released by vessels on patrol. By as well as in
In 1938 and 1939 the Coast
means
of a small, relatively inexpensive radio transmitter attached
to the balloon, the readings of these instruments
95
were transmitted
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
on the cutter. These were the predecessors of the radiosonde balloons used by later Weather Patrol vessels. The International Ice Patrol and ice observation cruises were paid for by the nations using the North Atlantic Ocean, and signatory to the International Ice Patrol agreements. The Coast Guard itself budgeted for the operation as for all other duties. Payments of other nations went into the Treasury of the United States. And the International Ice Patrol, using different techniques and often airplanes in conjunction with the cutters, is still an annual program of the Coast Guard. to a Special radio receiver
96
CHAPTER NINE
The Noble Experiment: The Coast Guard During The 75-FOOT
Prohibition
CG-290 swung idly to the tide. She was loosely moored to a bell buoy with a slip line that could easily be cast loose if necessary to get underway quickly. The practice of mooring to a navigational buoy was against standing orders, but in the war against rumrunners many unorthodox things were done for expediency's sake. The CG-290, in company with CG-241, had left patrol boat
Section Base Four at
New
London, Connecticut on the afternoon
of
December
28, 1929, with orders to patrol the Eastern Passage of Narragansett Bay against any attempted rumrunning. As she lay there in complete darkness, with no sound other than
that of a small generator, her officer in charge, Boatswain Alexander
C. Cornell, stood in the wheelhouse, scanning the indistinct horizon to
seaward with
his binoculars.
The weather was calm,
witli
of fog frequently reducing visibility to nearly zero. His
patches
seven-man
some of them undoubtedly thinking of the Saturday night in New London that they were missing. Just across the channel, to the eastward near Fort Adams, lay the CG-241. The earlier hours of the night proved to be uneventful. Then, through the quiet night came a distant throbbing, hardly loud enough to be called a sound at all. The throbbing increased in intensity and was soon readily identified as that of high-speed motors. Through his binoculars. Boatswain Cornell could discern a faint black shape rushing toward him. The luminous dial on the deck clock in the wheelhouse showed 2:15. With a flick of a switch the crew were
at their stations,
97
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
powerful searchlight of the CG-290 went on. Pointing the
beam
directly at the onrushing shape, Cornell easily recognized the Black
Duck, a well-known rumrunner
in the Narragansett area.
He swung
beam to illuminate his Coast Guard Ensign and sounded his horn. As the speedboat passed close aboard the CG-290 Cornell shouted an order to stop. As with his other signals, this was also ignored. When the Black Duck sped off, the seaman at the machine gun was ordered to open fire. In accordance with previous orders, he tried to place his shots astern of the speedboat. Only a few shots were fired in a single burst. As the Black Duck suddenly swerved to the left the machine-gun burst raked the side and pilothouse. After disappearing into the darkness, the "rummie" reappeared, coming alongside the CG-290. Several Coast Guardsmen jumped aboard, and seeing no one on deck, looked into the pilothouse. Except for its narrow wooden door, the pilothouse was completely armored. Through this door eight bullets had entered. On the deck lay three men, two obviously dead and one barely moving. At the wheel, with his right arm hanging his searchlight
uselessly, stood a fourth, apparently the captain.
Boatswain Cornell took the CG-290 and Black Duck to the nearby Fort Adams dock, where he immediately requested medical assistance. Three of the men were beyond any assistance. The fourth was treated by a doctor; he would be crippled the rest of his life. That day rumors fairly flew around Newport. Being Sunday, there was no local newspaper published, so the only way the story could be told was by word of mouth. The vividness of the stories was not necessarily marred by truthfulness. In his sermon at one of the local churches, the minister commented forcefully on the "murderers." Even though a special grand jury called later at Providence found
no true bill against the Coast Guardsmen, public opinion did not change for years, illustrating how a large segment of the American public reacted to sincere efforts to enforce the liquor laws.
For many years prior to World War I, there had been a strong movement in the United States. Working at local levels, and later at the state level, die so-called "Drys," first through local
prohibition
98
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT option and then through the state legislatures, had intoxicating beverages illegal in
many
made
the sale of
With the entry of the thousands of young men
states.
United States into the war and hundreds of
going into uniform, public opinion was further aroused against "Demon Rum." Several federal laws were passed governing the sale
and manufacture
were be needed was an amendment
of alcoholic liquors, but for various reasons
largely ineffective.
What seemed
to
which would make the liquor traffic definitely The Senate finally voted on this amendment, approving it on August 1, 1917 by a vote of 65 to 20. On December 18, 1917, the House of Representatives approved the proposed amendment in almost the same form. It then went to the states for ratification, to the Constitution
illegal.
which was accomplished in record time. As thirty-three states already had prohibition in one form or another there was little doubt about the outcome. Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, or the Volstead Act, and on January 17, 1920, the United States had national prohibition, later referred to by President Herbert Hoover as the "Noble Experiment." This act placed enforcement under the Treasury Department.
Few persons
anticipated any particular difficulty in enforcing Pro-
hibition. True, as its effective date
who
approached,
many
of those peo-
bought up existing stocks of liquor whenever possible. However, the American people had been traditionally law respecting and law abiding and no real defiance of the act was ple
could afford
it
expected.
The
Prohibition Bureau established in the Treasury Department
was headed by the Commissioner of Prohibition. Other agencies of the department— Customs, Internal Revenue, and Coast Guardwere expected to assist in enforcement within their own spheres of responsibility. It was not anticipated that any of these would need to be materially expanded for enforcement. Subsequent developments, however, demonstrated how completely wrong the original thinking had been. People who had never indulged in alcoholic liquors now decided they wanted them. Among the younger generation it became "smart" to drink and become somewhat tipsy. Whereas previously women seldom drank, at least in public, it now became 99
THE chic to have a cocktail.
U.S.
COAST GUARD
An even
greater
demand for hquor was With such a demand of individuals who were
created than that existing before Prohibition.
was not long before there were plenty happy to satisfy it. In the beginning many of the bootleggers were otherwise respectable persons. It was not long, however, before professional criminals, scenting easy money, went into the business. During Prohibition there were three primary sources of illicit liquor. Thousands of stills were set up throughout the country. Many persons "made their own" in their homes, either using stills and mash (home brew) or cutting and flavoring commercial alcohol (bathtub gin). The third source was foreign countries where liquor was legally manufactured, and then smuggled into the United States. As the demand for alcoholic beverages increased, the number of it
demand
persons involved in satisfying that
also
increased.
And
went up. Unfortunately, the number of enforcement officers did not increase materially. The Coast Guard, which was the primary enforcement agency against smuggling from the sea, made many seizures, although the service itself was not immediately strengthened. Many more suspects got away. Until the summer of 1921, the Coast Guard had been unable to devote any great efiFort naturally the price
to the prevention of smuggling, lest
it
neglect
its
other primary duty
life and property at sea. Actually, the Coast Guard was in somewhat of a peculiar situation. The ships and their personnel were descendants of the Revenue Cutter Service, with a long tradition of law enforcement. The shore stations had been a part of the Lifesaving Service, with protection of life and property along the coasts their only mission. To most of these men, law enforcement was something new and quite often distasteful. In July, 1921, there came the first indication of what later was
—protection of of 1921
called
peared
"Rum Row" off
off
the coast of
New
Jersey. Strange ships ap-
the coast, either drifting or anchoring just outside the
Most of these vessels hailed from foreign ports and flew foreign flags. They usually burned no visible lights at night, and no one doubted but what they were loaded with liquor. Seizure of foreign vessels outside the three-mile limit was illegal, although an American vessel could be seized within the territorial three-mile territorial limit.
100
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT waters or on the high seas. After dark, these foreign rumrunners would frequently bring a cargo right into an American port. However, the practice also grew of small American boats bringing cargoes from the foreign vessels to shore under cover of darkness, and this ultimately became the principal method of rumrunning. The number of vessels lying offshore increased and, within the year,
Rum Rows
extended along both the New Jersey and Long Island coasts, with a smaller one off Massachusetts. The Coast Guard adopted the practice of having its cutters patrol along a Rum Row, keeping the liquor ships under surveillance. An American boat found alongside an offshore rummie could be seized, and even if it was only in the vicinity it was stopped and searched
The
were comparatively slow, however, and many of the contact boats were fast motorboats. Unless caught within easy gun range by the cutter, they usually outdistanced her, and sped away. Even so, there were many seizures of boats and for contraband.
their
illicit
cutters
cargoes.
As the liquor
traflSc
continued to grow, the Administration became
alarmed. Beginning in 1922, the State Department had been nego-
about a possible treaty which would have the effect, as far as British vessels were concerned, of pushing the limits of the United States law enforcement authority further offshore. Similar negotiations were going on with other countries. President Warren Harding asked his Attorney General for an opinion tiating with Great Britain
on the
legality of using the
United States Navy to stop the liquor office, there were indica-
smuggling. Shortly after Harding's death in
would agree to a 12-mile limit as far as smuggling was concerned. About this same time. President Calvin Coolidge, who had succeeded Harding, was advised by Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty that there was no Constitutional tions that Great Britain
authority to use the
Navy
to suppress smuggling.
In its request for supplemental appropriations for the fiscal years 1924 and 1925, the Coast Guard was permitted to ask for nearly $14,000,000 for additional personnel and vessels. This request was
based on obtaining and refitting twenty Navy destroyers then laid up. These funds would also provide new patrol boats, small motor101
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
and an additional 5,000 personnel. Congress by an act of April 2, 1934, appropriated the funds requested, and the buildup
boats,
began.
The Coast Guard built some two hundred 75-foot patrol boats, known popularly as "six-bitters." These boats were of a Coast Guard design that was patterned after a boat the Coast Guard had used in
New York Harbor for years. They were
twin-screw, powered
by two
150-horsepower Sterling gasoline engines, with a top speed of about 14 knots. Being unusually sturdy craft they were frequently used as far offshore as 50 miles, in which case they would be towed to sea by larger vessels to conserve fuel. Some of them were still in use by private owners thirty years later. The smaller motorboats were some-
what
faster single-screw
wooden boats
of 36-foot length called
"picketboats."
No
account of the Coast Guard during Prohibition would be complete without mention of the "Battle of Philadelphia." In the early
Navy had many destroyers laid up in the back channel Navy Yard, It was agreed between the Coast Guard and Navy that the twenty destroyers selected for the Coast Guard would be of the so-called "broken deck" class, all of which had been built before our entry into World War I. A board of Coast Guard officers, working with personnel from the Philadelphia Navy 1920's, the
at the Philadelphia
Yard, selected the twenty destroyers which were to be reconditioned
and commissioned. As it developed, thirteen were of the 740-ton class, and the other seven were the larger 1,000-tonners. The smaller ships were all built in the years 1910-12. It was believed that the older age of the 740's would be more than compensated for by their greater economy in operation. The first six ships were towed from the back channel to wharves near the yard's machine shops. Thus began one of the greatest— and at the same time the oddestoperations ever undertaken by the Coast Guard. A pre-commissioning force under Capt. Harry G. Hamlet, later to be Commandant, was established at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Engineer officers and top engineering petty officers were ordered in by headquarters, and immediately were assigned to a Navy Yard school to learn the pecuHarities of operation of destroyer power plants. As the increased 102
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT Coast Guard personnel authorized by Congress to man the destroyers and new construction practically doubled the strength of the Coast Guard, immediate steps were necessary to recruit officers and enlisted men. Recruiting oflBcers were set up in seaport cities around the United States. Naval Reserve and merchant marine oflScers were urged to accept temporary commissions in the Coast Guard. As part of Captain Hamlet's force, a receiving unit was set up in Philadelphia which received and assigned personnel to the new ships. This unit also acted as a recruiting office for enlisting many former Navy men. Because the Coast Guard was desperately in need of trained men, there was often considerable bargaining between the recruiting officer and the candidates for enlistment as to what rating would be oflFered. Most of the destroyers selected had been laid up immediately following the war, without any extensive repairs or overhaul. Preliminary inspections had weeded out those whose boilers or machinery were in the worst shape. There was, however, much work to be done on all the ships, particularly on the auxiliaries, hulls, and on deck. As crews were assigned, priority was given to the first vessels scheduled to go out. Because later-scheduled vessels were without crews, it was a relatively easy matter for them to be cannibalized for anything movable, even such items as porthole rims. As a result, when the last ships were reconditioned they were furnished new equip-
ment to replace that missing. The 740-ton Henley was the and
to
1924.
first
go into service, taking her
The remainder
by mid- 1925,
all
new
station late in the
summer
of
of the destroyers followed at intervals until,
twenty of them were
they were divided into divisions of ing out of
destroyer to be commissioned
in service. Organizationally,
six each,
with a division operat-
New York, New London,
almost solely for training.
and Boston. One vessel was used So many tales were spread concerning the
readying the destroyers for service— particularly during the winter of 1924-25, when many vessels had no heat— that it difficulties of
is
small
wonder the name
"Battle of Philadelphia"
In the year 1925, Treasury Secretary
was applied.
Andrew W. Mellon asked
Congress for more Coast Guard ships, including 10 103
new
cutters, 5
:
THE destroyers,
and 25 new
funds for crews to
COAST GUARD
U.S.
oflFshore patrol boats.
man them when
they became commissioned. Of
these ships, the destroyers were the
being of the 1,000- ton
added
class. It
This request included
first
to
come
into service, all
should be noted that nearly
all
of the
Coast Guard between 1920 and 1930 were for use in the anti-smugghng eflFort. These vessels, by classes, are as vessels
to the
follows
CLASS
YEARS ADDED
75-foot patrol boat 36-foot picket boat
destroyers 100-foot patrol boat 125-foot patrol boat
250-foot cutter (lake class)
1924-25 1924-25 1924-26 1925-27 1926-27 1928-31
NUMBER 204 100 (approx.) 25 10
33 10
In addition, the cutter Northland was built in 1927 to replace the old Bear.
In May, 1924, the treaty with Great Britain, the 12-Mile Treaty, was concluded, and similar treaties with other nations.
These
known popularly
was followed
shortly
as
by
treaties did not in actual
What they did United States to board, search, and, if evidence of violation of customs laws was found, take in vessels of treaty nations. Under United States law, since 1790 the ofiicers of the Revenue Cutter Service had had "authority to go on board of every ship or vessel which shall arrive within the United States or within four leagues of the Coast thereof, if bound for the United States, and to search and examine the same and every part thereof." In 1799 fact extend our territorial waters to twelve miles.
was
to authorize the
an enabling act was passed which gave cutters the right to fire upon those vessels when such vessels failed to heave to when ordered to do so. This authority to board and search within 12 miles had been used sparingly in the early rumrunning days to avoid international complications.
The enactment
of the treaties
and the existence of the above-noted 104
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT laws provided some interesting anachronisms. The treaties specified
"one hour's saihng distance," which for most of the rumrunners lying
was approximately 12 nautical miles. In those cases where two vessels were in contact, such as when small boats would be alongside the larger vessel, the speed of the faster was generally accepted as governing. However, as noted above, the original United States law relative to boarding and searching specified within four leagues. Thus, authority contained in a treaty was not always comoffshore
The commanding
patible with that in basic United States law.
offi-
Guard vessel was often in a difficult position. must not be assumed, from the recounting of the difficulties of the Coast Guard in enforcing anti-smuggling against liquor, that the life of a rumrunner was always "beer and skittles." As the trade itself was illicit, there was no protection by any established authority. In the early days, large sums of money changed hands when a cargo of liquor was sold and the cargo itself could be readily converted into cash. Such a situation inevitably led to armed robbery and piracy, and it was in relation to the liquor traffic that the expression "hijacker" was born. Many were the tales of crews murdered and the cargoes stolen. Coast Guard records cite cases where only dead men were found aboard a rummie. Since none of the rumrunners had quarters that were anything but austere, the long period aboard the offshore boats was hard on their crews. The advent of the destroyers and offshore patrol boats, coupled with the 12-mile treaties, resulted in new concepts and tactics in combating rumrunners. The offshore rummies, or supply ships, cer of a Coast It
moved to
their operations farther out so that, except for specific dashes
unload a cargo, the foreign vessels were ordinarily immune from From the start, vessels on Rum Row were picketed whenever
search.
by Coast Guard vessels to prevent American shore boats from making contact. The extension of United States jurisdiction to 12 miles demanded faster and more seaworthy contact boats, while possible
the increase in offshore patrol boats
made
it
possible to keep a con-
was not long before such, was broken up. In the
tinuous surveillance operating. Therefore,
known as Rum Row, as end the supply ships would continually
the situation
105
it
shift position, often lying
THE
many
U.S.
COAST GUARD
miles offshore during the daytime, running in toward the
coast after dark.
The Coast Guard continued the practice of picketing every foreign rummie found. High-speed sweeps of destroyers in hne were made during dayhght hours, covering an area as far out as a hundred The "dark of the moon" was a favorite time for rumrunning
miles.
operations, so during these periods, destroyer sweeps
and airplane
reconnaissance patrols were frequent. Whenever a "black" (as tliey were known) was found, she would be picketed immediately by a destroyer or patrol boat. This picketing,
when
continuous, not only
precluded unloading to a contact boat, but prevented supplies from being delivered by American boats. For many years, the destroyers
were the only Coast Guard
enough speed to catch either The necessary publicity attendant with construction of a Coast Guard vessel on government contract was such that the liquor syndicates knew a Coast Guard vessel's top speed before it was built, and it was a simple matter for them to vessels with
a speedboat or a supply ship.
tailor the specifications of their vessels accordingly.
seemed
to operating Coast
Guard personnel
Indeed it often were always
that they
being frustrated by a condition of "too little, too late." Because of their speed, destroyers were excellent for scouting and a stern chase, but were not particularly well adapted to picket shore rummies.
By
off-
the late 1920's the rummies were almost entirely
good cargo capacity, and capable of Because they were excellent sea boats
of the fishing boat type, with
speeds from 10 to 15 knots.
and quite maneuverable, they could remain at sea for long periods However, so long as a vessel was being picketed, she could not unload her cargo of contraband. Many were the tricks and maneuvers that were adopted to shake off a trailing or picketing Coast Guard vessel. When a patrol boat was doing the job, the black simply outran the Coast Guard vessel. When a destroyer was trailing, speed alone was not effective, so the rummie would make evasive maneuvers. While these evasive actions were going on, most destroyer captains would keep the rummie in the beam of the searchof time.
light.
feet.
The majority of the supply vessels ranged The destroyers, which were about 300 feet 106
in length of
100-124
long, required
much
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT to turn than did the smaller craft. This led to a neverending contest of seamanship between destroyer and rummie. That destroyer picketing was reasonably successful was a tribute to the
more space
generally superb shiphandling of the destroyers.
In February, 1931, the Coast Guard destroyer Conyngham (CG2) was patrolling along the Long Island coast. She, with the rest of Destroyer Division Three, had been in Florida waters for annual battle practice and small arms training. While returning to Boston, the division was patroUing en route. Orders from New London directed the Conyngham to proceed to Gardiner's Bay, on the inside of Long Island, where a foreign vessel loaded with contraband liquor had gone on a hidden reef. This vessel, the Algie of Nova Scotia, had apparently been trying to run in the cargo herself, and in the fog and heavy weather had struck the reef. The crew had abandoned ship and disappeared. Meanwhile, Coast Guard intelligence had received information that a gang from New York City was going to attempt to salvage and hijack the cargo. The Conyngham was to place a guard on board until the vessel could be floated or unloaded by United States authorities.
Feeling her of the Algie
way through
came within sight and two enone
the fog, the destroyer
and then anchored.
A
guard of
officer
men was put aboard to remain until the following morning, while the Conyngham went on patrol for the night. It was with mixed listed
guard watched their ship up anchor and disappear. After watches were set, they took a look around. The holds were loaded with sacks marked with a name of a popular scotch whiskey. Everything in the pilothouse was as it had been left when the crew hurriedly abandoned ship. During the evening the fog lifted completely, and the lights of a small town on Long Island could be seen. Occasionally during the night, other lights were observed moving along the beach. When this happened, the guard feelings indeed that the
redoubled
its
vigilance, all the while
reports about a
Dayhght
gang were
finally
wondering
if
the intelligence
true.
came, and soon the
Conyngham
reappeared.
Since daylight observation could be conducted from the destroyer, the guard entered their boat, and started back to the ship. Just as
107
THE they
left
U.S.
COAST GUARD
the Algie's side, the muffled sound of a ship's clock striking
was heard. It did not come from the rummie but seemed be right in the boat. One of the guards, who was quite stocky, had a suspicious-looking bulge under his pea coat, and a look of consternation on his face. The bulge turned out to be a ship's clock apparently destined to be a souvenir in the sailor's home. In a matter of minutes the clock was back on the bulkhead of the Algie, and the boat was again headed for the Conyngham. The sailor was so contrite that no punishment other than a warning was given. The following day, relieved of the guard on the Algie, the Conyngham sailed for home. The rumrunner was brought up for seizure for bringing contraband into the United States. The master contended that he had sought shelter under the stress of weather, and on this
eight bells to
excuse the vessel was released.
This seeming indifference of some of the federal courts was one of the Coast Guard's greatest difficulties in enforcing the anti-smuggling laws against alcoholic beverages.
come
By now
had beand this Time and time
Prohibition
quite unpopular with a majority of the public
unpopularity seemed to be reflected in the courts.
would be brought
in with an apparently airone reason or another, would soon be back in their owner's possession operating at the same old stand. It must not be assumed that this always occurred in every court, but it was often enough to be discouraging. In 1931 a new class of vessel, designed especially to combat rumrunning, appeared in the Coast Guard. This was the 165-foot patrol boat with sufficient speed and maneuverability to successfully trail and picket any offshore rumrunner. Equipped with twin-screws and twin rudders and powered by two Winton diesel engines, it was capable of a top speed of 17 knots. These vessels were built to first supplement, and later supplant the destroyers. With a total crew of about forty officers and men plus their diesel power, they were much more economical to operate than the old destroyers. Between 1931 and 1934, eighteen of these craft were built. One of these, the Electra, was later transferred to the Navy, converted, and became the Presidential yacht Potomac.
again, seized vessels tight case,
and then,
for
108
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT During Prohibition, the Coast Guard was forced to build up its security forces and measures. New codes and ciphers had to be devised so that radio communications could be carried on with vessels at sea without tipping oflF the rumrunners as to intended operations. For this purpose a special unit was established in Washington. Obvious national security reasons prevented the Coast Guard from using Navy codes and ciphers in its law enforcement work. As for the rumrunning syndicates, they had devised their own codes, many of which were exceedingly clever and complicated. Messages in these codes and ciphers were continually being intercepted and ultimately Coast Guard intelligence broke them down. Small patrol boats, carrying high-frequency radio direction finders were placed strategically along the coasts, operating under the several intelUgence units to intercept rummie radio trafiic. As might be expected, the unit at New York was the largest and busiest. From this intercepted traflBc, it was often possible to break up rummie contacts and in many cases seize the vessels and cargo. The direction finder bearings were particularly valuable in locating the oflFshore rummies. As soon as a bearing was taken, it would be transmitted to one of the new 165-foot patrol boats, which would then run down the bearing at full speed. Usually the rummie would be found and then picketed. Through these and other tactics, the Coast Guard was slowly getting control over liquor smuggling from the sea. During 1933, the first year of the new Roosevelt Administration, rapid strides were made toward the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The steps necessary for the repeal amendment were the same as had been taken for adoption— three-fourths of the states must ratify. Partly because of the demand for governmental economy in the midst of a great depression, and partly because Congress felt that with Prohibition nearly out liquor smuggling was coming to an end, Coast Guard funds for operation in the fiscal year 1934 were cut. As a result, the decommissioning of destroyers was speeded up, and the personnel strength of the service was reduced by releasing temporarily commissioned officers and discharging many enlisted men
own
for the
convenience of the government.
The end
of Prohibition
came on December 109
5,
1933, but contrary
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
to expectations rumrunning did not stop. The import tax on liquor was large enough to make liquor smugghng still worthwhile, particularly since vessels and equipment were already on hand. Now, however, there were two basic diflFerences. Popular opinion was no longer on the side of the law breaker. And, whereas cooperation from foreign countries in enforcing a law such as Prohibition had been quite reluctant, the converse was true when it came to the protection
of the customs revenue.
At this time the Canadian government was seriously concerned about the importation of American cigarettes into Canada without
payment of duty. Canadian vessels, mostly small ones, which were engaged in commerce with the United States would legally withdraw sea-store cigarettes out of bond in a United States port. The amount they would obtain from each withdrawal was many times the number of cigarettes that the crew could possibly smoke. These cigarettes, with no tax whatsoever having been paid, would then be smuggled into Canada and sold at an enormous profit. By mutual agreement, United States Customs advised the Canadian Customs whenever a vessel bound for Canada withdrew from bond an unreasonable quantity of cigarettes. In addition, Canada, as well as several other dominions, soon
made the life of a rumrunner much harder. Any from a Canadian port with a cargo of liquor or alcohol was required to post a bond that it would not be re-imported. Most rumrunning vessels cleared for certain foreign ports where a forged certificate of delivery was easy to obtain. In effect, the law now prevented a vessel loaded with liquor from re-entering any British port. Thus if the rumrunner could not unload his cargo, and had to enter a British or Canadian port, his bond was forfeit. This put a premium on preventing the rummie from unloading until, from lack of supplies or water, he had to enter port. The story of Prohibition given here has been almost solely concerned with operations on the Atlantic Coast. It must not be supposed that there was no activity elsewhere, but nowhere was the
passed laws which vessel sailing
traffic so
Much
highly organized as near the greatest centers of population.
liquor
was
also
run
in
from the Bahamas 110
to Florida.
The
dis-
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT tance being so relatively short, this was usually done by speedboats at night, and there are many thrilling accounts of chases and seizures
Gulf of Mexico was carried on it in themselves into the rivers and bayous. The primary sources were Cuba, the Baha-
in this area.
by
The
liquor
foreign vessels,
many
traflfic
in the
which usually brought
mas, and Mexico.
On
came in by Some speedboat operations were used, but liquor Canada or Mexico generally found its way in directly.
the Pacific Coast, the majority of smuggled liquor
foreign vessels.
from either
Compared
to the
East Coast, however, the amount of liquor smugWest Coast areas was relatively small, and the
gled into Gulf and traffic
was not
much
easier.
particularly well organized. Hence, enforcement
was
During Prohibition the Coast Guard had been able to build very few fast speedboats of its own. There were a few, such as the CG-2290 class, which were able to catch the usual rumrunning speedboat. Most of the fast inshore boats used by the Coast Guard were captured rumrimners, which had been turned over to the service by the courts. The Black Duck, mentioned earlier, became one of the most famous of the rum chasers. Another one, the Whatzis, was highly successful as an enforcement boat. This speedboat was capable of a speed of nearly 40 knots when light; she had only been captured because her crew had loaded her so heavily that she could not plane when under way. By early 1937, most of the rumrunners had, for one reason or another, given up. This of course permitted the Coast
Guard
to con-
its forces on the few rummies that remained. In early March, 1937, the Kaye Marie of Bridgetown, British West Indies sailed from a Canadian port with a cargo of liquor. She was spotted ofiF Cape Sable, Nova Scotia by a Coast Guard plane. Patrol boats were summoned and the vessel was put under continuous surveillance with two 165-foot patrol boats at a time trailing and picketing the rumrunner. For days and weeks she remained in the area east of Massachusetts Bay and south of Nova Scotia. A total of five 165footers were used at times to maintain the constant observation— Thetis, Galatea, Icarus, Argo, and Triton were all involved at one
centrate
111
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
time or another. As the patrol boats needed fuel and supplies, they
proceeded to Halifax, Nova Scotia, returning to relieve the others. After two or three months, short of supplies and water, the Kaye Marie proceeded to Bermuda, trailed by the Coast Guard right to territorial waters. Upon entering Bermuda, her bond became forfeit, and so far as was known she never attempted any further smuggling into the United States. While liquor smuggling was dying out, another kind of smuggling was increasing. This was the smuggling of narcotics, mostly morphine and its derivatives. There never had been any doubt that some of the rumrunners had engaged in other illegal enterprises such as this— and even in the smuggling of aliens— but it was always a sideHne. Now, in 1935, a new wrinkle in smugghng dope appeared. Narcotics rings placed
men
in the crews of various large steamships,
passenger vessels and freighters, particularly those sailing from the Orient and the Mediterranean. As these vessels approached United
wrapped waterproofed packages of narcotics would be thrown overboard. In some cases a small shore boat would be nearby to retrieve the package. In others, the package would sink and, marked by a small buoy, be picked up later. United States authorities usually knew, through tips from informers, which ships had narcotics aboard. Whenever possible, Coast Guard vessels would meet the suspected vessel oflFshore and attempt to trail it to port. However, since most of the vessels concerned were fast modern ships, the Coast Guard vessel would soon be left behind. By modern ( 1935 ) standards, all Coast Guard ships were now slow. It was States ports, carefully
extremely frustrating to follow a vessel at your to see the
merchantman pass over the
To combat
own
full
speed, only
horizon.
growing menace. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau determined that the Coast Guard should have some fairly large, fast ships capable of staying at sea, and able to keep up with commercial ships. Thus the Secretary Class of cutter was built in 1936 and 1937. There were seven ships of this class, 327 feet long, 2,200 tons displacement, and capable of speeds up to 22 knots. These vessels
this
became the pride
of the Coast
Guard
fleet;
not only did they
serve the primary purpose for which they were built, but they were,
112
THE NOBLE EXPERIMENT most Coast Guard offshore work, the ablest vessel the service had ever had. Prohibition had brought the Coast Guard to public notice, even if this notice was sometimes unpopular. Yet so well had it done its job that the service never returned to the small and generally unknown position it had occupied before the Eighteenth Amendment. In the operation of destroyers and later the 327-foot cutters, the service and its personnel learned lessons which were of immeasurable value in World War II. As far as the Coast Guard and the United States were concerned, 1939 was a year approaching normalcy. Even though war clouds were gathering over Europe, few Americans at for
this
time foresaw our involvement.
113
CHAPTER TEN
From Trade
School to College:
The Coast Guard Academy "To graduate young men with sound bodies, stout hearts, and alert minds, with a hking for the sea and its lore, and with that high sense of honor, loyalty, and obedience which goes with trained initiative and leadership; well grounded in seamanship, the sciences, and the amenities; and strong in the resolve to be worthy of the traditions of the commissioned officers in the service of their country and humanity."— Mission of the United States Coast Guard Academy, as formally stated in 1929 by the Supt. Capt. Harry G. Hamlet.
Nearly one hundred and der Hamilton,
forty years before this statement, Alexan-
in his request to
Congress for the establishment of
ten cutters to enforce the customs laws, urged that a professional corps of commissioned officers be created. Such a corps, Hamilton
would be given military rank that "would attach them to their duty by a nicer sense of honor." From 1790 on, the Revenue Cutter Service, and later the Coast Guard, had access to this prostipulated,
fessional corps of
commissioned
officers.
The primary source of young Coast Guard officers today is the United States Coast Guard Academy. It stands on the west bank of the Thames River at New London, Connecticut. From afar, anyone approaching New London can clearly see the white chapel of the academy, with its slender spire pointing skyward. At the dock near the water's edge (during all but the summer months), can be seen the towering masts and yards of the USCGC Eagle, the Academy training ship which is symbolic of the seamanship stressed by Captain Hamlet. 114
FROM TRADE SCHOOL TO COLLEGE The
new revenue
cutters were former offiAs the Navy had been disbanded after the war, there were many such officers who, not wishing to return to civilian life, were more than willing to serve on a revenue cutter. The more senior of them had had merchant service background. From this time on, until 1832, all officers came from either the merchant service or the new United States Navy. Unfortunately there were no firm standards for either appointment or promotion, so that officers of
Hamilton's
cers in the Continental Navy.
preference or personal popularity often controlled the
political
choice.
One
of the worst influences
side,
on early
officer
morale was the prac-
bringing in and commissioning senior officers from the out-
tice of
then placing them over
officers
Secretary of the Treasury Louis
ciency and morale
among
with long service. In 1832,
McLane, alarmed
the officer corps, laid
at the
down
a
low
new
effi-
policy
would be filled by promotion from within. From Secretary McLane's investigations, he also learned that from 1825 to 1832 a number of naval officers had been commissioned in the Revenue-Marine without resigning from the Navy. These officers were given a choice of retaining their naval commissions or resigning from the Navy and accepting revenue cutter commissions. McLane's action went far to insure an for the Cutter Service— wherever possible, vacancies
officer
corps loyal to the Revenue-Marine.
officers
Some
were
first
From
this
time on, most
appointed as third lieutenants.
years later, in 1869, Secretary of the Treasury George /
S.
Boutwell initiated various actions to improve the efficiency of the Revenue-Marine. One that had a long-lasting impact on the officer corps was to set up, under Capt. John Faunce, a commission to deter-
mine the officers.
efficiency
and professional standards
This commission developed into what in
of the
commissioned
modern terms might
be called a "plucking board." After meeting for over two years, the commission found that about one-third of the officers in the service were well below acceptable standards, and as a result the Treasury Department revoked their commissions. By an act of July 31, 1876, Congress authorized the establishment of a Revenue-Marine cadet system. Under this act. Secretary of the 115
THE
COAST GUARD
U.S.
Treasury John Sherman directed that an examining board convene to screen candidates for cadets. Nineteen young men appeared before
whom nine were selected for the two-year course speciby Congress. The old revenue cutter Dobbin, a schooner, was refitted as a training ship and in May, 1877, the first class of revenue the board, of
fied
cadets sailed for the
was made up
of
first
sea term of instruction.
The two-year course
two sea terms and four academic terms. The course
of instruction covered liberal arts subjects as well as the sciences,
mathematics, and professional subjects. The Dobbin served as training ship until late in the
summer
of 1878
when
she was replaced by
the Salmon P. Chase, a bark-rigged vessel which had been especially
designed and built as a training ship. As had the Dobbin, the Chase cruised for each sea term, putting into her home port of New Bedford, Massachusetts for the academic terms. At
New
Bedford, the cadets
utilized shore facilities for their classes. In addition to professional
by revenue cutter officers, classes in other subjects were conducted by a civilian instructor. Upon successful completion subjects taught
of the two-year course, cadets
were given commissions
tenants in the Revenue-Marine. of Instruction,"
source of
new
The Chase, forerunner
and the school
itself
as third lieuto the "School
continued to be the primary
ofiicers for the service until 1890.
In that year, due to the few vacancies then existing in the ofiicer corps and not
many more
in the foreseeable future, the School of
was forced to close, and the former practice of obtaining from the Naval Academy overflow was resumed. Happily, in 1894, the rapid expansion of the Navy required all Naval Academy graduates for Navy duty. And, soon thereafter, there was an almost mass retirement of senior revenue cutter officers who, although in many cases infirm or incapacitated, had previously been denied retirement. Accordingly, in 1895, the Chase was recommissioned as a training ship, having been refitted to accommodate more Instruction
new
ofiicers
cadets.
Entrance requirements for the reopened School of Instruction were The competitive examination was still a prerequisite for appointment to cadetship. However, the applicant was considerably modified.
required to take an examination based on classical subjects and,
116
if
FROM TRADE SCHOOL TO COLLEGE he received a passing grade, it was assumed that he was sufficiently grounded in these subjects to be an officer. The two-year course was then devoted ahnost entirely to technical and professional subjects. This was the "trade school" concept, which even now has its advocates.
Since less.
its
recommissioning, the Chase had been practically home-
Winter quarters
at
New
Bedford were no longer available, so
during the winter months the ship was based in various southern ports for the academic terms. In 1900 the School of Instruction was given a
new home
ashore. The Revenue-Marine Service, with conhad established a cutter depot and boat yard near Arundel Cove, Maryland. Here shore quarters were
gressional blessing,
Baltimore at
provided for the school.
The next ten years were very signfficant ones for the future Coast Guard Academy. Congress, showing more interest in the service, passed several acts which aflFected the immediate present and future of the school. The period of cadetship was extended to three years. Whereas formerly all cadetships were for line officers, six-month cadetships were also established for prospective engineering
offi-
cers. The longer course permitted the reestablishment of mathematics and some of the hberal subjects without handicapping pro-
had always been obtained primary prerequisite being six months' practical experience in marine engineering, together with a competitive examination for final appointment. The lack of a probationary or indoctrination period permitted misfits to be permanently commis-
fessional studies. Engineeering officers
from
civilian life, the
background between line and engineering officers caused misunderstandings and friction. In 1908 the steam cutter Itasca replaced the Chase as a practice ship. This change provided underway training for the new engineer cadets, while the auxiliary sails continued the "under sail" principle of seamanship instruction. The move ashore at Arundel Cove had
sioned. This difference in
been very beneficial. The classes and studies required during the academic terms were much better accommodated ashore than in the cramped quarters of a training ship. As the cadet corps grew with the addition of engineer cadets, the school's quarters at Arundel 117
.
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Cove shortly became too small. Furthermore, an industrial plant, such as the boat yard and warehouse were, was not too good a place for instruction. After much shopping around by the Coast Guard, the school was finally
moved
to Fort
Trumbull,
New
London, Con-
necticut in 1910. Fort Trumbull did not prove to be an ideal setup for a school, being a combination of an old fort and its casemates, together with some much newer wooden buildings. However, it was large
enough for several years to come, and in the beginning was a onepurpose establishment. Succeeding superintendents, strongly supported by the commandant, steadily improved the course of instruction. So fact, that in 1914,
when
the
name was changed
to
much
so, in
"academy," there
were few, if any, raised eyebrows. Only a year later the amalgamation which produced the name Coast Guard bestowed the new title of United States Coast Guard Academy on the institution. World War I had its effect on the academy as it did on the service itself. To meet the demands for ofiicers, classes were graduated early, members serving in some cases as cadets in commissioned oflBcer billets. The relative shortness of United States participation in the war, and the fact that the Coast Guard did not have the great expansion to a
it
did in World
War II, kept the
disruption of the
academy
minimum.
academy received a new training ship. The Navy Guard the USS Vicksburg, one of a class of gunboats built in 1898, which was promptly renamed the Alexander Hamilton. The Hamilton, or the "Ham" as she became known, was In 1920 the
transferred to the Coast
a steam-propelled auxiliary three-masted barkentine. She could comfortably carry up to a hundred cadets ( sleeping in hammocks ) The Coast Guard took possession of the vessel on the Pacific Coast,
and the cadets had the doubtful pleasure of bringing her around through the Panama Canal to New London, her new home port. The demand for ofiicers occasioned by Prohibition and the Coast Guard's consequent expansion had a decided impact on the academy. Larger classes were taken in, and several classes were graduated meet the demand. The size of the cadet corps necesincreased, and soon Fort Trumbull was bursting at the seams.
early to help sarily
This overcrowding, together with the increasingly dilapidated con-
118
FROM TRADE SCHOOL TO COLLEGE dition of the old
wooden
reports to Congress.
the
As
buildings,
for the
new
was made the subject
of several
cadets, tlie physical impression of
academy buildings was anything but inspiring. Impressed by the for a suitable academy estabhshment, Congress finally appro-
need
priated $1,750,000 toward
its
construction.
The present Coast Guard Academy comprises an imposing group of buildings on the west bank of the Thames River north of the main part of New London, Connecticut. The land on which the academy is located was donated by the city of New London. Construction
was begun
in 1930
and completed two years
pansion of the service brought about by World
academy
later.
War
Until the exII,
the
new
was completely adequate. Academically the school had shown definite progress. The amalgamation of the line and engineer officer corps of the Coast Guard in 1926 had resulted in the same combination within the cadet corps. The new courses gave all cadets both line and engineering subjects, and it naturally followed that in 1930 the length of the academy course was extended to four years. Several years later the Commandant, Rear Adm. Harry G. Hamlet, persuaded the presidents of Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to nominate members of their own faculties to serve on an Academy Curriculum Advisory Committee. Shortly thereafter, Congress authorized a permanent faculty, divided between military and civilian instructors and professors. The value of the advisory committee was richly demonstrated when, in 1940, the academy was accredited by the Association of American Universities and authorinstallation
ized to grant the degree of Bachelor of Science.
As early
as 1924, the
academy had made
collegiate athletics with a
its first
modest basketball team.
entry into inter-
Two
years later
more than one the academy representing hundred during these years, the teams were surprisingly good. Practice time was much restricted by the scholastic schedule, which was much heavier from the standpoint of hours per week than at most educational institutions. This was somewhat compensated for by the fact that all cadets had to be ablebodied. Gradually other sports were added to the intercollegiate schedule, including cross-country running, boxing, and baseball. football
was
started.
With
a cadet corps of never
119
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Since the first class became cadets in 1877, all appointments to the academy have been based upon competitive examinations. Each year, in the late winter or early spring, examinations are given at
various places throughout the United States. Before being authorized to take the examination,
each applicant must present proof that he
has satisfactorily completed certain required subjects at a recognized secondary school. In addition, several elective subjects are allowed.
The educational requirements being met. Coast Guard Headquarters designates the date and place where the candidate
may
take the
competitive examination. Successful candidates are tendered appointments as cadets by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Normally a new of July.
first
academy around the summer term learning
class of cadets enters the
The new cadet spends
his first
of the rudiments of military life, how to live with others, and brushing up on some of his past scholastic subjects, particularly mathematics. During most of the summer the upperclassmen are
some
away
summer
some other practical instruction. Upperclassmen are granted leave at the end of the summer cruise, and then return in time for the fall term. The school year is divided into three terms— two scholastic and one summer. During his entire cadet life, the beginning officer lives according to a strict schedule. The times of his rising, meals, studying, and retiring are specified. Only on Saturday afternoons and Sundays is he able to relax, and then only partially. However, there are many extracurricular activities open to the cadet, and he has an either on the
cruise or receiving
opportunity for a reasonably
during the entire four years
full social life. Discipline for is
rigid,
but there
is
some
the cadet
relaxation of
he becomes an upperclassman. This discipline is designed to instruct the young man in the ways of military life, but it also tends it
as
weed out
who
either are not adaptable to, or do not care At the end of four years, if the cadet has succeeded in maintaining a satisfactory academic standing, has kept his conduct record up to an acceptable standard, and meets the physical requirements, he is graduated and commissioned as an ensign in the United States Coast Guard. Graduation Day for him is indeed "Commencement." to
for,
those
the military
life.
120
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lights Are Burning Brightly: The Later Lighthouse The United States
Service
Germany on April 6, on April 11, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson issued the Executive Order mobilizing the Lighthouse Service. As mentioned earlier, this mobilization had been provided for in the Naval Appropriations Act of August 29, 1916. The Executive Order transferred 30 Hghthouse tenders to the War Department; 15 tenders, 4 hghtships, and 21 hght stations went to the Navy Department. Those vessels on duty with the War Department were employed mainly in mine planting, and early in the war they were transferred again, from the War to the Navy Department. Tenders on duty with the Navy were largely used for laying antisubmarine nets, and ultimately recovering them after the war. The Hght vessels became examination vessels. On January 31, 1918, another tender was transferred to the Navy, making a total of 50 vessels of all types and 1,732 persons on duty with that service. The Lighthouse Service, with its numerous depots around the coasts, was able to provide berthing for many of the smaller naval vessels. The facihties at some of these depots enabled in-port repairs 1917. Less than a
declared war on Imperial
week
later,
to patrol boats.
The Diamond Shoal
Lightship, mentioned earlier, marks the outer
Cape Hatteras. This bound east from certain southern ports, as well as the north and southbound traffic between Chesapeake Bay, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston to the north and or eastern edge of the treacherous shoals off
location
is
a crossroads for marine
121
traflBc
THE
COAST GUARD
U.S.
South American and Gulf ports. A German submarine, recognizing the hunting opportunities that existed here, took station nearby, and attacked an unidentified merchant vessel within plain sight of Diamond Shoal Lightship on the afternoon of August 6, 1918. Numerous shots were fired from a deck gun, setting
fire to the merchant message warning all vessels that a German submarine was in the vicinity. At this, the submarine turned her attention to the lightship and fired several shots, three of which hit the vessel. She began to take water badly and abandon ship was ordered by the master. All hands departed in one of the ship's boats with no injuries. Later, the submarine was observed to make another attack, and then the gallant Diamond Shoal Lightship went under. But her radio broadcast had accomplished its purpose; this was borne out by reports of the number of vessels which had taken refuge in not-too-distant Lookout Bight. With the exception of a few raids like the above by German submarines. World War I was fought thousands of miles from American shores. The tenders and lightships performed their arduous duties with great credit far from the zones of actual hostilities. Like the "man behind the man behind the gun," they received little public recognition for their contribution to the war effort. After the armistices and the postwar cleanup, all Lighthouse Service units reverted to their
vessel.
own
The
light vessel broadcast a radio
organization.
For several years after the war, the Lighthouse Service and the United States Bureau of Standards worked together to develop what
became the
radio fog signal.
signal stations
were placed
On May
in
1,
1921, the
first
commission on Ambrose
radio fog Lightship,
New Jersey; Fire Island Lightship, New York; and Seagirt Light Station, New Jersey. The first radio fog signal consisted of a commercial type arc-radio transmitter keyed by a simple mechanism which produced a distinctive radio signal for the particular station. An ordinary transmitting antenna was used.
The
three stations operated as a
group during foggy weather, and synchronized in such a manner that at no time was more than one station broadcasting. The equipment on board vessels utilizing these radio fog signals was relatively simple. At that time, the principal device for this 122
LIGHTS ARE BURNING BRIGHTLY work was a radio compass; radio direction finder.
and connected
A
later, it
developed into the well-known
loop antenna mounted on the pilothouse
to a radio receiver of the correct
rotated vertically by use of a handwheel.
When
frequency was
the loop was in the
plane of the radio wave and pointing toward the transmitting station, the signal was the loudest. Conversely,
the plane of the incoming signal,
its
when
strength
the loop was across
was
at a
minimum— or
When
used with a regular compass, this zero, or "null," indicated the bearing of the transmitting station. The three stations first installed formed a triangle off the entrance of New York Harbor, giving the best condition for getting a radio fix, or position. By 1925 the service had either built or was building twenty-eight theoretically "zero."
radio fog signals.
Although
at the outset the radio
equipment had been designed
for
use solely as a fog signal and was intended to provide a warning
beyond the range of sight or sound in foul weather, the system proved to be extremely valuable as an all-weather aid to navigation. Properly used, the radio fog signal provided navigationally accurate bearings up to several hundred miles and its official designation was soon changed from radio fog signal to radio beacon. These radio beacons extended coverage of the aids to navigation system offshore and provided the first all-weather system. For the period before World War II it was the primary medium- and short-range allweather aid to navigation in the United States. In 1918 Congress had recognized the fact that the type of service expected of members of the Lighthouse Service was much more demanding and dangerous than that required from most of the civilian employees of the federal government. An act of June 20, 1918, provided for officers and employees engaged in the field service or on vessels of the Lighthouse Service voluntary retirement at age 65 after thirty years' active service and compulsory retirement at the age of 70 years. An act of March 4, 1925, went much further. It provided retirement for disability to those members who had been authorized voluntary retirement by the act of 1918. These benefits were extended, even though members of the Lighthouse Service were under civil service laws and regulations for all other purposes. 123
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
From its inception, the Lighthouse Service was uni-fimctional. The primary— and, officially, only— mission of the keepers and crews of vessels was operating and maintaining aids to navigation. However, because of their areas of operation,
rendering aid and saving of
life
and a strong tradition of and property, it frequently happened
that they rendered outstanding assistance to persons in distress.
Countless times, lighthouse tenders worked in close cooperation with Coast Guard cutters in distress cases.
On
the morning of November 3, 1925, the CG-245 departed San Puerto Rico on a relatively routine mission. It was a typical Juan, day for the time of year, with the sun shining brightly and a brisk
The wind and sea being nearly astern most of the trip, it was a fairly comfortable cruise. The CG-245 was one of the new Coast Guard patrol boats, 75 feet in length, powered by two gasoline engines, and known more or less affectionately in the Coast Guard as a "six-bitter." The mission was to take two prohibition enforcement officers to Descheo, a small island in Mona Passage about fifteen miles west of Puerto Rico where, it had been reported, some liquor was stored. A search failed to turn up anything suspicious on the island and the CG-245 returned to Mayagiiez, where the two agents disembarked. northeast trade wind blowing. for
The following morning, the oflRcer in charge of the vessel. Boatswain S. B. Natwig, usee, got her underway for San Juan. The weather was good, with a light northeast breeze. The course from the northwest comer of Puerto Rico— Point Borinquen— to San Juan is nearly due east. There are few harbors along the north coast of them except San Juan exposed to the northerly seas that occasionally occur. About noon the wind increased, with passing rainsqualls, and the seas became quite heavy. As the vessel passed Arecibo, a small harbor west of San Juan, it was evident that the CG-245 could not enter that port, so she continued on. At the island,
all
of
about 4:30 p.m. the vessel arrived off the entrance to San Juan Harbor. In his report. Boatswain Natwig noted that the condition at the entrance looked good compared with the high seas outside. Small power vessels, such as the CG-245, have great difficulty in the areas of the trade winds, particularly when heading into wind and sea.
124
LIGHTS ARE BURNING BRIGHTLY
The vessel was headed toward the entrance of the channel oflF El Moro, with the seas and swells now astern, causing the patrol boat to yaw considerably. As she came abeam of the entrance buoy, a sea came over the stern completely passing over the vessel, washing the cook, O. A. Williams, overboard. She was immediately pooped by three more seas, causing her to swing around into the trough. Even under these conditions the crew managed to throw two life rings to Wilhams, who could not grasp them, as still another sea broke over, carrying away the lifeboat and a four-inch line secured nearby. The boat's falls and line immediately fouled both propellers, completely disabling the vessel. Drifting toward the rocks. Boatswain Natwig put over an anchor which, after a few agonizing minutes, held. By now seas were continually breaking over the CG-245, threatening to stave in her watertight hatches.
No
vessel could long
punishment. predicament had been observed from ashore, and lighthouse tender Columbine and the Puerto Bico Company's John E. Berwind started out to assist. The tug could not reach entrance and was forced to turn back. The Columbine, under withstand
The
this
vessel's
the
tug the
the
Manyon, stood out to the CG-245 and attempted to pass a towing hawser. Shot lines were actually put aboard, but because of high winds and heavy seas the towing hawser
command
of Capt.
could not be
made
Norman
C.
fast. Finally, as
a last resort, Captain
Manyon
decided to try to bring the Columbine alongside the patrol boat, near enough for the crew to jump aboard the tender. This he did, all of the patrol boat's remaining crew were saved. The Columbine anchored in San Juan Harbor to await moderating weather. During the night, however, the wind and seas increased rather than
and
moderated, and at about 10:00 p.m. the lights, which had been left burning on the CG-245, disappeared. The following morning there was no sign of the vessel, although some pieces of wreckage were later found where they had washed ashore. The body of Wilhams, the cook,
was
Captain
also
washed
ashore.
Manyon subsequently became Superintendent
of Light-
houses of the Ninth District with headquarters at San Juan, and when the Lighthouse Service and the Coast Guard were amalgamated in 1939, he was commissioned a captain in the Coast Guard. 125
THE The going"
U.S.
COAST GUARD
old Lighthouse Service tradition that "the Hght must be kept is just as strong on the Great Lakes as it is on the seacoasts.
Stannard Rock Light, in Lake Superior, marks a very dangerous reef. This Hght, in common with nearly all the other lights on the Great Lakes, is closed and secured for the winter at the close of navigation in the
However,
pre-announced date of and the fog signal must be kept operating. In late November of 1929, Stannard Rock Light was hit by one of the severest storms in the history of Lake Superior. The storm, or rather the series of storms, started on November 23, and continued through December 1. During this period, the wind blew with gale force from practically all the points of the compass, with intermittent snow squalls obscuring the light. Even though the light was 102 feet above the water, spray was continually going over the top. With the temperature ten degrees below zero, everything in its path was being iced over. The keepers were kept busy trying to keep the vapor mantles in place on the light, and finally they were forced to install the old wick-burner lamp, which they managed to tie down securely. Night and day the keeper and his assistants kept a steam hose going to keep the horns of the fog signal sufficiently thawed to use. When the storm finally abated, the entire station, a mass of ice, greeted the tender when she arrived to remove the keepers for the winter. The adoption of acetylene gas in lighted buoys in 1910 had made the extensive use of the lighted buoy economically possible and practical. In 1930, the development of an electric battery-powered hghted buoy provided an aid to navigation which was much safer than the old gas buoys and gave a greater intensity of light. Electricpowered fog signals came into use in the 1920's and 1930's. These included the electric air oscillators, electric diaphragm horns, and electric sirens, which were used to supplement rather than replace the reliable compressed air operated signals. In May, 1934, Lightship No. 117 was anchored on her regular station, southeast of Nantucket Island and ofiF the shoals of the same name. Nantucket Lightship is the first aid to navigation sighted by ships bound for New York from Europe, and is a point of departure for European-bound ships. This area of the ocean is frequently fogfall.
until the
closing, the light
126
LIGHTS ARE BURNING BRIGHTLY covered, particularly in late spring and summer. Nantucket Lightship boasted one of the most powerful radio beacons on the coast.
On
this particular morning in May, Lightship No. 117 and the surrounding ocean were heavily shrouded in fog. Her foghorn was sending out blasts, while her radio beacon continuously emitted Nantucket's
Suddenly the roar of a steam whistle was heard, and an ocean liner loomed out of the fog. With a crash, the bow of the SS Olympic struck the lightship. In a few short minutes Lightship No. 117 went to the bottom, the Olympic saving her crew. An investigation of this tragedy brought out the fact that the Olympic had been following a too-frequent practice of heading
characteristic signal— four dashes.
directly for the light vessel,
and running down the radio direction
finder bearing until the foghorn could be heard. In this case
it
hap-
pened that the vagaries of sound prevented the foghorn from being heard. ReUef Lightship No. 106 was on Nantucket station within twenty-four hours of the sinking. For a few long hours in the interim, the 165-foot Coast Guard patrol boat Argo took the station and, with her limited equipment, tried to fill in for the lost beacon. This minor incident of the Argo's mission might have been a forecast of the future.
The building of the Pharos to the installation of the modern radio beacon covers a span of more than twenty-two centuries. As the eflFectiveness of aids to navigation increased, so did their complexity.
The gradual
introduction of electrically operated aids has called for
much broader educational background on the part of the operators and maintenance men. Even the radio arc transmitter used in the first radio fog signals has been replaced several times by more modern and complicated equipment. Because of this requirement for a broader educational background, and a subtle change in attitude toward the more rugged and isolated type of life required of lighthouse keepers, it became extremely difiBcult to recruit young men as assistant keepers. Meanwhile, the older keepers were gradually retiring. In 1938 a report, which (as far as I know) was never made public, was presented to the Commissioner of Lighthouses, outlining these difficulties, and expressing concern as to the future. Although I have no way of knowing whether this report, or the conditions a
127
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
described in it, had any bearing on the decision to amalgamate the Lighthouse Service and the Coast Guard, I strongly suspect it did. Indeed, by so stating I realize that I may be setting the stage for considerable future controversy.
That same year, the Coast Guard was directed by the White House to make a study in conjunction with Lighthouse Service officials to determine how the two services might be amalgamated to produce governmental economies. This study developed a plan whereby the Lighthouse Service might be mihtarized. But it also raised the ques-
what rank or rating each lighthouse position should have if became part of the Coast Guard. In any case, provision was made that no individual would suffer a loss in pay due solely to the transfer. All vessel personnel and members of the field service would be offered a choice of military or civilian status. Certain Washington personnel would have the same choice.
tion of it
Shortly thereafter, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued his Re-
organization Order No. 11: "The Bureau of Lighthouses in the Department of Commerce and its functions are hereby transferred to and shall be consolidated with and administered as part of the Coast
Guard
in the
Department
of the Treasury."
Thus, after nearly 150 years of operating wholly independently of each other, the
were
two oldest maritime
finally joined.
128
services of the United States
CHAPTER TWELVE
Object-Maritime Safety: Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation During World
War
I
the workload of the Bureau of Navigation
did not increase anywhere near to the degree that might have been expected.
The
three areas in which growth might have been ex-
pected were those served by shipping commissioners, navigation
in-
and radio inspectors. The need for additional seamen and radio operators was largely met by the Navy with their own enlisted men, particularly on board vessels operated by the Shipping Board. And, since the great majority of merchant vessels connected with the war effort were operated by the Shipping Board, the workload of the spectors,
shipping commissioners did not materially increase.
The Navy
also
all United States ships, and maintained equipment aboard Shipping Board vessels. Starting in November 1917, all Navy-furnished radio equipment was inspected by the Navy itself, rather than the Bureau of Navigation. By Executive Order issued April 30, 1917, all coastal radio stations were either operated by the Navy or closed for the duration. The real need for personnel increases in the Bureau of Navigation came after the end of the war, as demobilization began. In May, 1919, the Navy began the gradual discharge of naval crews aboard merchant vessels, and these had to be replaced with merchant crews. Supervision of the shipment of seamen, and licensing of radio operators, required increases in the personnel of the radio service and offices of shipping commissioners. On August 1, 1919, fifteen hundred Navy radio operators alone were withdrawn from the merchant
furnished radio equipment to
and kept
in repair the
129
THE fleet.
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Fortunately the return of coastal radio stations to commercial
operation was somewhat slower.
An more
act approved June 4, 1918, although passed during the war, directly affected the peacetime operation of the
Bureau of
Navigation. This act required the numbering and recording of "every
undocumented
owned
vessel,
operated in whole or
in part
by machinery,
United States and found on the navigable waters and vessels not exceeding 16 feet in length temporarily equipped with detachable motors." This law was aimed particularly at motorboats, and was intended to provide ready identification of these vessels and their owners to facilitate the enforcement of the navigation laws. This law governing the numbering of motorboats was not materially changed until 1958. Certainly the increasing size and power of outboard motors was not envisioned in in the
thereof, except public vessels,
1918.
By 1920
become more independent and the Coast Guard for enforcement of the Navigation Laws. The inspection and enforcement sections at this time contained 56 navigation inspectors, 25 radio inspectors, and 5 motor vessels. These were in addition to headquarters and shipping commissioner personnel. The bureau continued a gradual growth in enthe Bureau of Navigation had
of customs officers
forcement personnel, somewhat paralleling the increase in pleasure boating in the 1920's. However, the Depression, signaled by the stock market crash of 1929, put a damper on pleasure boating and had its consequent effect on the Bureau of Navigation. Quite the opposite of its sister service, the Steamboat Inspection
and workload much increased by World War I. In the beginning, the service was requested by the United States Shipping Board to examine the interned German vessels in United States ports. This examination was to include recommendations for placing each vessel in operating condition. And, since most of the vessels had been rather severely damaged by their crews, this Service found
its
duties
constituted a very considerable task.
The Shipping Board
on the inspectors to assist its and classifying prospective offiThe other main source of available merchant relied heavily
recruiting service in interviewing cers for
its
vessels.
130
OBJECT — MARITIME SAFETY marine ofiBcers was from the group of nautical schools being conducted during the war by the Shipping Board. The inspectors were called upon to pass upon and approve or disapprove the applications of candidates.
The Steamboat Inspection
Service,
upon the request
of other
federal agencies, conducted inspections of boilers of government
and quite frequently tested steel plate to be used in boilers government vessels. Certain vessels of the Army Transport Service, as well as all vessels of the Army Engineer Department, were inspected. Inspection of all vessels owoied and operated by the Shipping Board, which originally was done on a cooperative basis, became a requirement of law under an act of October 25, 1919. vessels,
for
Acting in their several capacities, the inspectors of the service
performed administrative,
quasi-legislative,
and
quasi-judicial duties.
In their day-to-day work of inspection, acting as individuals, they are administrative. Whenever, acting as a board, they formulate rules
and regulations concerning the maritime industry, the quasi-legislative function is paramount. Serving on still other boards, they pass upon the proper performance of merchant marine personnel involved marine accidents. There were three laws passed by Congress during and immediately following World War I which had a decided influence on the
in
merchant marine and directly increased the demands upon the Steamboat Inspection Service. The act of March 29, 1918, modified, and in a sense liberalized, the laws governing the transportation of dangerous and inflammable articles on passenger vessels. Although this change doubtlessly reflected certain immediate wartime requirements, the real reasons for the changes were the development of improved gasoline engines, their need aboard ship, and more advanced methods of packaging and handling dangerous articles. Under an act of June 10, 1918, provision was made for persons directly interested or afi^ected by the decision or action of the local inspectors to appeal to the supervising inspector and the Supervising Inspector General. The third important law passed was the act of June 5, 1920, which permitted cargo vessels documented under the laws of the United States to carry not more than sixteen persons (passengers) 131
)
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
in addition to their crews, without being classed as passenger vessels.
They were not exempted from regulations respecting lifesaving equipment, however, and this added to the workload of the inspecdid provide a relatively economical form of transportation who weren't in a hurry.
tors. It
for those people
As the United States and the world maritime picture stabilized during the latter half of the 1920's, so did the Steamboat Inspection Service.
Undoubtedly
this stabilization
included a certain amount
of stagnation.
The
stock market crash ushered in the greatest depression which
any other country had even seen. To borrow the expression was a depression to make "your hair curl." The Depression ultimately had its impact on every phase of American government. One of the more immediate eflFects was the passage by Congress of what was known as the Economy this or
of a later Secretary of the Treasury, this
Act.
One section of this act, approved on June 30, 1932, combined the Bureau of Navigation and the Steamboat Inspection Service of the Department of Commerce into a new bureau— the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection. (The title "Steamboat Inspection Service" had never been authorized by law, and this act was only the third or fourth time the expression had been used by Congress. The
act called for a streamlining of the
new
bureau.
The
positions
of the Supervising Inspector General of the Steamboat Inspection
Service and the Commissioner of Navigation were tor of the Bureau.
The
merged
rest of the reorganization process
as Direc-
was pain-
fully sloWo
About 4:00
p.m.,
Wednesday, September
Castle sailed from Havana, Cuba, for
New
5,
1934, the SS
Morro
York. She was a large
making weekly sailings between New York and Havana and operated by the Ward Line. The vessel was constructed by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company and first went into service in mid-1929. The Morro Castle was constructed, equipped, and fitted to meet all the requirements of the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection in effect at the time. The usual festivities aboard an ocean liner on her last night out were dampocean passenger
vessel,
132
OBJECT— MARITIME SAFETY ened by the death of the ship's master, Capt. Robert R. Willmot, who succumbed suddenly to a heart attack on the evening of September 7. The first oflBcer, Capt. F. Warms, at once assumed command. During the night the vessel passed Barnegat Light Vessel and continued northward along the New Jersey coast at her cruising speed of 20 knots. At about 2:30 a.m. on September 8, a night watchman reported to the bridge that smoke was coming out of one of the deck ventilators. While the captain immediately directed the second ofiicer to investigate, no alarm was sounded at this time. The second ojfficer located the fire in one of the passenger writing rooms and exhausted a fire extinguisher without extinguishing the blaze. The fire alarm was sounded just before 3:00 a.m., as the vessel continued at
20 knots into a northeast breeze estimated at 24 miles per hour. The combined wind rapidly fanned the flames until they spread throughout the entire superstructure. No attempt was made to close the fire doors to confine the
fire
to a limited space.
The passengers did not have
a chance, for almost immediately the
flames enveloped the two forward stairways with which they were
on the decks above. There were other service stairways available, both forward and aft, that could have been used if the passengers had known of their location or if crew members had been stationed to direct them. But as things were, the majority of the passengers attempted to flee the flames by going to the afterpart of the ship on whichever deck they happened to be. This did little good, because the combined effects of the wind and the speed of the ship caused the heavy smoke and flame to sweep aft. Many of the passengers jumped overboard. Most of the life preservers had been left in the passengers' staterooms, and some passengers who did have them did not know how to put them on. At the scene of the basic fire, very little fire fighting efficiency was demonstrated by the crew since only one or two hose lines were led out and operated. After her engines had finally been stopped, the burning vessel drifted helplessly toward the New Jersey coast. Meanwhile lifeboats from other ships in the vicinity, alerted by a much belated CQ familiar, preventing their escape to the boats
133
THE
U.S.
standby radio signal from the
COAST GUARD
Mono
Castle,
and Coast Guard
life-
boats from the beach, picked up large numbers of passengers and
crewmen and transferred them to vessels bound for New York. The Coast Guard cutter Tampa took the burning vessel in tow and attempted to get her into port. The wind had increased considerably by this time and was blowing directly on shore. And because the Morro Castle was drifting broadside on toward the beach, the Tampa could not bring the stricken vessel's head around into the wind. The towing hawser finally parted, the Tam,pa only having time to remove the master and skeleton crew from the vessel before she grounded, a burning hulk. Of the 318 passengers and 230 crew that had sailed from Havana, there were 114 dead and 10 missing. The investigation conducted by the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection found that final responsibility for the disaster rested almost entirely on the human element. Poor judgment was evidenced when the vessel continued her course and speed after the fire was discovered. There had been no regular fire drills or boat drills for all hands. No provisions had been made for assembling passengers at their boat stations. In fact, the vessel herself had proved to be a firetrap, all of her interior decorating being of a highly inflammable nature. The investigation further brought out that the poor leadership and lack of organization and discipline so evident on board the Morro Castle extended upward to the operating executives of the Ward Line. The acting master, the chief engineer, and one of the vice-presidents were brought to trial before a court which found them guilty of being responsible for the great loss of life. Later, however, this decision was appealed and afterward reversed
in a higher court.
Subsequent congressional investigation found that in addition to the direct responsibility of the Morro Castle personnel and the
Ward
Line, considerable blame was attached to the Bureau of Navigation
and Steamboat Inspection covered
many weaknesses
itself.
In addition, this investigation dis-
in the laws
concerning maritime safety.
As the news of the disaster became known to the American public, there was almost disbelief. That there could be such a fire and great loss of life on board a modern United States steamship seemed unbelievable. When the magnitude of the disaster was fully realized 134
OBJECT— MARITIME SAFETY there were
demands from the
press, the public,
and the Congress
for corrective action.
Spurred on by pubhc opinion and the reports of its own investigaSeventy-fourth Congress took action. A number of important acts were passed having to do with maritime safety. There were two in particular which had a decided and lasting effect on the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection and its work. These were the acts of May 27, 1936 and June 25, 1936. tions, the
The
May
is worth quoting here. It change in the designation of the Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, to create a marine casualty investigation board, and increase efficiency in administration of the steamboat inspection laws, and for other purposes." The act changed the name of the bureau to Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation. The new title recognized the fact that with new types of power, the word "steamboat" was a misnomer, and provided for certain major changes in its functions and organization. While there were many changes made, three are considered important from the standpoint of this chapter. The first, the change in name, has been noted above. The second major change provided for the establishment of Ma-
reads:
title
of the act of
"An Act
27, 1936,
to provide for a
rine Casualty Investigation Boards.
The
jurisdiction of these boards
embraced the investigation of all marine casualties, not simply those wherein the conduct of licensed personnel were concerned. The law provided for the establishment of three classes of investigation boards: A boards, to consist of an ofiRcial from the Department of Justice, a Coast Guard officer, and an official from the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation (BMIN), were created for the investigation of all marine casualties involving loss of life. The B boards consisted of a supervising inspector and two traveling inspectors of the BMIN, and were intended to investigate all marine casualties of a serious nature not involving loss of life. The C boards were to investigate marine casualties and accidents not serious enough in nature to be within the province of the A and B boards, and consisted of representatives of the BMIN, probably local inspectors.
The
third important
change under the act of 135
May
27, 1936, pro-
THE
U.S.
vided for the establishment of a
COAST GUARD
new
technical division. This partic-
law required that all plans and specifications for passenger vessels of the United States of 100 gross tons and over, propelled by machinery, must be approved by the Director of the BMIN with the advice and assistance of this technical staff. No such vessel could be granted a certificate of inspection by a board of local inspectors until the plans for construction or alteration were submitted and approved. It is extremely significant to note that the part of the act relating to the technical staff and approval of plans and specifications is the bill, word for word, which was originally introduced in the Congress as the result of the Eastland disaster. The act of June 25, 1936, was in reality an amendment to the Seamen's Act of 1915, and has been called the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. This law provided for (1) "qualifications, examinations, and ular part of the
issuance of certificates of service or efficiency to unlicensed personnel; (2) the issuance of
personnel
.
.
.
,"
continuous discharge books to
a three-watch, eight-hour day,
ship requirements.
The
all
seagoing
and certain
citizen-
act greatly increased the workload of the
shipping commissioners, particularly in providing for the issuance of discharge books and various certificates. This had the effect of both increasing the eflBciency of unlicensed personnel and raising the dignity of the profession.
Thus, at the close of
fiscal
year 1937, a good part of the reorgani-
zation and application of the new laws had been effected and by June 30, 1938, the bureau was operating completely under the new
system.
136
PART
III
1939-1946
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Watchful Waiting: Prewar Neutrality
On July 1, 1939, the Bureau of Lighthouses became a part of the Coast Guard. Most of the planning for the details of the amalgamation had already taken place. Top Coast Guard and Lighthouse Bureau officials were determined that the transition should be smootii and that none of the obvious errors of the Revenue Cutter ServiceLifesaving Service amalgamation would be repeated. There were many personnel details to be accomplished, such as swearing in of officers and enlisted men who were lighthouse personnel accepting military status.
A
complete reorganization of the field structure was put into The old Coast Guard divisions were renamed Coast Guard districts, and as far as practicable their boundaries were made to coincide with corresponding naval districts. The old lighthouse districts were abolished, their former superintendents becoming Coast Guard oJQficers on district commanders' staff^s with primary responsieflFect.
where Ughthouses and Coast Guard stations were in close proximity, as was true in so many places, Coast Guard groups with a single ofiicer in charge were formed consisting of the former individual units. It was felt this would ultimately permit a reduction in personnel. Lighthouse depots in many cases became Coast Guard bases, serving all types of Coast
bility for aids to navigation matters. Locally,
Guard that
vessels, rather
all this
than
just
buoy
tenders. It
took place overnight, but a
bination was maintained.
139
must not be supposed of com-
commendable speed
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
For some time there had been rumbhngs of war in Europe. There was a universal hope in the United States that we would stay out of it, and also a firm determination that we would remain neutral. On September 1, 1939, Hitler's troops marched into Poland. Four days later President Franklin
D. Roosevelt issued his neutrality procla-
mation, outlining this country's position and some of the steps to be
taken to maintain
it.
As a sequel, a limited national emergency was
proclaimed by the President on September 8, under which the Coast Guard was to play an important part in maintaining America's neutrality.
Great Britain had declared war on Nazi Germany on September
3,
commitments to Poland. Declarations by most of the dominions of the British Empire rapidly followed. France entered the war on the same day as Great Britain, and for the same reasons. After the first few days, hostilities became relatively quiet, and the expression "phony war" was often heard. The declaration of war and almost simultaneous invasion of Denmark and Norway by Hitler's Germany in the spring of 1940 ended this calm. To maintain United States neutrality, a number of steps were taken. An oflFshore neutrality patrol conducted by Navy destroyers was set up in the Atlantic, with the thought that hostile actions by the belligerents could be kept away from American shores. Another neutrality patrol was carried on just ofif the entrances of major United States ports. This patrol was conducted by the Coast Guard, using mainly 165- and 125-foot patrol boats. Prior to entry, every foreign vessel was contacted and her nationality, last port, character of cargo, and other pertinent information was obtained. This information was immediately transmitted to Washington where it was 1939, thus honoring her
coordinated with other intelligence.
Still
ing to the maintenance of neutrality
other activities contribut-
were carried on within the
various ports.
In 1939, transatlantic flying was just beginning to become imporAccurate weather predictions were vital to its success. During peacetime, merchant vessels voluntarily sent radio reports of weather tant.
observations to the United States
Weather Bureau. Although these
observations only pertained to the surface weather, they were ex-
140
)
WATCHFUL WAITING tremely valuable in predicting ocean weather. The war, with its attendant U-boat and other warship activity, resulted in radio silence being maintained by practically all merchant vessels crossing the Atlantic Ocean. This eflFectively halted ocean weather information.
At the request of the Weather Bureau, the Coast Guard inaugurated a Weather Patrol in the Atlantic. In cooperation with the Weather Observation Service, which furnished the necessary observers, two observation stations were established between the Azores and Bermuda in February, 1940. These stations were constantly manned, and, using the radiosonde balloons which had been employed on Ice Patrol, the patrol vessels were able to furnish upper air as well as surface observations to the Weather Bureau. As an added service, the vessels furnished up-to-date weather information directly to transatlantic aircraft. Cutters of the secretary class were assigned to this duty.
Rear Admiral Waesche, Commandant of the Coast Guard, and Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau were determined that if hostilities ultimately should include the United States, the Coast Guard would be ready to do its share. Authorization and funds to modernize and increase the armament of all Coast Guard cutters were obtained from Congress, and in the summer of 1940 this work began. Mobilization planning at that time provided that the primary use of cutters
and patrol boats would be
Since the "Battle of the Atlantic"
in the antisubmarine warfare field. (
submarines against surface ships
was increasing in intensity, this planning was completely logical. All cutters and patrol boats were fitted out with modem underwater sound equipment, with additional and more modern guns being put on board. An electrical belt (degaussing equipment) was installed to protect against magnetic mines and torpedoes. By the summer of 1941, the vessels were materially ready. During this period, certain controls had been established in the ports of the United States, and the enforcement of these controls had been placed under the Coast Guard. Neutrality regulations required that radio equipment of belligerent vessels be silenced while in port or in the territorial waters of the United States.
Guardsmen
sealed the radios of
all
141
To
insure this, Coast
merchant vessels belonging
to
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Most of these same vessels were armed with guns deck for self-protection. As long as the armament was for selfdefense, the vessels could remain in United States ports as long as desired. If, however, the weapons were offensive in nature, the belligerent countries.
vessel
became
a man-of-war,
and could only remain
port for 24 hours without being interned.
To
in
an American
the Coast
Guard
fell
the duty of inspecting these armaments.
These
duties, of course, required
more men. Accordingly, the
number of personnel necessary to man the vessels with their new armament was sizably increased. At various times during the two years of hostilities prior to our entry into the war. Congress author-
Whereas the Coast Guard had on board some 11,500 military personnel, by December,
ized additional personnel. in
September, 1939,
1941, that figure increased to 25,000.
During the first year of the war in Europe, there was a gradual change of public opinion in the United States. Although there was still no general feeling that this country should abandon its position on neutrality, sympathy for Great Britain and the Allied powers was growing. The ruthless invasion of Denmark, Norway, and the Low Countries, closely followed by the British retreat at Dunkirk, was having
its eflFect.
Meanwhile the absence of weather reports from the United States and the Atlantic Ocean was felt by Germany. Many of the operations in the blitzkrieg type of war favored by Hitler depended on accurate weather forecasts. Greenland, a possession of Nazi-overnm Denmark, was an ideal area for weather observations which would permit accurate forecasts for Europe. To prevent establishment of Nazi weather stations in Greenland, as well as to protect its valuable
Guard was directed to establish the Greenland Patrol. Ultimately six cutters were assigned to this duty. That this fear of Nazi intent was not idle speculation was borne out later during the war when, in 1944, Coast Guard cutters captured sixty Germans, destroyed two weather stations, and seized a German cryolite mines, the Coast
transport in or near Greenland.
In support actions
still
short of war, the United States turned over
to Great Britain fifty over-age destroyers in
142
exchange for United
WATCHFUL WAITING States
Naval Base rights on British
territory in the
Western Hemi-
Guard Kingdom under much the
sphere. Soon after this, in April 1941, the ten lake-class Coast cutters
were
transferred to the United
performance of duty under the white ensign upheld the enviable record they had established as Coast Guard
same
provisions. Their
cutters.
in the war became more and more Guard units were placed under control of the Navy. The personnel on Coast Guard-manned Navy ships such as transports had been under Navy operational control since the vessels had first gone into service. Hawaiian units were transferred by Executive Order to the Navy in August of 1941. Shortly there-
As United States involvement
probable, various Coast
after, those cutters in the Atlantic
operating with the Navy, includ-
ing the Greenland Patrol, were transferred. Finally on
November
1,
1941, the President issued his long expected order directing that, until further orders, "the Coast
Guard operate
143
as part of the
Navy."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Continental Defense: Port Security and Beach Patrol
"For Lieutenant W. C. Capron. Temporarily detached Calypso assume position Captain of the Port, Baltimore. Enforce Treasury Anchorage Regulations. Proceed Custom House and request office space from Collector." This was July 1, 1940. The 165-foot patrol boat Calypso had just backed out into the stream from her berth at the dock at Fort McHenry, Baltimore, bound for neutrality patrol off Cape Henry, Virginia. The radioman ran with the message to the bridge and delivered it to the commanding officer. A quick relief by the executive officer, a hurried packing, a quick boat trip to shore, and the new captain of the port of Baltimore was standing on the dock, wondering what his new duties were to be. President Roosevelt, on June 27, 1940, had by proclamation invoked certain provisions of the Espionage Act of 1917. Section I, Title II, of that act authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to
make
and regulations governing the anchorage and movement of any vessel in the territorial waters of the United States, and if necessary to take full possession and control of such vessel. In view of the international situation, said the President, it was necessary that the secretary have that power. That same day, the Secretary of the Treasury issued "anchorage regulations" under authority of the Espionage Act covering, in general terms, the anchorage and movement of vessels in all ports of the United States and territorial waters, and rules
directed that the Coast Guard, through captains of the port, enforce
them. 144
CONTINENTAL DEFENSE For some reason, the proclamation and the secretary's resulting little or no publicity, since there was no immediate
action received
recognition at local levels of the significance of the President's action. The whole story broke late on July 3, 1940. The new captain of the
Guard officers and their wives who were holding an Independence Day eve celebration in a Baltimore club. Newsboys outside were hawking the early editions of the Baltimore Sim. The captain was startled to hear his name called out. A quick peRisal of the newspaper told the story: port was with a group of Coast
SHIPPING HERE PLACED
UNDER MILITARY RULE
Walter Clark Capron Assumes Duties of Port Captain Given Control Over Movement of All Vessels in Baltimore Harbor.
Lt.
And thus War L
Baltimore got
Actually Port Security,
when
its
first
captain of the port since
World War
II version,
began
World
late in
1939
the Coast Guard, in the enforcement of neutraUty, started to
merchant vessels and to check armaments on these vessels. At that time, under peacetime organization and War Department regulations, there were only a few United States ports which had any degree of federal control. The ports of seal the radios of belligerent
Charleston, South Carolina; New York; Hampton Roads, Virginia; Los Angeles, Long Beach, and San Francisco, Cahfornia, had regulations governing anchorages and the movement of vessels, and the
loading of explosives in specified areas issued by the
War
Depart-
ment. These were enforced by the Coast Guard, through an officer as the captain of the port. Where such an officer existed, responsibility for radio sealing and armament checking was placed
known
under him. In other places, the operation was conducted directly under the district commander. The number of personnel involved in the sealing of radios and examination of vessel armaments were relatively few in each port. However, the invoking of the Espionage Act and the resultant anchorage regulations established the requirement for a considerable number of men for enforcement administration. Of the several increases in Coast Guard personnel authorized by Congress during 145
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
the two years immediately preceding Pearl Harbor, a good proportion of the additional
men were
for captain of the port duties.
After the Dunkirk disaster, it became evident that the only thing which could keep Great Britain from going under was the steady stream of munitions and supplies reaching her from America by the "bridge of ships." Continuous efforts at sabotaging Allied ships and cargo were being made by Nazi agents and sympathizers. Therefore, elaborate security procedures were set up by Allied shipowners and agents, which were often advised by the British consulates. At this
time the Coast Guard, although having authority to keep sub-
had no machinery for screening longshoremen and the great number of other persons having legitimate business there. In cooperation with the longshoremen's unions and various associations of shipowners and agents, the Coast Guard started a system of screening and identifying waterfront workers. Accordingly, each screened individual was issued a badge bearing his picture and general description. In the beginning, the system was voluntary on the part of the unions and it was through their cooperation tliat effective security was maintained. This started in New York Harbor and soon was extended to other ports. Ultimately every person having regular business on the waterfront was required to have a permanent or temporary permit to go on the docks. Under the Espionage Act and supporting regulations, the loading and handling of explosives aboard ship was supervised by the Coast versives off the waterfront,
Guard
in special
anchorages or waterfront
purpose. However, there was
little
facilities set aside for that
federal authority governing the
handling and carriage of dangerous cargoes other than those desig-
An act approved October 9, 1940, called the Dangerous Cargo Act, contained authority for strict supervision of dangerous and semi-dangerous articles on board vessels. This act made more effective the provisions of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. The Coast Guard and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation of the Department of Commerce were given primary joint enforcement jurisdiction. Every vessel, domestic or foreign, except public vessels and tankers, on the navigable waters of the United States was brought under this super-
nated as "explosives."
146
CONTINENTAL DEFENSE were issued by the Secretary on board vessels of Commerce 9, 1941. By and in the ports of the United States was much improved. Late on Saturday, March 29, 1941, the Secretary of the Treasury issued orders to the Coast Guard to seize all German and Italian vessels in the ports of the United States. The effective time of seizure was to be the following morning and it provided for as nearly simultaneous action throughout the United States as possible. These orders directed that unusual care be taken to prevent sabotage by the vessels' crews. Because these orders also specified that the crews were not to be alarmed in advance, an almost impossible problem was posed. In many cases the captains of the port did not receive vision. Regulations supporting this act
on April
this action safety
their instructions until late Saturday evening.
and German vessels throughout the United States were Sunday morning. Very few of the captains of the port or boarding officers knew of the probable sabotage, and so it was with a sick feeling they noted that all Italian vessels had been severely damaged. Crews were immediately removed from these vessels, fires were drawn, guards posted, and every precaution was taken to prevent further damage. The crews were placed in custody, and later they were tried under criminal action in the federal courts. Later that same Sunday, orders were issued to take all Danish vessels in port into "protective custody." As the forces available to most of the captains of the port were quite limited, it was necessary to use much the same personnel for both operations. Many men worked steadily from Saturday night until Monday afternoon. In the case of the Danish vessels, the master, chief engineer, and one additional officer were permitted to remain on board, and as there was no sabotage on these vessels their engineering plants were kept in operation. Ultimately the Italian vessels were repaired and sailed under the United States flag. The Danish vessels sailed under "flags Italian
seized that
of convenience" with their
own
crews.
Meanwhile, the Battle of the Atlantic was being waged ruthlessly by Nazi Germany and many cargoes destined for Britain and her allies were being sunk. By this time American sympathies had become almost completely aligned with the AUied powers. Lend-lease 147
THE had been
instituted,
lease goods.
An
U.S.
COAST GUARD
and a good part
of the lost ships carried lend-
invasion of Great Britain was expected momentarily.
France seemed inevitable. On May 27, 1941, the President of the United States declared an unlimited national emergency. During the rest of 1941, the Coast Guard increased its Port Secu-
The
fall of
more personnel became available, strengtliened its security measures. As w^e know, on November 1, the President ordered the Coast Guard's transfer to the Navy. By this time it was generally felt in the United States that our entry into the war was inevitable; yet, when the precipitating action took place, it came from a little expected direction. On December 7 Japanese aircraft rity activities
and, as
attacked a concentration of United States warships in Pearl Harbor, sinking
many
ships and, for the time being at least, putting
much
of
The following day, the United war existed with Imperial Japan, and on December 11 made the same declaration regarding Germany and the American
fleet
out of action.
States declared that a state of
Italy.
One
war declaration was the Order dated December place guards upon water-
of the earliest actions following the
issuance
by the President
of an Executive
12 which authorized the Coast Guard to
whenever necessary to protect national defense utilities. During World War I, the responsibility for anchorage regulations issued under tlie Espionage Act, although still enforced by the Coast Guard when it was declared a part of the Navy, remained with the Secretary of the Treasury. An Executive Order issued in February, 1942, vested that authority in front installations
premises, materials, and
the Secretary of the Navy. He, in turn, delegated this responsibility
Commandant of the Coast Guard. The protection of ports, vessels, docks, and other waterside facilities by the Coast Guard consisted largely of patrols from the waterto the
and in certain cases from shoreside. As for the shoreside patrols, they were intended to supplement, not replace, locally provided protection. The Captain of the Port placed particular emphasis on preventing waterfront fires and other major casualties. Later in the war, fireboats were furnished and manned by the Coast Guard in all side,
major
ports.
148
CONTINENTAL DEFENSE the end of 1942, the duties of the captains of the port and then-
By
become fairly well stabilized. Although the some of them varied from time to time, there
port security forces had
degree of activity in was otherwise httle change. Briefly these duties were a.
to:
Protect ports, harbors, vessels, piers, docks, and other water-
front facilities against sabotage, accidents,
movement
and negligence.
b.
Control anchorage and
c.
Issue identification cards.
d.
Control loading and shipment of explosives and other danger-
of vessels.
ous cargoes. e.
Promulgate local rules within the authority of the COTP.
f.
Control tra£Bc in harbors and channels.
g.
Enforce federal laws on navigable waters.
As the war progressed, the fighting forces needed more and more able-bodied young men. In the early days of the war, groups of vol-
unteer port security guards had been formed in some ports. These
made up of civilian volunteers— in most cases too old mihtary service— who augmented the Regular Coast Guard
groups were for
Such volunteers served without pay and worked part-time or occasionally full-time. Enrolled as Temporary Members of the Coast Guard Reserve, they had full military status while actually on duty. As Regular Coast Guard personnel were siphoned off to other duties, these Temporary Reservists took over more and more of the guard and patrol duties of Port Security. There was also another duty performed by the Coast Guard during the war which was closely allied to Port Security, although it was not a part of it. This was Beach Patrol, and it was actually an outgrowth of the patrols that had been conducted by hfeboat stations
forces.
for
many
years.
During the early days of World War II, the United States and her did not have complete' control of the seas by any means. Ger-
allies
149
THE
man
U.S.
COAST GUARD
U-boats roamed the high seas at
mile or so of our shores. infiltrate
its
A
approaching within a
will,
favorite tactic of Nazi
Germany was
to
agents into another country— winning by subversion
rather than frontal attack. Submarines were ideal for introducing
clandestine personnel into a country over
its
beaches.
Starting with the regular patrols of lifeboat stations as a base, per-
sonnel and patrols were expanded along the coasts until at
its
peak.
Beach Patrol employed (including Temporary Reservists) over 24,000 officers and men. In jeeps, on horseback, and many times on foot. Beach Patrol kept under surveillance practically the entire Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasthnes. The Beach Patrol had three tasks:
a.
To
detect, observe,
and report enemy
vessels
operating in
coastal waters; b.
To
report attempts at landing
by the enemy and
to assist in
preventing such activity;
To prevent communications between persons on shore and enemy at sea. c.
By
early 1944, the danger of
enemy
the
landings on our shores had
and then ultimately were reverted to peacetime lifesaving patrols augmented with horses and dogs. The Regular personnel so released were available and reassigned to other duties, mostly afloat or overseas. Obviously no positive evaluation of the efi^ectiveness of the Beach Patrol is possible, but judging by those attempts to land subversives which were detected and prevented, it was well worth the eflFort. greatly diminished. Patrols
were
first
150
drastically cut
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Combat Assignment: Escort and Amphibious Duty
The
tasks performed by the Coast Guard in World War II fell into by the Coast Guard as a
three general categories— those performed
which individual Coast Guard-manned performed Navy duties as part of a Navy Command; and those stemming from the statutory responsibilities of the Coast Guard which continued during peace or war. The first category consisted of wartime tasks which were closely allied to certain Coast Guard peacetime tasks, such as Port Security and Beach Patrol which have been previously discussed. The statutory duties will be treated later. Those tasks wherein individual units operated as parts of Navy forces utilized the special talents and capabilities of Coast Guard personnel. The Coast Guard's involvement in amphibious warfare and antisubmarine warfare was in the service for the Navy; those in
units
last category.
The
invasion of
Denmark and Norway by Nazi
troops, the British
and the surrender of occupied France— all of these left Great Britain and her remaining allies without any foothold on the European continent. By now many prominent Americans, including policy makers in the United States government, foresaw inevitable American involvement on the side of the Allied powers. To the military planners, it was obvious that Hitler could not be defeated without landings in force on the mainland of Europe. The history of amphibious landings against a determined and entrenched enemy was full of military disasters. The ill-fated British attack at GallipoH in World War I was a prime example. retreat at Dunkirk,
151
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Early in 1941 American naval and military authorities began their long-range preparations. A squadron of transports, specially converted to carry combat troops and land them under
fire
on hostile
was estabHshed in the Atlantic Fleet. This squadron was placed under the command of Capt. R. R. M. Emmett, USN, an officer who had made an extensive study of amphibious warfare. This squadron, after embarking troops of the First Marine Division, proceeded to Vieques Island off the coast of Puerto Rico for training and maneuvers. After a few days it was obvious that landing-boat crews, made up of what were essentially deep-water sailors, were having considerable shores,
handling their boats in the surf as they debarked marines on the beaches. Captain Emmett, seeking a solution to this problem, thought of the Coast Guard surfmen who manned the hfeboat stations along the coast. Coast Guard Headquarters was contacted, and as a result about 150 lifeboat-station personnel were sent to the transports for training and evaluation as landing-craft operators. The surfmen took to landing craft like ducks to water, and the experiment proved successful. The manning of landing boats by the Coast Guard was extended until the spring of 1941, when all East Coast Navy combat transports, including six destroyer transports, had Coast Guard boat crews. During this same period the First Army Division was also undergoing amphibious training in Buzzards Bay, difficulty
Massachusetts with Coast Guard boat crews.
Marine Division and the First Army Division in late winter of 1941 and early spring of 1942 made up the troops assigned to what was then called the Atlantic Amphibious Force, later renamed the Amphibious Corps. The corps was commanded by a Marine major-general, with a joint Army-Marine staff. As part of their training, elements of both divisions were embarked in transports and held maneuvers in the vicinity of Guantanamo, Cuba. The Marines were in Navy transports, while the Army troops were in
The
First
transports of the
Army
Transport Service. The Navy transports be-
longing to the Atlantic Fleet were entirely military manned. The
Army
from normal troop-carrying missions, were manned. These maneuvers were designed to simulate war-
transports, diverted
civilian
152
COMBAT ASSIGNMENT time conditions, with darkened vessels steaming at night and making landings both before
dawn and
after dark.
personnel these maneuvers were in still
As training
many ways
for transport
a failure, but they
taught a valuable lesson for the future. The civilian-manned
Army
transports steamed at night, fully lighted,
among
the other
which were darkened. Cooks, winchmen, and others on board troops were late to meals, or when landing exercises took place at other-than-normal working times. Thus it was clear that for a military operation, military personnel were necessary. ships,
demanded overtime pay when
Upon
the conclusion of the exercises, the transports returned to
the United States, the
Army
troops going to Fort Devens, Massa-
chusetts and the Marines remaining
At
this point, the
operation of the
embarked
for further training.
Army asked the Navy to take over the manning and Army transports Joseph T. Dickman, Hunter Lig-
and Leonard Wood. The Navy agreed to assume operating conthe vessels and requested the Coast Guard to man them.. Personnel from the ten lake-class cutters just turned over to Great Britain then being available, the Coast Guard was able to man these three vessels, and also the USS Wakefield (formerly the SS Manhattan). This, then, was the manner in which the Coast Guard got into the amphibious warfare business. After the Coast Guard had manned the former Army transports, extensive alterations were made to make them suitable for use as combat-loaded transports. More maneuvers and training exercises were held off Onslow Beach, North Carolina. Onslow Beach was a gett,
trol of
part of the vast reservation, later
named Camp
Lejeune, at Jackson-
which the Marine Corps took over in mid-1941. The summer amphibious training was climaxed in August by a ten-day exercise in which the First Army Division and the First Marine Division made full-scale landings side by side, with Atlantic Fleet combatant ville,
an interesting historical fact that during the maneuvers at Guantanamo and later Onslow Beach, all of the ammunition, rations, and other supplies were real— not simulated as was usual in training exercises. Those in the know at the time momentarily expected orders to land either in the Azores or Martinique. units participating. It
is
153
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
The next few months were devoted,
as far as the transports
were
concerned, to ship and landing-craft training.
On December
7,
1941, the
"Day
of Infamy,"
Navy men and Coast
Guardsmen throughout the world were observing a rather imeasy day of rest when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. It was early afternoon on the Atlantic Coast. On one of the golf courses in Norfolk was a foursome made up of staff members of Commander, Transports. This foursome, consisting of
two Navy, one Marine, and one
Coast Guard ojBficer, represented the combined service effort then going on in the armed forces. As the news of Pearl Harbor spread, the
commodore made
this
round.
The
It's
the prophetic remark: "Well, boys,
let's finish
the last we'll be playing for a long time."
three Coast Guard-manned, ex-Army transports
had
started
out as members of the same transport division— Transport Division Seven. However, as war requirements for troop transports developed, the division was gradually dispersed. In the spring of 1942 the
Hunter Liggett was one of a number of transports that carried the First Marine Division from the East Coast to the Pacific. The Leonard Wood and Joseph T. Dickman, after a trip to the Far East with Allied troops, returned to become a part of the Atlantic Fleet and the new Amphibious Force. Early on the morning of August 7, 1942 the action began in the Solomon Islands. It was to last for many weeks, and heralded the American intention to strike back at the Japanese. Troops for this amphibious operation were almost entirely Marines from the First and Second Divisions. A number of individual landings were scheduled, with the main effort to be on Guadalcanal. At the very beginning of the formation of the squadron Transports, Atlantic Fleet, two Coast Guard oflBcers had been ordered to Navy staffs as Coast Guard liaison, and assistant operations, officers. As such, they became the main beachmasters for the troops carried by their squadrons and divisions. The Hunter Liggett had originally been flagship of Transport Division Seven and was now one of the flagships at Guadalcanal. Lt. Comdr. Dwight H. Dexter had been on the staff stationed aboard the Liggett since her first commission154
COMBAT ASSIGNMENT ing,
and had acted
sion during
much
as
main beachmaster
for the First
Army
Divi-
of their amphibious training.
At Guadalcanal, Dexter went ashore as main beachmaster as soon as the battalion beachheads were consolidated. After all of the assault troops had been landed, Dexter established and commanded the Naval Local Defense Force and Antisubmarine Patrol, Guadalcanal-Gavatu. A part of his forces were Coast Guardsmen and boats from the Liggett. During the time he was on this mission, he and his force were subject to almost daily aircraft bombing attacks and nightly naval bombardment. Due to illness he was finally evacuated on November 5, 1942, after almost three months ashore. For this operation Commodore Dexter was awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry. Part of the citation reads: "Throughout this entire period, his courage, determination, and zeal made it possible to maintain in operation a signal station and a boat operating organization which was essential to the successful unloading of many troops and
many thousands
On
of tons of supplies to the forces ashore."
the other side of the world, the United States
was preparing
to demonstrate its capability to wage a two-ocean war. Even as troops were fighting in the Solomons, preparations were being made
for an operation directed against the other Axis partners,
Germany
During that summer of 1942, discussion and planning for a "second front" had been going on continuously between the United States and British members of the Combined Chiefs of Staff. At one time, an early cross-channel invasion of France was seriously considered. However, it was finally decided to open the second front in North Africa, with the objective of driving Axis forces out of that
and
Italy.
continent.
The Leonard Wood and the Joseph
T.
Dickman were
still
with the
Atlantic Fleet, the Wood being flagship of the Transports, Amphibious Force. Many more new transports were being commissioned, one of them the Coast Guard-manned Samuel Chase. The landings were to be made by two task forces, one proceeding from the United States and landing in French Morocco, the other originating in
Great Britain with Algiers as
its
objective.
155
Troops for the
latter
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Operation were jointly British and American, while the Moroccan all American. The Chase, which completed its training United Kingdom, was assigned to the Nortiiem Task Force— a British effort under British command, although the majority of troops were American. The Western Naval Task Force, under Rear Adm. Henry K. Hewitt, USN, departed the United States in groups late in October, 1942, with United States Army troops embarked. The task force arrived off French Morocco early on the morning of November 8, 1942. Although it had been hoped that little or no resistance would be made by the French ashore, there was actually fierce fighting for several days.
troops were in the
The Northern Task Force was under submarine attack before landing, and several troopships were
The
several times
lost.
interim objective of the landings was attained in a few days:
the coastlines of French Morocco and Algiers were secured, with
elements of infantry and armored troops from both up and racing eastward.
Due
to differences in time, the landings in the
theaters joining
Mediterranean by
the Northern Task Force took place before those on the coast of
French Morocco. The transports of the Western Task Force had just reached the transport area, and were beginning to lower their landing craft, when those listening to the shortwave radio aboard the transports were astounded. Quite clearly came the voice of the President of the United States, telling the French people that "even now American troops are landing in North Africa." This announcement, intended to reassure the French people, did nothing to improve the morale of the Western Task Force. As the war progressed, the Coast Guard manned more and more amphibious vessels, so that by the end of hostilities the Coast Guard was manning 9 AFAs, 5 AKAs, 76 LSTs and 28 LCI(L)s. And this was in addition to 22 regular transports and 15 cargo ships. The transition from Coast Guard to Navy operation was relatively easy for the personnel of the general duty cutters and patrol boats. As early as July 1, 1941, some of the cutters were on duty with the Navy. These included several of the secretary class of 327-footers, some smaller cutters in Greenland, and several patrol boats on spe156
COMBAT ASSIGNMENT had been given new armament, which them antisubmarine capabihties in varying degrees. By the time the Coast Guard as an organization was transferred to the Navy, most of its general duty vessels were already under Navy control. As soon as the United States was officially in the war, the 327-footers began operating as convoy escorts in the Atlantic. Nearly all of the cial missions. All of these
afforded
rest of the cutters in the Atlantic
were assigned
to the
Greenland
Patrol where, in addition to regular patrol duties, they acted as con-
and 125-foot patrol boats were assigned to the Sea Frontiers and performed escort duty. On the West Coast, in Alaska, and in Hawaii, Coast Guard vessels were generally assigned to the Sea Frontiers. It was LQ these early days of the war, when things looked darkest during the "Battle of the Atlantic," that Coast Guard and Navy foresight in providing Coast Guard vessels with antisubmarine warfare capability paid off. At this time, the building of amphibious vessels for the United States and Great Britain had top priority in American shipyards. Consequently, new escort vessels did not appear in any numbers until late in 1943. During the late winter and spring of 1942, German submarines were operating just off the American coasts, attacking and sinking ships with almost monotonous regularity. Although the U-boats seemed to prefer loaded tankers, they were not too fussy, and would attack any convenient target. voy
escorts.
The East and Gulf Coast
On
165-foot
one occasion during this period, the 165-foot patrol boat Icarus New York and was proceeding down the coast toward Charleston, South Carolina. The Icarus was one of the patrol boats built at Bath, Maine, during the last days of Prohibition. Her commanding oflBcer, Lt. Comdr. Maurice Jester, a former warrant boatswain, had an outstanding reputation as a seaman. As the Icarus approached Cape Lookout, a distinct echo coming from the port bow was heard on the sound gear. Verifying the contact. Jester headed the vessel in the direction of the echo. Suddenly a torpedo passed down the side of the ship and exploded harmlessly two hundred yards off the port quarter. As the Icarus turned sharply, propeller noises were heard on the sonar. The Icarus passed over the sup-
had
left
157
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
posed position of the submarine, dropping a barrage of five depth charges, then reversed course and dropped another barrage. The submarine v^^as seen to surface about 1,000 yards astern of the patrol boat. As the Icarus again reversed course, firing with her machine guns and her one three-inch gun, the U-boat's crew abandoned ship. With the enemy submarine now sinking. Jester approached and took aboard thirty-three survivors, including the German skipper. The Icarus then proceeded to Charleston Navy Yard and delivered up her prisoners. The sinking of what turned out to be the U-S52 and the capture of most of her crew by the Icarus was not, for security reasons, announced for some time. But the word got around in the Navy and the Coast Guard, providing a much needed stimulus to morale. Lieutenant Commander Jester was later awarded the Navy Cross for this feat. Five months later, the Icarus sank another U-boat making her final score an official: "two subs destroyed." The vessels of the Secretary Class were originally assigned to North Atlantic convoy duty. Early in the war, the Alexander Hamilton was torpedoed and sunk just off Iceland. The remaining five vessels of the class which were operating in the Atlantic were divided between supporting operations from Iceland, and escorting convoy operations between Argentia, Newfoundland and Londonderry, Ireland. At the time these vessels were so assigned only a few escort vessels were available, and the new wolf pack tactics of Nazi submarines were very effective. The Coast Guard vessels Bibb, Campbell, Duane, Ingham, and Spencer had enviable records. The Campbell and Spencer were the most publicized and, perhaps for sentimental reasons, the present author's interest lies mostly in the Spencer. Let us look at her exploits as an example. The Spencer, under command of Comdr. Harold S. Berdine, USCG, with Capt. P. R. Heineman, USN, aboard as escort commander, headed an escort group of six vessels, escorting an eastbound convoy of 57 ships in April, 1943. At this time the Germans were exploiting to the full the wolf pack tactics. 'For several days the escort had been hampered by numerous stragglers, but by April 14 the convoy and its escorts were together again. The next day, several sound contacts were made which resulted in depth charge attacks 158
COMBAT ASSIGNMENT with no noticeable
effect.
On
the seventeenth one of the convoy
was torpedoed. Shortly after daybreak the Spencer had two sound contacts and made two attacks, again with no apparent effect. At about 1050, when the Spencer had resumed her position in the screen ahead of the convoy, another sound contact was made and a barrage of eleven depth charges was dropped, followed immediately with another. The submarine then headed under the convoy on an opposite course, Spencer following between the columns of ships. Such expert tracking of a submarine speaks volumes for the skill and perseverance of the sound operators, who maintained contact through all the water noises made by the convoy. vessels
Now
astern of the convoy, the Spencer fired one barrage of
"mousetraps" and shortly the conning tower of a submarine broke the surface of the water. The Spencer and the Duane both opened
on the U-boat, which returned fire. Shortly thereafter the crew of the German submarine abandoned ship, with one oflBcer and 18 men being rescued from the water by the Spencer, and 22 by the Duane. Commander Berdine's exultant radio report to the other escorts was terse: "Scratch one hearse." As new escort vessels were built, the Coast Guard manned many of them, including all vessels of one class called the patrol frigates. All told, the Coast Guard manned a total of 30 destroyer escorts, 75 patrol frigates, and 10 submarine chasers. And, as one final set of fire
"dry"
statistics,
the Coast Guard, in addition to
its
own
and 288 Army vessels. Alexander Hamilton's fleet had indeed come a long way.
manned 351 naval
vessels
159
vessels,
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Safety at Sea,
Wartime Version:
The Coast Guard's Regular Duties
The Coast Guard becoming II
—Expanded
a part of the
Navy during World War its own special-
did not exempt that service from performing
ized responsibilities, particularly with respect to
The newly acquired mission
its
statutory duties.
and maintaining aids to navigation in territorial waters, with the added responsibihty for providing aids for the armed forces; the administration of merchant marine safety functions, transferred to the Coast Guard with the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation in 1942; the continuation of the Coast Guard's traditional role of saving life and property at sea— these were but a few of the specialized missions. Additionally, the Coast Guard furnished logistic support for its own units in the United States, and most of its own communications. The arrival of enemy submarines off the coast had a decided impact on coastal aids to navigation. For example, reports from survivors of ships torpedoed off the Atlantic Coast emphasized the fact that brightly lighted communities along the beach provided an illumination which silhouetted passing vessels. The U-boats were quick to utilize this advantage. Accordingly, a blackout was put into effect
of furnishing
along the coast reducing
gational lights were in a
much
somewhat
of this advantage; but the navi-
different category.
Although they
and doubtless assisted the navienemy, they were so important to the safety of our own merchant vessels and convoys that frequently they were kept certainly silhouetted passing ships,
gation of
tlie
160
SAFETY AT SEA, WARTIME VERSION
By the time radar had become common aboard escort vesGerman submarines had withdrawn from the immediate vicinsels, ity of om- coasts. The decision to black out navigational lights or not lighted.
was usually a difficult one. Soon after United States entry vessels were withdrawn— not only avoid assisting the enemy. In
into the war, the offshore light
for their
many
were discontinued. This reduction lighten the load of the Coast
had the added duty
of
own
protection, but to
cases offshore navigational buoys in operations,
however, did not
Guard buoy tenders because they now
marking the channels that the Navy mine-
sweepers were constantly sweeping. Just before the war, the Coast Guard had built a new type of buoy tender, with a hull design giving an excellent icebreaking capability. These were the 180-foot
buoy
which were so successful that additional vessels By the end of the war the Coast Guard had 39 of them. Many were used in the forward areas, marking swept channels and often acting as net tenders. An early casualty was the buoy tender Acacia. With her permanent station at San Juan, Puerto Rico, she was on temporary duty at Willemstad, Cura9ao, in the Dutch West Indies. The Acacia was a twin-screw, steam buoy tender, about 170 feet long, built in 1919— not very old, as buoy tenders go, but still not of the most modern design. Early on the morning of March 15, 1942, she departed Cura9ao for Antigua, British West Indies, to perform aids to navigation there. At daybreak, two days later, the watch was startled to hear a shot from oflF the starboard bow. Although nothing was seen until the shot was heard, it was not long before a Nazi submarine came diesel
of this type
into view.
tenders,
were
built.
The U-boat continued
to fire at the defenseless Acacia,
using machine guns as well as 3-inch and 4-inch guns. There were
many
which started fires in the wooden superstructure. Several crew members were hit by flying fragments. At 5:40 a.m., the commanding officer, realizing the futility of any further attempts to save his ship, gave the order to abandon ship. By this time the tender was completely ablaze, but the enemy continued to fire until finally, at 6:25 a.m., the little vessel plunged to the bottom. As quietly as it had first appeared, the submarine submerged. Late hits scored,
161
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
that afternoon a destroyer rescued the
The Coast Guard continued weather interruption.
There was
now an
crew from
their hfeboats.
patrol duties with very httle
even greater need for accurate
weather forecasting, since both transatlantic air travel and the convoy system needed weather information. When the large cutters were diverted to other tasks, various types of vessels were used for this purpose. At one time 180-foot buoy tenders were assigned to this duty. They were so small and lively, however, that they were quite inefficient for weather observation, and life aboard when on station was completely miserable for the crews. Several Great Lakes freighters were obtained by the Coast Guard, and with a minimum of conversion, they were made into weather ships. These freighters were old, slow, and not particularly well adapted to ocean duty. One of these, the
Monomoy, completely disappeared without
trace with her
men. Because her station was near a heavy concentration of submarines, it was reasoned that she had been torpedoed. Indeed, weather ships were almost completely defenseless, and at the time it was felt that they continued to operate only on sufferance by the Germans. The general feeling was, in fact, that the Germans got as much benefit from their reports as did the Allies. At the outbreak of World War II, the Coast Guard had a small but efficient aviation arm. Its primary use had been in offshore patrolling and scouting for rescue work and law enforcement, but just before the United States entry in the war, its planes began to be used extensively in neutrahty patrol. With the arrival of German submarines oflF United States shores, these planes were hurriedly armed with depth charges, and they proved to be valuable supplements to the few Navy and Army planes capable of antisubmarine patrol. Not only did they provide a deterrent, but in one case a German submarine was actually sunk. Chief Aviation Pilot Henry Clark White, while on a routine patrol over the Gulf of Mexico, sighted a surfaced submarine. Almost simultaneously the submarine sighted the Coast Guard amphibian plane and began to submerge. White made a low-altitude bombing run, and scored what appeared to be a direct hit. Subsequently he was given official credit for sinking the U-166. During these patrols the aircraft were able to locate and report sur-
crew
of 121
162
SAFETY AT SEA, WARTIME VERSION vivors of
many sunken
ships, thus
hving up to the Coast Guard
tradition of saving Hves.
By
late 1943, there
was
httle necessity for Coast
Guard planes
in
antisubmarine work, and once more they began performing their
and rescue at sea. The loss of life and seamen during the war had been considerable. Special air-sea rescue forces were established, both in the United States and overseas. Although normally an operational commander was considered responsible for his own distressed planes, the Coast Guard accepted this responsibility in the continental United States and at various naval commands. In furtherance of this responsibility, a Coast Guard-manned squadron was established in Greenland. By the end of the war the position of Coast Guard aviation in air-sea rescue was firmly established. On March 1, 1942, the Coast Guard became the sole federal agency charged with responsibility for safety at sea. On that day President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9083, which transferred to the Coast Guard until further notice all of the functions of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation of the Department of Commerce which related, directly or indirectly, to safety at sea. Those other functions of the BMIN which related to registry, enrollment, and licensing of vessels, including toll collecting, and entrance and clearance, were transferred to the Commissioner of Customs. This order also transferred the bureau personnel to the Coast Guard. The merchant marine inspectors in the districts, and the principal administrative officers in Washington, were commissioned as ofiicers in the Coast Guard Reserve. After the transfer, one of the first acts of Vice Admiral Waesche, Commandant of the Coast Guard, was to establish the Merchant Marine Council, to study and recommend to the Commandant steps to improve the efiiciency and welfare of American merchant seamen, and to determine the effectiveness of safety appliances and equipment in use aboard ship. The council was made up of Regular Coast Guard officers and officers from the former BMIN. Almost immediately, the council set up a special panel to advise it in the various technicahties. The panel was made up of outstanding leaders original primary mission— search
of aviators
163
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
in all phases of maritime activity, including industry, labor,
and
government. The council provided a means whereby the Commandant could be advised of the impact of proposed actions of the Coast Guard on labor and industry.
Under the new
organization, the Coast
Guard performed the
in-
spection of merchant vessels. These inspections, because of the war,
had become even more important than before. With the bulk of the fighting taking place far from United States shores, it was doubly important that supplies and weapons reach their destinations on time. The safety of ships, cargoes, and men, insofar as war conditions permitted, was the Coast Guard's job. As Admiral Waesche stated early in the war: "If America and its allies are to win the devastating war now raging over the surface of the entire globe, the ships that carry the food, the guns, the tanks, the planes, and other implements of war to our fighting forces on battlefields beyond the seas, must reach their destinations safely. Therefore the Coast Guard at war is still carrying on its basic job of protecting the merchant marine of the United States." Licenses and certificates were issued to merchant mariners after
examinations which insured that the applicants met the required qualifications. In connection
with their shipboard inspections, the
merchant marine inspectors conducted training in abandon ship, hfeboat handling, and use of survival equipment. In theory adequate crews, both in number and qualifications, were required. In practice, however, because of the urgent requirements for essential cargoes, the Coast Guard often had to take a "calculated risk" and issue waivers on manning requirements. Survivors of vessels sunk, or lost through other causes, were interviewed by representatives of the Merchant Marine Inspection Division. These interviews were conducted to determine the efiiciency and effectiveness of abandon ship and survival equipment, and procedures. A worthwhile result of these interviews was the issuance by the Coast Guard in January, 1943, of a manual entitled Wartime Safety Measures for the Merchant Marine. Wartime operation brought to the merchant marine, as it did to the
armed
forces, a
marked increase 164
in personnel difficulties.
The
SAFETY AT SEA, WARTIME VERSION number
of marine casualties, caused
by inexperience and the
pres-
sures of war, jumped enormously. The increase in the number of vessels alone accounted for much of this. In order to reduce delays
minimum, and to speed up the analysis of lessons learned. Merchant Marine Hearing Units were set up, first in the major ports of the United States, and then throughout the world. Hearing units were available in order to immediately investigate marine casualties —such as collisions, groundings, and heavy weather damage— and personnel cases involving misconduct, negligence, and inattention to duty. This practice of making an on-the-spot investigation greatly improved the war eflFort, and was so successful that hearing units were continued after the war both at home and abroad. By the close of the war there were more than 35 hearing units in foreign countries, including one in far-off Bombay. War has always inspired or speeded up scientific developments that continued their usefulness long after the conflict itself was over, and World War H was no exception. Two developments in the electronics field proved to be of lasting benefit to the mariner and aviator. Radar, which has now become commonplace even in the apprehension of automobile speeders, needs Httle explanation. Radar is self-contained and thus requires no external operators or equipment. The other innovation, termed Loran {long-range navigato the
tion),
is
quite different.
Early in 1941, the Radiation Laboratory of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Bell Telephone Laboratory began a joint project to develop an electronic aid to navigation
which could meet what
was then an unknown requirement of the United States in the event of war. Operating under the guidance of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), the scientists obtained permission to use two inactive Coast Guard lifeboat stations for their experiments. Utilizing the cathode-ray tube and a few principles of television, they had reached a point in their research where they found that a new long-range navigational aid was a distinct possibihty, when the United States entered the war. Acting upon a request from the Joint Chiefs of
Staff,
the
Atlantic coasts of
NDRC
planned a chain of stations along the States to evaluate and
Canada and the United 165
THE further develop
U.S.
COAST GUARD
what could be a revolutionary aid
to navigation.
the request of the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, a Coast
At
Guard
having radio and electronics experience was assigned to the project. This first Coast Guard contact was Capt. Lawrence M. Harding, an engineer who had come from the former Lighthouse Service. By this time developments were such that an electronic aid with much more range than the radio beacon's maximum 200 miles was envisioned. Receiving equipment was put on board the Coast Guard weather ship Manasquan and further tests were made. In July, 1942, results of the tests being highly successful, the Navy set up a project for a chain of stations in the northwest Atlantic. Ultimately a chain of seven stations was established— five operated by the Coast Guard, and two by the Royal Canadian Navy. These stations provided coverage well ofi^shore and as far south as Bermuda. The chain, in full operation by mid-1943, proved invaluable officer
and planes crossing the Atlantic. Loran provided an extremely accurate method of determining position on or over the ocean, under practically any weather conditions, at distances up to 700 miles from the transmitting stations. The ship or plane using it required a special loran receiver and loran charts. No sooner was its feasibility proven by the Manasquan tests, than plans for its use in the Pacific Ocean were drawn up. In Sep-
for ships
tember, 1942, a joint service survey party operated in the Bering
an Alaskan chain, with construction starting in January, 1943. By October, the stations were on the air. This chain was quickly followed by an Aleutian chain. As the fighting in the Pacific moved westward, so did the loran stations. The Coast Guard developed a system using mobile stations with all the necessary equipment and power supply installed on trucks. Erection of antenna poles and establishment of an antenna field was all that was necessary to transform these trucks into an Sea selecting three
sites for
operating loran station.
When
the need was a continuing one, the
mobile stations were converted to fixed stations. The trucks containing the mobile stations often came ashore shortly after the assault troops, while fighting
was
still
Coast Guard used construction after the Seabees to build
its
The detachments patterned somewhat
in progress a short
way
inland.
loran stations in the forward area.
166
SAFETY AT SEA, WARTIME VERSION After American forces secured the Marianas, there was an im-
mediate demand for a new Loran Chain, as the islands were within B-29 bombing distance of Tokyo. Coast Guard Construction Detachment C was assigned the task of building the Marianas Loran Chain, beginning construction in early November, 1944. As soon as the first two stations were completed, they went on the air. Although two stations could not supply a fixed position, they could furnish a line
which was of considerable value. Finally all the stations of the chain were completed and commissioned on March 1, 1945. They were located on Guam, Saipan, and Ulithi, with the monitor station also on Guam. The Twenty-first Bomber Command, consisting of B-29's, used the Marianas Loran Chain signals for the 1,500-mile trip to Tokyo and return. The accuracy of their navigation made it possible for them to carry full bombloads instead of extra gasoline. Much of the success in the bombing of Japan was attributed to the use of loran. Later a chain was built in the Caroline Islands and another one linking Okinawa, Iwo Jima and O Shima, Japan. These chains provided the navigational information needed by our forces in the recapture of the Philippines with their approach to the main Japanese of position,
islands.
When the final surrender took place on the USS
Missouri, the Coast
Loran had been introduced as a wartime measure, but by the war's end it had become such a valuable aid to the armed forces, merchant marine, fishermen, and many transoceanic airlines, that it was continued as a regular United States aid to navigation. No account of the Coast Guard's role in World War II would be complete without mention of the 83-foot patrol boats which took part in the Normandy landings. Experience in past amphibious landings had indicated that in cases of well-defended beaches, casualties to ships and landing craft continued for several days after the initial landings. In the assault waves, small landing craft obviously had to look out for themselves, with some help from their own salvage boats. Later troops and vehicles, landing in LCI(L)s and LSTs, were helpless in the event their vessels were sunk. The planners for
Guard had established 31 loran
the
Normandy
stations in the Pacific.
landings recognized
167
this,
realizing that the usual
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
rough weather on the Enghsh Channel increased the danger, and included a rescue flotilla, which would operate off the landing beaches from D day on, in their plans. The Coast Guard was directed to furnish this flotilla.
Eighty-three patrol boats were collected from their bases along
They were shipped, with where two rescue groups, each consisting of thirty boats, were formed. One of these groups was assigned to the British sector, the other to the American, and accompanied the transports across the Channel to the French coast. The foresight of the planners paid off. During the actual landings the 83-footers made more than fourteen hundred individual rescues, and, on D day itself operated in the area between the transports and the beaches. As the operation continued, the areas were extended offshore and many survivors of large vessels sunk by enemy fire were rescued. Three months after the initial landings they were still fishthe Atlantic Coast of the United States.
their crews, to Great Britain
ing
men
out of the water.
When these vessels were no longer needed they were
shipped back having made an enviable record. The Coast Guard tradition for rescue at sea had been nobly upheld. to the
United
States,
168
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Confusion
Drill:
Demobilization
The fighting
in
Europe ended
in
May,
1945. Except for the battle
against submarines in the Atlantic, the bulk of the fighting in this
theater
had been an Army
inevitable. It
is
job.
For several months the end appeared
quite possible, as
some
historians
now
claim, that
the United States-Great Britain edict of "unconditional surrender"
lengthened the war. At any rate, V-E Day in no way came as a surprise. No sooner was the fighting in Europe ended than personnel and equipment were shifted to the remaining theater of operations
—the
Pacific.
looked like a long war with Japan. After Okinawa, the elaborate preparations for the invasion of Japan were begun. Then came the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, closely folIt still
lowed by the bombing of Nagasaki. The next day Radio Tokyo put out peace feelers, and on August 14, President Truman announced the Japanese surrender. The end was so sudden that the United States was not psychologically prepared for the tasks of demobihzation and occupation of the former enemy countries. The Coast Guard was no exception. At its peak wartime strength the service had on board 176,000 officers and enlisted persons. The Coast Guard of September, 1939, consisted of 12,000 mifitary persons; in December, 1941, the figure climbed to 25,000. Beginning with February, 1942, practically all of the additions had been in the Reserve, "for the duration and six months." Almost immediately after the Japanese surrender the Coast Guard received a directive from 169
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Congress that the service should demobihze
its
personnel at the rate
of ten percent a month, thus reaching peacetime strength 1,
1946. Plans
were immediately made
by July
for this relatively fast reduc-
tion in strength.
became increasingly evident that an intenwould be necessary. Most of the wartime personnel were eager to get out of the service and resume their interrupted hves in the civilian world. A system of points was estabAs the year wore on,
sive drive for
hshed
to
new
it
recRiits
determine relative
priorities for discharge.
Since nearly
everyone. Regular and Reservist alike, had been promoted numerous
was obvious that without forced attrition the Coast Guard would be top-heavy with senior oflBcers and petty officers. The non-rated gaps would still have to be filled by new times during the war,
it
recruits.
When the Coast Guard was transferred back to the Treasury Department in January, 1946, the service was faced with a host of new problems. Hindsight indicates that the return to the Treasury was much too soon. Although the war was over, the emergency was not, and the Coast Guard was still performing war-related duties for the Navy. Over four years had elapsed since the Coast Guard had left the Treasury, and few of the officials of prewar days were left who knew and understood the Coast Guard's place in government. In Congress, the situation was just as bad or even worse. While under the Navy, the Coast Guard appeared before naval affairs committees and the naval subcommittees of the appropriations committees. These groups had become quite familiar with the Coast Guard and its problems. As a Treasury Department bureau, the service now came under the surveillance of entirely different congressional committees. This may seem a minor point, yet because of congressional turnover and wartime developments, these new committees were almost completely ignorant of the Coast Guard's problems. The advent of the war had interrupted the orderly integration of the Lighthouse Service and the Coast Guard. The establishment of the Weather Patrol just before the war had been essentially an emergency measure. Wartime experience had proven its value and international agreements leading toward
170
its
permanency were already
CONFUSION DRILL begun. Prior to the war, loran had never been heard of and, even though its adoption had been a mihtary measure, commercial usage
now
required
its
continuance.
Nowhere
in the federal statutes
there a clear exposition of the Coast Guard's duties, and there
was was
considerable doubt as to the legality of the Coast Guard's maintain-
ing weather stations and loran stations. In short, there was no expe-
with such new developments by which congressional committees could judge what the postwar Coast Guard's size in personnel and ships should be. rience
To add to the confusion, the transports and cargo ships manned by the Coast Guard for the Navy were actively engaged in operation "Magic Carpet"— the operation which was bringing servicemen back from the far-flung parts of the world where they had been stationed. But the Coast Guard, obliged to obey its directive to demobilize, was in the unenviable position of having to discharge the very men who manned the transports. Not only did this slow up the return of overseas personnel, but it served to make the Coast Guard extremely unpopular with the other services. A good part of the Coast Guard's own ships, particularly cutters and buoy tenders, were tied up as soon as they reached a United States port, with the great majority
due for immediate discharge. While much of the trouble experienced by the Coast Guard dur-
of their crews
ing demobilization paralleled that of the other services, a lot of
it
was peculiar to that service. As pointed out earlier, wartime development of loran and extension of the Weather Patrol had markedly increased the responsibilities of the service. Yet there was still no directive, either from the executive or the legislative branches, which outlined the missions of the Coast Guard. In planning for
its
postwar
Guard independently determined that a strength of 30,000 enlisted men and 3,000 officers was required. When the appropriation bill for the fiscal year 1947 was finally passed, it provided funds for only about 1,500 officers and 17,000 enlisted men. As the service entered its first year of postwar operation, the prospects for the future were far from encouraging. During the war all promotions of officers and enlisted men had been temporary. In the spring of 1946 a careful study of the ofiicer and enlisted rank strucactivities,
the Coast
171
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
was made, and the proper proportion of each rank and rating based on the new strength of the Coast Guard was determined. To reach this, it was necessary to reduce many officers and enHsted men from their wartime ranks. Yet in some enhsted specialties, such as radiomen, technicians, and machinist's mates, there were serious shortages. Many Regular officers, including academy graduates, ture
quietly resigned. In order to attain the
ber of Reserve and Temporary
new
officer strength, a
num-
were offered permanent commissions. As these were accepted, humps in the officers list were created, thus further discouraging the younger officers. During this first year, the Coast Guard was trying to perform, with a strength of 19,000 military persons, the missions and duties which properly required between 25,000 and 30,000 people. As a result, many ships were tied up without crews, lifeboat stations were woefully undermanned, and logistic support for overseas loran stations and merchant marine details was almost completely lacking. It is a credit to the Commandant, Adm, Joseph F. Farley, and the spirit and loyalty of those Coast Guardsmen still in the service, that the Coast Guard was able to perform its most urgent duties and to officers
survive during this difficult readjustment period.
172
PART
IV
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Charter for the Future: Postwar Rebuilding and Korea
On July 16, 1946, the President made the temporary transfer of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation to the Coast Guard permanent. By this action he reaflBiTned the Coast Guard's position as the United States agency having primary responsibihty for maritime safety. This transfer of the bureau to the Coast Guard was quite logical. It was not completely popular, however, either among the
BMIN personnel or within the Coast Guard itself. The misgivings of the marine inspection people were wholly understandable. They were not only faced with losing the identity of
former
their
own
organization, but
many
feared for their individual futures.
There was considerable doubt among some of the Regular Coast Guard officers as to the wisdom of the amalgamation. The function of marine inspection, being entirely regulatory, seemed quite foreign to any of the Coast Guard's former duties. Many felt that the increases in Coast Guard activity necessitated by developments in aviation, the adoption of loran as an aid to navigation system, and the conducting of the Ocean Station- Weather Patrol program were enough to keep the service busy for some time to come. Nor were the mixed opinions as to the Coast Guard's proper sphere confined to the service. Congress, as represented by those committees having surveillance of the Coast Guard, was somewhat divided. During the war. Weather Patrol, loran, and other Coast Guard duties had been necessarily shrouded in secrecy, and thus remained relatively imknown. Weather Patrol, as well as loran, had started as 175
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
a military requirement of the United international conference
States. In 1944,
had been held
in Chicago,
however, an
and from
this
resulted the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization
(PICAO). In September
1946,
PICAO
sponsored an eleven-nation
Ocean Weather Patrol was now called. The President designated the Coast Guard to operate those stations for which the United States had assumed responsibility. Loran had been such a valuable aid to military operations that its extensive use by fishing vessels, merchant ships, and commercial aircraft rapidly followed. When the Coast Guard presented its fiscal year 1948 budget to the House Appropriations Committee, there was a considerable raising agreement
(
the United States was a signer ) to jointly operate
Stations, as
of eyebrows. This budget requested funds for additional personnel,
funds to operate ocean stations and loran stations, as well as funds for other miscellaneous items.
members during
Remarks from various committee
the hearings were rather caustic, and the committee
report strongly inferred that the service was not very economical in its
The committee recommended, and Congress adopted, made of the Coast Guard and its operaprivate management consulting firm. The consultant
operation.
a provision that a study be tions
by
a
selected jointly
by Congress and the Secretary
the Ebasco Corporation of Officially, the
of the Treasury
was
New York.
Coast Guard welcomed the survey. In general
it
was
throughout the service that within the limitations of the law and available funds, a good job was being done. Nevertheless, as a study
felt
by a commercial company was somewhat viewed it with trepidation. This feeling was heightened by the popular view that all government was inefficient. Ebasco's study was quite thorough and complete, and was far from derogatory to Coast Guard administration and methods of operations. The report, made jointly to the appropriation committees and the of a governmental bureau
of an innovation,
some
ofiicers privately
Secretary of the Treasury, completely sustained the Coast Guard's requests for appropriations.
It
personnel and operating funds.
recommended
Among
a sizable increase in
other things,
it
found that
federal statutes were either vague or lacking in exactly specifying
176
CHARTER FOR THE FUTURE Coast Guard tasks and missions. The recommendations
fell
into
three categories— tliose that required congressional action; those that
required Treasury Department action; and those which could be
accomplished by the Coast Guard within itself. The advantages of the Ebasco study to the Coast Guard were immediately evident. Legislation originally suggested by the appropriations committee, and now spurred on by the report, passed Congress in June, 1948. It authorized the Coast Guard to operate Ocean
and loran stations. At the suggestion of Congress, the Coast Guard prepared a recodification of Title 14, United States Code, which contained the laws governing the Coast Guard, and which finally became effective in November 1949. One of the most welcome of the immediate results of the study was the Coast Guard's ability to obtain more personnel. The next two or three years were devoted to trying to attain a reasonable degree of stability in operations and personnel. Demobilization had left the service with serious shortages in certain enlisted specialties; moreover, the ofiicer situation was nearly as bad. One group of five-year oflficers had had no experience whatever in peacetime Coast Guard duties, while many others had missed the normal junior officer training. As the personnel situation improved, so did the operational effectiveness of the units. By 1950 the Coast Guard was again in fairly good shape, with its personnel reasonably trained and stabilized, and all units adequately manned and producing effectively. The service was well on the road to a new peacetime Stations
stability.
Then came Korea. At
the outset of the fighting
it
did not appear
Coast Guard could be involved in a police action so many thousands of miles away, although there was considerable interest in the activities of the Korean navy. Immediately following at all likely that the
World War II, the United States Coast Guard, at the request of the Army, had furnished a group of active and retired Coast Guardsmen
who
organized and trained a Korean Coast Guard.
broke out between North and South Korea,
When
hostilities
this little service
the nucleus of the Korean na\y. The American personnel duty at that time barely escaped the North Koreans.
177
became still
on
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
The Coast Guard had completely reconverted its vessels to peacetime condition after World War II. Only enough armament had been retained on board to provide training for the crews. Those vessels scheduled for antisubmarine duty still had sonar equipment of World War II vintage, but extra guns, depth charges, and other antisubmarine weapons had been removed. Because the action in Korea
appeared to herald an intensification of the cold war, Coast Guard were hurriedly rearmed. In further recognition that the cold war might at any time become hot— with Communist Russia as the enemy— Port Security was also reestablished. During World War II and again in 1950 it was well recognized that the ports of the United States, with their capability for handling munitions and supplies for our own and Allied troops, constituted a part of our strongest defense. In August, 1950, Congress passed what was known as the Magnuson Act, which was, in fact, an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917. This act provided that the President, whenever he found the safety of the United States endangered, could invoke the provisions of the Espionage Act. President Truman, by Executive Order on October 20, 1950, did so find. Accordingly, he directed the Secretary of the Treasury to place into effect necessary safeguards for the ports of the United States. The Port Security program of the 1950's was entirely different from that of World War II. The earlier wartime program had been based on the principle of providing absolute protection to an entire port and all its waterfront facilities. In an all-out war this protection was considered necessary. The cold-war Port Security program, however, was selective in that it recognized that one of the easiest ways to put a seaport out of business was by the detonation of an atomic bomb. The program was designed to detect and prevent the clandestine introduction of unconventional weapons into the ports of the United States and to protect military cargoes and Military Defense Assistance Program cargoes within the ports from accident or sabotage. Even though it was selective, the program still called for much personnel and floating equipment. The Korean conflict itself soon developed into a major mifitary effort on the part of the United Nations, with the United States bearvessels
178
CHARTER FOR THE FUTURE ing the brunt of the action. side of the North Koreans
The entry of Communist China on the made the "police action" a real war in
was not involved in the actual the Coast Guard was soon called upon to make an all-out
everything but name. Although fighting, effort to
it
support United States forces in Korea.
was supplied by the United States Air Force and United States Navy. Only a limited number of relatively short-range planes could operate from fields in Korea itself, with the majority of aircraft operating from bases as far away as Okinawa, and from aircraft carriers. As in World War II, the aircraft needed external facilities for accurate navigation. Some of the loran stations in the Western Pacific established during World War II remained in service, but they did not provide all the coverage that was needed. New loran chains were built, covering areas around Korea, Japan, Formosa, and the Philippines. As before, the need Practically all of the air support
The Coast Guard designed and built stations consisting of enormous trailers, which contained all electronic equipment and power supply. The trailers were more efficient and economical than the trucks of World War II. The erection of antennas completed the stations. In order to provide rescue facilities for downed aircraft at sea due to enemy action, shortage of fuel, or other mishaps, the Coast Guard was requested to establish search and rescue units throughout the did not permit waiting for construction of buildings.
These units normally consisted of a command post with radio and other forms of communications, an airplane detachment, and at least one surface craft. SAR units were ultimately established at Sangley Point in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Midway, and Adak. Later, modified units were placed at Argentia, Newfoundland, and Bermuda. Additional ocean stations were established in Pacific.
the Pacific to meet the military requirement.
After the cease
SAR
fire,
an uneasy armistice took
eflPect
in Korea,
and
were withdrawn as no longer necessary. The ocean the United States in the Pacific decreased to two. Because tlie loran chains were still considered necessary, a program for "permanentizing" these stations was inaugurated. Since many of the stations were in the tropics or subtropics, trailers and the
stations
units
manned bv
179
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
equipment rapidly deteriorated in the humid atmosphere. Trailers and wartime-built stations were gradually replaced by more permanent structures. For the foreseeable future at least, there would be a continuing military requirement for them in the Western Pacific.
180
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Faraway The Loran The story
Places: Stations
of the Coast Guard's loran stations
is
a fascinating one.
Standard loran was, as we know, a World War II development which provided a long-range electronic aid to navigation for use by both
and surface
proved invaluable in transatlantic air flights that would never have traflBc been attempted without such an accurate all-weather system of aircraft
vessels. It
during the war, making possible
navigation.
The use
of loran greatly facihtated the Atlantic
Ocean
convoy system, permitting join-ups of merchant ships with convoys and support vessels under almost any weather conditions. But it was in the Pacific that loran made its greatest direct contribution to winning the war. Distances in the Pacific Ocean are enormous. As American forces moved westward, air fields were built on many of the small islands and atolls that dot the ocean beyond Hawaii. The limited range of that they frequently land tions
is
possible only
quires a highly trained
and
many World War refuel.
II aircraft
demanded
Navigation by celestial observa-
when weather man who does
permits and, moreover, little
it
re-
on the plane except navi-
Because of the lengthy training required, celestial navigators, particularly on Army Air Corps planes, were extremely scarce. Thus it was that loran provided the easy-to-use, accurate navigational system required to find the air fields so necessary for refueling. The intensive bombing of Japan began as soon as air bases could be secured near enough for aircraft to make the round trip. Accurate navigation was necessary not only for precision bombing, but also gate.
181
THE The
COAST GUARD
maximum bombload
for carrying a line.
U.S.
instead of a large reserve of gaso-
means
loran system provided the
for this accurate navi-
gation.
By
the end of
World War
II there
were 75 standard loran
stations
serving the needs of aircraft and vessels in operation. After the
war some of these were discontinued, but mihtary requirements and a newly generated commercial use of the equipment kept many stations operating. Also, the war in Korea imposed new military requirements.
A minimum
is necessary to provide a posiplaced several hundred miles apart, and because
of three loran stations
tion. Stations are
waves used they must be located away from industrial centers and directly on the coast. These stations are normally located near the water's edge and are usually almost of the peculiarities of the radio
completely isolated.
By
the mid-1950's there were
many
loran chains in the Pacific—
the Hawaiian, Marshalls, Marianas, Philippines, and Japanese chains, to
name
only a few.
The names
of the Coast
suggest faraway places— Iwo Jima, Saipan, Uhthi. selves
The crews
somewhat
Guard
stations
them-
Bataan, Catanduanes,
in size, depending on have averaged about fifteen men. As the stations must be almost entirely self-sufficient, they have cooks, hospital corpsmen, damage controlmen, and engine men, in addition to the electronic technicians who operate and maintain the transmitters. Each station is commanded by a commissioned ofiicer, usually a lieutenant (junior grade), with a chief petty officer as second in command. Prospective commanding officers are given a short training course in loran and administration before assignment. Command of a loran station is almost invariably a young Coast Guard officer's first independent assignment, and it provides an excellent opportunity for him to demonstrate his leadership qualities. Many young officers dread loran duty because of the isolation, but after it is over nearly all of them feel it has been well worthwhile. At isolated stations, tours of duty are for one year. The great majority of loran stations are supplied with fuel, bulky spare parts, and large
of loran stations vary
their locations. In recent years, they
182
FARAWAY PLACES staple items by a Coast Guard supply ship which calls once or twice a year. Unless they are located near a large community, loran stations receive mail, personnel, fresh stores, and emergency spare parts by
Coast Guard airplane. Most stations have their own airstrip. In many places throughout the Pacific, Coast Guardsmen are the only Americans ever seen by the natives, and
it is
to their credit that
unpleasant incidents have been few and far between. In fact, usually relationships are excellent. A good example is the Okinawa Loran is located on a small island just oflF Okinawa itself. Benare, the loran station personnel are the only AmeriHere on Ichi
Station
cans.
The
viper.
The
which
island
When
left
is
infested with a
venomous snake, a
untreated, the bite of this snake
is
species of pit
usually fatal.
corpsman of the station always keeps a supply of antivenin for station use, but he also uses it to treat those natives unfortunate enough to be snakebit. On the wall of this station hangs a scroll, signed by the mayor of the native village, expressing thanks for having saved so many of the villagers' lives. The Pusan Loran Station is a part of the East China Sea chain, while the other two stations are located on the west coast of Japan. This chain was established to furnish accurate positions to United States aircraft approaching the Korean Peninsula. The Pusan station is built on a bluff overlooking the East China Sea, a few miles from the city of Pusan, Korea. Ever since it was first built, this station has been harassed by bandits. It is completely surrounded by barbed wire, has many foxholes and slit trenches, and for years personnel have been frequently called upon to defend themselves hospital
against marauders. Still
Luzon
Naulo Point located on the west coast of the Philippines. Because of its dry and relatively cool
another station in
is
weather ( unlike that of other Philippine stations ) loran people call it "The Garden Spot of the Pacific." It is in the heart of what was once the "Huk country," and during the Huk uprisings was guarded continuously by a company of United States Marines. For years the barbed wire entanglements, entrenchments, and floodlights remained as a mute reminder of former violence. In Alaska, Labrador, and Greenland, stations are just as isolated.
183
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Here, as in the Pacific, the chmate
is
the greatest obstacle. Fortu-
enough work to keep all hands occupied, for their maintenance, whether in the subarctic or the tropics, is a never-ending task. As perhaps his richest reward, a Coast Guardsman at his distant station has the satisfaction of knowing that his loran signal is guiding unseen ships and aircraft to their destinanately for
all stations,
there
is
tions.
184
CHAPTER TWENTY
A
Decade of Progress: New
and Better Ways of
Performing Old Tasks
Signed in July, 1953, the Korean armistice had quite a
diflFerent
from previous armistices and cease-fires in American history. These latter had not only signaled the end of actual fighting, but were in themselves a step toward peace. Yet after the Korean "settlement," there was no such feeling of victory in the minds of the American people. Rather, there was the frustration of an unfinished task. In the cold war with international communism, this was just aneflPect
other episode.
The impact of the cease-fire on the Coast Guard was first felt in Ocean stations, which under the pressure of hostilities had been increased to five United States stations, were cut back to the Pacific.
three and eventually to only two. All of the
armed
SAR
units established
were either discontinued or the responsibility turned over to the Navy. Modified search and rescue units, which had been established at Argentia and Bermuda at the same time, were continued as they were considered to be logical advance bases for regular operations. As the cessation of hostilities markedly reduced the number of military and Mihtary Defense Assistance Program cargoes. Port Security forces were cut back accordingly. However, these Port Security forces were still supposed to be adequate to meet the cold-war demands. Since its establishment as an emergency service for the Navy just before World War II, the Weather Patrol program had led a precarito support our
forces in the Pacific
185
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
ous existence. During the war, of course, there was the constant threat of
German
submarines. Immediately following the war, the
Coast Guard's shortage of personnel frequently resulted in stations being unmanned for considerable periods of time. Then Congress raised the question concerning the legality of the Coast Guard's
The International Civil Aviation Organiza(ICAO), succeeding the provisional organization, came into
operation of the program. tion
ICAO recognized the importance of a system of ocean stations in the Atlantic and sponsored international agreements providing for stations operated by various nations. When Congress in new legislation during June, 1948, authorized the Coast existence in 1947.
Guard to operate ocean stations, it was pretty generally felt that the program would be a fixture for at least the next few years. The ocean station program as agreed to by the signatory nations under ICAO deserves a brief description. Pertinent areas on the ocean surface were selected as stations, the center being a ten-mile square. The location of each station was carefully considered and had to be along one of the transoceanic air routes. Insofar as possible, each station was to be continuously manned by a specially equipped surface vessel. The duties of the station vessel fell into the following categories: meteorological, search and rescue, communications, the furnishing of radio navigational aids, and other incidental services. In brief, the ocean station vessel was a weather observing and reporting agent, a part of a search and rescue organization, a floating radio beacon, and a radio relay station. Under a bilateral agreement between Canada and the United States several stations are maintained in the Pacific, the Atlantic Ocean stations being under the sponsorship of ICAO. Life on an ocean station vessel at sea tends to be monotonous. Under the Coast Guard system, such a vessel will be on station for twenty-one days. Including the time spent going and coming, and the time spent cruising on other duties, a vessel assigned to ocean station duty (OSV) is usually at sea more than fifty percent of the time. Most stations are a thousand miles or so from the nearest land. As the station locations are selected on the basis of air routes rather than sea lanes, few ships are ever seen. Members of the CIC 186
A DECADE OF PROGRESS teams,
who
deal directly by voice radio with aircraft, are kept busy
taking radar bearings, plotting, and tracking.
When
it is
requested,
United States Weather Bureau personnel make weather observations on the surface, and in the upper air (using radiosonde and other balloons) at frequent regular intervals. All meteorological information is sent by Coast Guard radio to the Weather Bureau in Washington. Through the years since World War II, there has been considerable dijBFerence of opinion as to the necessity for ocean stations. Airline associations, perhaps fearing the application of the "user pay" principle, deny any necessity for them, while admitting the desirabihty of the program. Yet some individual member airlines are this
information
is
passed on to
strong in their support.
Government agencies
FAA
support the program, with the
The Air Line
aircraft.
Pilots Association
is
in general strongly
occasionally being lukewarm.
emphatic in
its
endorsement of
ocean stations. In the history of transoceanic aviation, there have been numerous incidents when, for one reason or another, an aircraft could not complete its flight as scheduled. When trouble develops, the pilot usually has time to consider and plan his course of action. In most cases, he can either return to his point of origin or continue at reduced speed to his destination. Occasionally, however, he is faced with the grim fact that he can reach neither point, and must make the decision to land on the water, or "ditch." Since land planes are not designed to float very long, the ditching, whenever possible, should be near a ship. Although strictly a last resort, there have been ditchings of more than a few planes, most of them military. Two ditchings of commercial airliners made history. In each case, the pilot, knowing that the Coast Guard cutter on ocean station was especially trained for this type of emergency, chose to ditch near the OSV.
When
the Bermuda Sky Queen was in trouble over the Atlantic, it chose to ditch near the Coast Guard cutter Bibb— all hands were
saved.
A year or so
an American plane bound from Honolulu to San Francisco was faced with making the same decision. Ocean Station November is located about midway later in October, 1956, the pilot of
187
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
between Honolulu and San Francisco, along the track that aircraft between those two cities normally follow. In the early part of October 1956, the Coast Guard cutter Pontchartrain was Ocean Station Vessel November. Two weeks of the usual twenty-one-day patrol had passed. Capt. Willam K. Earle, USCG, Commanding OflBcer of the cutter, had varied the monotony of his first weather patrol in the Pacific by holding drills, gunnery exercises, and swimming parties, along with the usual movies. Upon assuming command of the Pontchartrain, Captain Earle had requested and obtained permission for a training period to devote to intense search and rescue drills, including ditching drill at sea. This was intended not so much as a needed training period for the crew of the cutter, but more to familiarize the captain with recent developments, and establish the teamwork between captain and crew so necessary in emergencies. Pan American Flight No. 943 was a little late departing Honolulu on the evening of October 15. The plane had just come in from the long flight from Tokyo, and routine checks and refueling took longer than usual. When everything was in readiness, Capt. Richard Ogg and his crew of six took the Sovereign of the Skies from the long runway and headed for distant San Francisco. There were twenty-four passengers aboard, some boarding at Honolulu, the others from as far
away
As the
as
Tokyo.
stratocruiser
approached station November, she rose to
21,000 feet in accordance with her prearranged flight plan. Suddenly the whole plane began to shake violently. To the crew on the
was soon obvious what had happened. The propeller on number one engine was racing madly, completely out of control. flight
deck
it
stopped the engine, but the propeller conit was doubtful that the plane could reach San Francisco. There was no hesitation in Captain Ogg's voice as he
Heroic measures
finally
tinued to windmill, and
sent the radio message.
nine four three.
We
"Ocean Station November, this is clipper emergency engine trouble and may
are having
have to ditch alongside you. Please prepare to assist us." Thousands of feet below, the Pontchartrain sprang into life. Following the general alarm, the PA system announced "This is no drill! There is a plane in the area that will have to ditch!" The prepara188
A DECADE OF PROGRESS tions for the ship's part in the expected forced landing
were rapidly
beamed their powerful rays upward. The transmitted a recommended ditch heading to the crippled and tlien indicated the suggested landing path by dropping
completed. Searchhghts cutter
plane,
water
lights
overboard and releasing
943 had
now
star shells.
power on number four engine, and Captain Ogg no longer had to make the decision to ditch: it had been made for him. However, he still had some choice as to time. Landing a land plane on the ocean under any conditions is a terrifying proposition, and at night, with only artificial illumination, it is doubly so. Since the plane seemed to be holding its altitude without Aloft, Flight No.
lost
difficulty as it orbited over the cutter, Captain Ogg decided to postpone ditching until dayhght. During the remaining hours of darkness there was practically a continuous radio conversation going on between Captain Ogg and
Captain Earle. They covered every possible contingency that could be foreseen, and when important subjects had been exhausted, their conversation took a lighter vein— anything to ease the strain! The passengers aboard the stratocruiser had been kept fully informed of developments. The stewardesses had again reviewed instructions as to what should be done. The passengers, after donning life jackets and removing their shoes, were seated in the forward part of the plane. The fact that no sign of panic was evident in the passengers was a tribute to the calmness of the crew. Finally daylight arrived. Captain Ogg, his gasoline nearly gone now, circled to begin his last run. The Pontchartrain got underway and at full speed laid a two-mile-long foam path on the ditch heading. With a last word to his passengers. Captain Ogg headed up the path of foam. Captain Earle's last radio words ringing in his ears, ". good luck and God bless you." The huge plane struck the water, bounced once, and nosed over into the next swell. Almost immediately people appeared on the wing, launching life rafts. Charging up at full speed, the Pontchartrain launched her boats, even as her engines backed down. The first boat was picking up survivors by 0820; seven minutes after touchdown. After checking the sinking fuselage for other survivors, the second boat took aboard the occu.
189
.
THE pants of the
life rafts,
U.S.
COAST GUARD
and within twenty minutes plane crew and
passengers were aboard the cutter.
That was the story
as headlined in
newspapers and carried on
radio and television from coast to coast. But behind the scenes a lot
were taking place. Coast Guard Honolulu had
of other actions
alerted
by radio
all
ships in the vicinity of the Pontchartrain. Until
the actual rescue, several other ships were also proceeding to the
scene in the event they might be needed. Commander, Western Area,
Coast Guard in San Francisco, under
whom Ocean Station November
operated, was then faced with the problem of getting the survivors to the mainland. plus,
The
Pontchartrain, with her
was not equipped
additional people, feasible solution
leaving station
of 120
men
and house thirty-one them women and children. The only
to indefinitely feed
many
was
own crew
of
to bring the Pontchartrain to
November unmanned
San Francisco,
until a rehef ship could arrive.
Shortly after the rescue, the cutter began her thousand-mile
trip.
The preparation for the ship's arrival was necessarily elaborate. The wide publicity, and the anxiety of the survivors' relatives and loved ones, assured a mammoth demonstration upon arrival at San Francisco. The Coast Guard and Pan American worked closely on all
arrangements. In the emergency, the survivors,
thing but what they wore,
Pontchartrain
s
crew.
The
had been furnished
airline, after
who
lost every-
clothes
by the
obtaining appropriate infor-
mation by radio, purchased new outfits of clothing for all survivors, both passengers and crew. The lady shoppers from Pan American even remembered lipstick and other feminine necessities. As the Pontchartrain neared San Francisco, the Coast Guard cutter Gresham met her at sea and placed aboard the new outfits, all properly labeled. When the Pontchartrain reached the pier in San Francisco, the survivors of Flight No. 943 were newly clothed, and able to
meet the pubUc and the
From
press vdthout embarrassment.
the early 1950's, the United States was deeply involved in
the cold war, and seriously concerned with continental defense. As
a part of the defense plan, a chain of radar stations was established jointly by the United States and Canada across the northern part
190
A DECADE OF PROGRESS of Canada. This chain, called the
Dew
Line,
was estabhshed
for
the purpose of giving early warning of the approach of potential
enemy bombers
North America over the polar regions. The rewas placed with the United States Air Force. The United States Navy, through the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS), was given the task of transporting the enormous amount of building materials, and later the responsibility for annual resupply of these distant stations. Several Coast Guard vessels, including buoy tenders with icebreaking capability as well as regular icebreakers, were assigned to assist the Navy. The season in which merchant ships could operate north and east of Point Barrow, Alaska, was extremely short. Both in 1955 and 1956, the ice pack moved in on the north coast of Canada before the cargo ships could unload and get out, and only by good luck a change of wind blew the pack offshore, permitting the vessels to escape to the open sea. Then Commander of MSTS, Vice Adm. J. M. Will, determined to find if possible an alternate escape route from the Arctic. The fabled "Northwest Passage" might prove to be the desired route. Several explorers have traversed the waters from ocean to ocean north of the North American continent, but always with shallowdraft small vessels. Admiral Will needed a deepwater passage which could be used in an emergency by large vessels. Because of this need, the Coast Guard was able to make a notable "first." In the summer of 1957, two task groups began the joint CanadianUnited States project. The eastern group, commanded by Capt. Thomas C. Pullen, Royal Canadian Navy, in the Canadian icebreaker Labrador, started from the Atlantic. The western gioup, consisting of the Coast Guard ships Storis, Bramble, and Spar, worked to the eastward from Point Barrow. Comdr. Harold L. Wood, usee, in the small icebreaker Storis, was commander of this group. The Bramble and Spar were specially reinforced buoy tenders. The Spar, incidentally, was named for the Coast Guard's Women to
sponsibility for construction of the stations
Reserves.
The account
of this expedition
would
fill
a
book
191
The two met in Ross
in itself.
groups, Canadian navy and United States Coast Guard,
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Strait on the third of September 1957. The Storis and her consorts then followed the Labrador through ice-strewn waters and finally reached the North Atlantic Ocean. During the entire period of transit, both groups had conducted extensive hydrographic surveys,
carefully charting the passage.
These three Coast Guard ships were the first United States ships and the first ships to circumnavigate the North American continent. to traverse the Northwest Passage,
Over the years, the Coast Guard had become recognized as the United States agency having primary responsibility for the saving of life and property on the sea. The age-old law of the sea— that vessels are
when
bound
to assist others in distress— usually provided assistance
a case was beyond Coast
Guard
On
capabilities.
the scene or
however, the Coast Guard became the coordinating agency in maritime cases. The advent of aviation, particularly transoceanic, introduced new and different problems. Aircraft can get into trouble not,
when over the vessels. To be of any
over land or over sea, and of miles from surface
sea, it
may be hundreds
value, assistance must be Under the ICAO Convention, each signatory nation assumed responsibility for search and rescue (a new expression, but an old job) in its own territories, and on and over contiguous waters. To insure that available United States search and rescue facilities in any one area would be coordinated by a single federal agency, the President's Air Coordinating Committee de-
readily available.
veloped the National Search and Rescue Plan ( 1956 ) Although the ACC was abolished in 1960, the Coast Guard, because of its statutory responsibilities, has kept the National SAR Plan up-to.
from a joint agreement between the Treasury and Defense Departments, Federal Aviation Agency, Commerce Department, Federal Communications Commission, and the Civil
date. Its force emanates
Aeronautics Board. The plan assigns responsibility for the coordination of search and rescue. The Air Rescue Service of the United States Air Force
is
National
SAR
Coordinator for the United States is the National
Continental Inland Region, while the Coast Guard
SAR
Coordinator on the contiguous high seas and
(including inland navigable waters).
192
territorial
waters
A DECADE OF PROGRESS In furtherance of the Coast
its
SAR Plan, and instituted an entirely new system eflFort. At present, this new concept
assigned role under the National
Guard developed
for coordination of distress
applies only to that part of the Atlantic States has
SAR
Ocean
for
responsibihty. Called the Atlantic
which the United Merchant Vessel
Report System (AMVER), it primarily utilizes voluntary reports from merchant vessels plying the Atlantic Ocean. Position, course, speed, destination, and other pertinent data such as medical faciHties, size, etc., are forwarded to the commander. Eastern Area Coast Guard, New York. This information is fed into a specially designed computer. When a distress or medical call is received and the com-
names and up-to-date positions The system has already many times demonstrated its versatility and capability in coordinating rescue efforts. As of January 1, 1962, there were 6,400 vessels, repre-
puter interrogated,
it
of those vessels near
senting 56
flags,
will give the
enough
to assist.
participating in the
AMVER
program. This repre-
sented about 65 percent of the foreign flag and 90 percent of the
American
flag
merchant ships plying the international waters
oflF
our Atlantic Coast.
The explosion in pleasure boating in the United States following World War II was nothing short of phenomonal. One segment of the public found its recreation in fishing or cruising aboard what were known as party boats or charter boats. These boats operated along the seacoasts of the United States, and were usually concentrated near the larger centers of population. For a specified fee, an
individual could spend the day aboard a party boat, either fishing or just enjoying the time on the water.
Some party
purely as excursion boats near shore, while
went well out
to sea to find
good
many
boats operated
of the fishing boats
fishing grounds. Charter boats
could be chartered by the day or week by special groups. The Motor-
boat Act of 1940 was about the
first
federal attempt to regulate the
operation of motorboats from the standpoint of safety.
Its
framers
obviously did not visualize the future magnitude of the problem
with respect to commercial motorboats. The original act required a minimum of safety equipment to be aboard, such as proper navigational lights, fog signals, fire extinguishers,
193
and
life
preservers. It
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
did not provide for any inspection of the boat
itself for safety,
nor
any established standards for the operators. There were several disasters to party boats in the late forties and early fifties in which many lives were lost. Subsequent investigation revealed that improper equipment, inexperienced operators, and unsafe vessels were responsible for most of the deaths. Amendments to the Motorboat Act were passed by Congress, giving the Coast Guard much more authority for inspection of these vessels, and requiring that operators of motorboats carrying passengers for hire be examined and licensed by the Coast Guard. The amendments to the Motorboat Act of 1940 materially improved the situation with regard to motorboats carrying passengers for hire, but there was still no regulation of the thousands of small motorboats, inboard and outboard, being privately operated on United States waters. The Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee of the House of Representatives, alarmed by the newspaper and Coast Guard reports of widespread accidents and deaths, held hearings throughout the country in an attempt to spotlight the problem and arrive at possible remedies. As a direct result of these hearings, Congress passed the Federal Boating Act of 1958, covering all motorboats, but aimed specifically at recreational motorboats. This act requires that all boats propelled by machinery of more than 10 horsepower using the navigable waters of the United States be numbered. It provides for either federal or state numbering, when the state system meets federal requirements. Practically all motorboats now carry state-issued numbers. This numbering requirement provides a means of identifying any motorboat, including those involved in accidents. One of the most significant features of the Federal Boating Act is the invitation to states to enter the motorboat for
regulation and safety field in cooperation with federal authorities.
The Coast Guard
is
further charged with a wide responsibility for
enforcing safety regulations and conducting an educational program
One means of providing such a program, and recognized by the Congress, is through the use of the Coast Guard Auxiliary. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is a civilian group of boatmen which has been in existence since before World War II.
for recreational boaters.
194
A DECADE OF PROGRESS For years, under Coast Guard sponsorship, the auxiliary has conducted voluntary courses in motorboat operation and safety. Through added funds and better Coast Guard support, the efforts of the auxiliary have been intensified. To further carry out the educational and regulatory provisions of the act, the Coast Guard developed the Mobile Boarding Team. In 1961, there were nearly 3,000,000 numbered motorboats operating on thousands of miles of waterways in the United States. Even with wholehearted state cooperation, continuous policing of these waters would be impossible. The mobile boarding team was a partial answer. A team usually consists of three or four enlisted men. The men themselves are selected as being outstanding, the leader of each team being an experienced petty oflBcer. The team is equipped with a vehicle and an outboard motorboat with suitable trailer. During the boating season mobile boarding teams are sent into areas of heavy concentrations of public boating. In these areas they conduct intensive boarding operations to enforce motorboat safety regulations, and whenever possible provide public instruction in motorboat safety. After a few days in one place, the team moves on to another area.
The Coast Guard has had
as
many
as
50 mobile boarding teams in
operation at one time. These teams do not dupHcate the efforts of
Guard units, since they operate where no regular units are located. To illustrate the magnitude of the motorboat safety problem, in 1961 Coast Guard units (including mobile boarding teams) made 152,441 boardings, detecting 25,125 violations of numbering and boat-operating regulations. other Coast
195
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
New Continuing
New
Horizons: Developments
U.S. Coast
in the
Guard
Events of the 1960's are much too recent to allow a real evaluation of their effect on the future of the Coast Guard. The basic struggle between international communism and the ideology of the free world continued, although the term "coexistence" began to be heard more and more. In the sphere of its operation, the Coast Guard was still affected by the cold war. Port Security, although much diluted by changing conditions and budgetary considerations, was still an important task. The appearance of Russian trawlers off the United States Atlantic Coast, competing directly with American fishermen, required increased Coast Guard patrols— as much for security reasons as for safety and antismuggling. The continuing flight of refugees from Communist Cuba to the United States increased after the disastrous "Bay of Pigs" operation; this called for intensification of the Coast Guard's surface
and
air patrols off the
Florida coast. These patrols had a dual pur-
pose: to assist those distressed refugees who, fleeing from
Cuba
in
would float, were continually becoming stranded or and to prevent the clandestine entry of Communist agents into the United States. New developments were not restricted to operating techniques. Important changes were taking place in the aids to navigation field. During the late 1950's, a variation of standard loran was developed and placed in operation for evaluation. The new loran used a lower any
craft that
lost;
196
)
NEW HORIZONS frequency than the old ( 100 kilocycles versus 1750-1850 kilocycles and provided much greater accuracy at longer distances. Based on the successful evaluation, chains using the new loran (Loran C)
were established during the 1960's throughout the world where American commercial and mihtary requirements indicated. Standard loran (Loran A) was to be gradually phased out. At the beginning of the decade, the Coast Guard had thirty lightships. A few of these were relatively new, but the majority were quite old, five of them being fifty years old. Lightships have always been valuable aids to navigation in locations where fixed structures were impracticable, but have never been economical in operation. Faced with almost a mass replacement, and in the light of modern engineering knowledge, the Coast Guard considered the use of fixed structures as replacements for certain light vesels.
the Texas tower offshore
oil rigs, as
The
principle of
modified by the Air Force for
offshore radar observation platforms,
showed promise
its
of meeting
Coast Guard requirements. This use of offshore structures mounted on supporting legs above the water for navigational lights was not new. The Lighthouse Serv-
had constructed Carysfort Reef Light off the Florida coast in and followed it with several more. The early offshore lights were erected in shallow water, and completely constructed in place. As adapted by the Coast Guard, the Texas-tower principle consisted of performing all basic construction ashore, and then towing the ice
1852,
structure to
its
offshore position.
When
in place, supporting
columns
were hydrauHcally lowered to the ocean floor, raising the platform to the desired height above the water. After anchoring the legs to the ocean bottom, the necessary additional construction on the tower was completed. The first of the new offshore light structures replaced Buzzards Bay Light Vessel, being commissioned November 1, 1961. Doubtless, because of possible wartime requirements and variable maritime patterns, some Hghtships will always be required, but many can be replaced by the more economical fixed structure. With its helicopter platform and built-in facilities for oceanographic and meteorological equipment, the fixed structure is much more efficient than the lightship. 197
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Early in the decade, the Coast Guard, in cooperation with the
Atomic Energy Commission, developed an experimental atomicpowered buoy, which for test purposes was placed in Chesapeake Bay. As further evaluation of the use of atomic power in aids to navigation was desired, Baltimore Light, oflF the entrance to Baltimore Harbor, was converted to such operation in 1964. Since the first American lifeboat was designed and built by William
Raymond
for the Massachusetts
Humane
Society, advances in
were mostly through evolution. At about the tarn of the century, the forerunner of the present-day 36-foot lifeboat was introduced, and shortly converted to power operation by Lieutenant McLellan of the Revenue Cutter Service. Subsequent hfeboats used by the Lifesaving Service and the Coast Guard were essentially improvements of that basic design. In 1961, a new lifeboat built at the Coast Guard Yard was put through its first tests. The new lifeboat, 44 feet in length, is considerably different from the 36-footer, lifeboat design
although retaining the self-bailing, self-righting features. faster
and can maintain better speed
in
Starting with the Bering Sea Patrol in
boost from
its first
It is
much
heavy weather. 1870, and with an important
experience with the International Ice Patrol, the
Coast Guard has long been interested in oceanography. The later terest
was
in-
and was the Marion and the Gen-
directly related to the efficiency of the patrol,
particularly demonstrated
by the
cruises of
eral Greene. In recent years there has been an increasing concern for oceanography in the United States. In 1960 the Interagency Committee on Oceanography (ICO) was established to coordinate the oceanographic activities of the government agencies so engaged. Through the Treasury Department, the Coast Guard was represented on the committee. To remove any doubt as to the propriety of the Coast Guard's participation in oceanographic programs, Congress stated by an amendment to Title 14, USC, approved October the Coast Guard shall engage in oceanographic 5, 1961, that ". research on the high seas and in waters subject to the jiu-isdiction of the United States." Probably the development in the 1960's that will have the most far-reaching effect is the improved understanding between the Treas.
.
198
NEW HORIZONS ury Department and the Coast Guard as to the service's proper place in the department and in the federal government as a whole. To properly illustrate this, it is desirable to review some of the back-
ground of the last few years. Almost invariably whenever an economy drive was started by either the Congress or the executive branch, the Coast Guard seemed to be one of the first to feel the pinch. The early 1950's was no exception. Where the Coast Guard suffered the most was in those funds which the business world would label capital expenditures. At the end of World War II, the physical plant of the Coast Guard was in rather poor shape.
Some
of
its
vessels,
notably the secretary-class
and the larger buoy tenders were relatively new, although they had all seen strenuous duty in the war. The rest of the vessels dated back to Prohibition days, and were becoming more and more expensive to maintain. Most of the vessels used on ocean stations were wartime-built vessels on loan from the Navy, cutters, the icebreakers,
to show the The shore establishment was
and were already beginning
eflFects
of their hasty con-
even worse condition. Nearly all lifeboat and light stations were old, and because of the emphasis placed on the direct war eflFort, had received minimum maintenance. Then the Korean War completely upset orderly planning for replacement and modernization of vessels, although emergency port security requirements did result in some new patrol boats. The situation regarding aircraft was just as bad. Nearly all the aircraft in the Coast Guard were secondhand Army or Navy wartime aircraft. In dealing with aircraft conditions, however, there are certain vital differences from those of vessels and structures. When an aircraft fails in flight, one way or another it must come down. For struction.
in
Coast Guard was able to budget for and obtain a few new aircraft to replace the oldest and most dilapidated. There were several years when capital funds went only for a few airplanes and this reason the
As the whole physical plant further deterimore and more operating funds went for maintenance.
aids to navigation buoys.
orated,
Each year the Coast Guard's budget,
as presented to Congress,
contained a request for a few airplanes. At the various appropriations hearings before the House Committee, the Coast Guard and the 199
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
Treasury Department were asked informally to present a long-range plan for the orderly replacement of aircraft, rather than the apparent
annual requests. In 1957 the blow fell. In its report to Congress on the Treasury Department's appropriation request for fiscal year 1958, the House Appropriations Committee deleted all
hit or miss
funds for Coast Guard
aircraft.
The committee
stated that after the
Treasury and Coast Guard had presented a long-range plan to Congress for aviation facilities its
and
aircraft,
funds could be requested for
implementation.
A
board of senior Coast Guard
had been appointed in and determine the aviation
officers
1956, with the broad directive to analyze
requirements of the service to perform its statutory missions. The board had been further directed to develop the types of aircraft required, the
number
of each type,
for the orderly implementation of
and
its
to prepare a financial plan recommendations. Legislation
enacted following the Ebasco report, plus the recodification of Title 14 of the United States code governing the Coast Guard in 1949,
provided a rather complete and concise exposition of the missions and tasks of the Coast Guard. The law specified what was expected
where and how much. In many areas this was immaterial, but in certain fields, such as search and rescue and icebreaking, some criteria as to how far from territorial waters the Coast Guard was expected to operate was necessary. of the service, but not necessarily
The
exposition of the Coast Guard's primary duties given in Title
this statement. "The Coast Guard shall mainand operate with due regard to national defense rescue ." facilities for the promotion of safety on and over the high seas. It was necessary for the Aviation Board to determine over how much of the high seas it was reasonable to provide protection, particularly in the case of aircraft. Based on records of aircraft engine failures— the most common cause of aircraft distress— the board felt that at least some Coast Guard planes should have the capability of proceeding a thousand miles off-shore, conducting a search, and then returning to base. The board then came to the conclusion that the Coast Guard required three basic classes of aircraft: long range, medium range, and short range. At the time that the appropriations commit-
14 contains
.
tain
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
200
.
NEW HORIZONS procurement funds, the board had practically completed its research and deliberations, so that all that remained was to prepare the final report. This completed report, which was approved with a few minor changes by the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Secretary of the Treasury, was transmitted to the Congress in mid- 1957. Special hearings on an addendum budget were held by the House Appropriations Committee in July, and as a first step in implementing the board's recommendations, funds for aircraft procurement were tee deleted the aircraft
restored.
As far as aviation and aviation facilities were concerned, the Coast Guard was now on a firm basis, with a well-defined goal, and a financial plan approved by the Treasury Department and tacitly agreed to by the House Appropriations Committee. The conditions of the fleet and shore estabhshment were just as bad, if not worse, than that of aircraft. The financial plan recommended by the Aviation Board provided a substantial sum for aircraft each year. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard at this time was operating under what was to all intents and purposes a budgetary ceiling imposed by the Department and the Bureau of the Budget. The increase in funds for aviation facilities automatically reduced those available for vessels and the shore establishment. Obviously a plan for replacement in these fields, carrying the same authority as the aviation plan, was necessary. In September, 1957, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury David W. Kendall requested the Commandant to have reports on the floating unit and shore unit requirements prepared and submitted. The Commandant, Vice Adm. A. C. Richmond, appointed an ad hoc committee
of headquarters officers to
make
studies similar to those
Board and report on the requirements. As an interim emergency measure, the committee submitted two special reports dealing with urgent replacement requirements. Before any action on these special reports could be taken, Mr. Kendall resigned from the Treasury Department. The committee made its final report on the requirements for Coast Guard vessels on November 28, 1959. The report took much the same
of the Aviation
201
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
approach that had been taken by the aviation report. Using the criteria estabhshed by Ebasco, the committee found that the great majority of Coast Guard vessels were obsolete and overage. It determined that the Aviation Board's concept of a thousand miles from United States shores was equally sound when applied to the protection of the mariner. The report included a proposed nine-year plan for the replacement of overage and obsolete vessels and necessary additions to the Coast Guard fleet. Due to transfers of its members, this ad hoc committee was later reconstituted to consider the shore estabhshment. For many months the report on the requirements for Coast Guard vessels lay domiant in the Treasury Department. Upon assuming the duties of Secretary of the Treasury, Douglas Dillon showed a deep interest in the Coast Guard and its accomplishments. He very shortly became aware of the condition of the Coast Guard physical plant. The Aviation Board in arriving at its findings and recommendations had made several assumptions, which reflected the Coast Guard's ideas concerning its responsibilities. The report of the Committee for Vessel Requirements, still awaiting departmental action, contained other assumptions, further presenting the Coast Guard's interpretation of its missions. In the fall of 1961 Dillon, after consultation with the Director of the Budget and the Secretary of Defense, directed that a study be made of Coast Guard roles and missions. Review of missions, clearer mission definition, and more precise delineation of policy and operational guidehnes were among the objectives. The project staff for the study was finally composed of members from the Department of Defense, Treasury Department, Bureau of the Budget, and the Coast Guard. The whole study was to be under the direction of a four-man steering committee representing the above. After its prehminary study, the project staff separated the missions of the Coast Guard into ten broad major classifications. It is significant to note their diversity:
Ocean
Merchant Marine Safety
Stations
Law
Enforcement Search and Rescue
Reserve Training Port Security
202
NEW HORIZONS Aids to Navigation
Ice Breaking
Military Readiness
Oceanography
During the course of the study, commercial organizations as well as other government departments and bureaus were contacted and
Guard operations in the various fields obThe study was completed in June, 1962, and the conclusions
their opinions of Coast
tained.
and recommendations reported to the secretary, who on September 18, 1962, approved the report. Many recommendations were made, but in general the study of the roles and missions of the Coast Guard supported the Coast Guard's position with regard to its various responsibilities. Most of the recommendations, when carried out, would strengthen the service.
On
the strength of this study, the Secretary of the Treasury ap-
proved the report on the requirements for
vessels,
and directed
its
implementation.
The Roles and Missions Study supplied the means for the secretary and other members of the Treasury Department to better recognize the problems of the Coast Guard. Secretary Dillon's approval of the report signified his
own
understanding of the Coast Guard and
background.
203
its
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Forward Look Where We've Been The Coast Guard The
findings
of today
is
—Where We're Going
in a strong position to face the future.
and recommendations contained
in the
Ebasco
report,
the subsequent recodification of the laws governing the Coast Guard,
and the recent enactment of new legislation have given the service a firm legal base from which to operate, with its missions adequately spelled out by statute. The recommendations of the roles and missions study, with its almost complete approval by the Secretary of the Treasury, not only supported the Coast Guard in its own broad interpretation of the extent of
its
missions, but provided the founda-
As an immediate result, the Treasury Department has already provided policy guidance in many important areas where it had been either obscure or lacking. In the materiel field, the reports of the Aviation, Vessel, and Shore Estabhshment boards provided analyses of Coast Guard requirements upon which requests to Congress for funds could be logically based. The effect of these boards has already been felt, as evidenced by the new aircraft, vessels, and shore stations recently commissioned. The aircraft and vessels have been types specifically designed or adapted for their Coast Guard use rather than stopgap hand-me-
tion for long-range planning.
downs.
The Coast Guard has reached a reasonable
stabilization of per-
sonnel. Recent legislation has provided faster promotion for officers
by an accelerated forced
among
attrition
204
the
more
senior officers.
THE FORWARD LOOK More
liberal provisions for retirement of enlisted personnel after
twenty years' service has speeded up enlisted promotion
in the
higher grades. The diversity of Coast Guard duties, coupled with technological advances, has gradually forced a certain degree of specialization in the officer corps, which,
if
continued, could result in
the establishment of a specialized corps system. Since 1926,
all offi-
have done so as general duty officers, and when special qualifications were necessary, they have been superimposed on the general duty ones. This system, so long as it is feasible, produces an extremely versatile officer. The Coast Guard has been afi^orded an opportunity it has not had for years— to quietly examine itself and its objectives in the light of comments from other government and private agencies. Such objectives should be in the areas of the Coast Guard's missions, flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions, and always consistent with cers entering the service
the national objectives.
The
service has already
progress in developing such a program.
Some
made
considerable
of these objectives,
simplified for the sake of brevity, are:
1.
Increased emphasis on research and development in Coast Guard
fields. 2. Improvements in aids to navigation and leadership toward the development of a standard worldwide system. 3.
Maintenance of a high degree of competence in maritime safety
matters. 4.
Maintenance of a high degree of readiness
Navy 5.
to cooperate
with the
in time of war.
Maintenance of 'the Coast Guard's high tradition and continuance as a world leader in this field.
in search
and
rescue, 6.
Insurance that the Coast Guard assumes and maintains a major
role in oceanography.
The
future of the Coast
Guard
as a strong
humanitarian service of
the United States looks bright. But there are
205
pitfalls,
some more
THE
U.S.
COAST GUARD
obvious than others, which should be avoided. As was stated earher, the United States
unique in having a mihtary service— the Coast for being is basically humanitarian. As a corollary, the Coast Guard is unique among mihtary services in having as a primary mission the saving of lives. As a specialized service, it must recognize that many of the principles concerning personnel is
Guard— whose reason
and administration which may be applicable to the other members of the armed forces are not necessarily best for the Coast Guard. Me-tooism for its own sake should be avoided. Another pitfall, perhaps more insidious than the first, is complacency— complacency in the present, and complacency in the future as well. Through the years since Alexander Hamilton envisioned his system of revenue cutters, and then saw his first ten vessels commissioned, the service has had its ups and downs. Quite frequently its strength and consequent value to the United States has been directly proportional to the interest shown by the Secretary of the Treasury. Additionally, changes in international conditions, economy waves, and indiflFerent Congresses have all, at one time or another, had adverse eflFects on the Coast Guard. The pendulum can swing the other way at any time, and when it does the future of the service will rest directly on the shoulders of the career officers and enlisted men. through the various amalgamations of services that produced the present-day Coast Guard, the one service that has been predominant throughout was the one with the military backIt is significant that
ground—the old Revenue-Marine. The traditions first built by the revenue cuttermen have been added to through the years. During the low periods in its past, the strongest factor in keeping the service going was the loyalty and devotion of the officer corps. Hamilton's foresight in urging that the officers of the cutters have mihtary rank has been repeatedly vindicated. The quahty of the corps stemmed from principles established early in the life of the Revenue Cutter Service. The merit system for promotion, the weeding out of the inefficient, the competitive examinations for officer and cadet appointments, and the estabhshment of the School of Instruction, all contributed to an efficient officer corps. Today's officers are worthy 206
THE FORWARD LOOK descendants of the Revenue Cutter Service and on them too
may
fall
the task of carrying on during lean times.
The Coast Guard already has
established itself as a world leader and must continue to maintain this position through a willingness to explore and adopt new methods and techniques. The field of maritime law enforcement is continually growing. The service has always been foremost in law enforcement within its own sphere, and since 1936 has been the federal agency charged with all law enforcement at sea. Law enforcement is one of the less glamorous duties, and frequently is performed for other governmental bodies. This type of enforcement cannot be perfunctory in search
and
rescue. It can
those other agencies find it necessary to establish their own seagoing police to fill the vacuum. The Coast Guard's real claim to be the logical agency to perform merchant marine inspection and other maritime safety functions lest
stems from
its
reputation as a seagoing
few years has been
outfit.
The trend
of the past
to increase the percentage of shore-based ofiicers
over the seagoing. This
is
wholly natural as most of the added duties
of recent years have been ashore. Yet
it is
a tendency that
must be
reversed to preserve the Coast Guard's preeminent position as an organization skilled in seamanship.
The Coast Guard is now, as it has always been, a proud organizahas had a brilliant past, and it has an even more promising future. Fortunate indeed is the man who wears the Coast Guard uniform and subscribes to its motto—Semper Paratus ("Always tion. It
Ready").
207
Index ACC
see Air Coordinating
Committee
Atlantic
(ACC)
AMVER
see
Merchant Vessel
Atlantic
(AMVER)
Report System
Acacia (buoy tender), 161 Academy Curriculum Advisory Committee, 119 Achushnet (cutter), 64 Active ( patrol boat ) 69 Agriculture, United States Department of, 60 Air Coordinating Committee (ACC), 192' Air Force, United States, 4, 191 Air Rescue Service, 192 Korean War and, 179 Air Line Pilots Association, 187 Air Rescue Service, 192 Alabama (cutter), 13 Alaska, 16, 19 Alcohol Tax Unit, 84 Alexander Hamilton (training ship), 118, 158 Algie (rumrunner), 107 ,
Algonquin (cutter), 56
Ambrose Channel
Lightship, 31
America (yacht), 80 American Sailor (training vessel), 88 American Seaman (training vessel), 88 Amphibious Corps, 152, 154 Amphibious warfare, 151-157 Androscoggin (cutter), 64 Antinoe (freighter), 67 Antisubmarine w^arfare, 151, 160-161, 162 Appropriations Act (1837), 31 Appropriations Act (1851), 32 Arcturus ( flying boat ) 78, 79 Argo (cutter). 111, 127 Army, United States, 4, 13, 15 Engineer Corps, 4, 131
157-159,
Amphibious Force, 152
Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces, 56 Atlantic Merchant Vessel Report System
(AMVER), 193 Atomic Energy Commission, 198 Aviation, 76, 96 Congress and, 76-77, 78 "flying ambulances," 78 floods and, 86 smuggling and, 77-78 World War II, 162-163 Aviation Board, 200-202 Azalea (lighthouse tender), 37
BMIN
see Marine Inspection and Navigation (BMIN), Bureau of Balsam (buoy tender), 36 Baltimore Light, 198 "Battle of the Atlantic," 141 "Battle of Philadelphia," 102-103
"Bay of Pigs," 196 Beach Patrol, 149, 150, 151 Bear (cutter), 16, 82, 104 Beavertail Lighthouse, 33 Bell Telephone Laboratory, 165 Berdine, Harold S., 158, 159 Bering Sea Patrol, 82 icebreakers in, 82-84 Revenue Cutter Service and, 16 Bermuda Sky Queen (airplane), 187 Bertholf, Captain, 21
Bibb (cutter), 158 Bibb, George M., 15 Binns, Jack, 66 Black Duck (rumrunner), 98, 111 Board on Lifesaving Apphances, 25 Board of Navy Commissioners, 31-32 Bonham (patrol boat), 68, 69
,
Boston Light, 29-30
Revenue Cutter Service and, 15 Signal Corps, 60
Boutwell, George S., 16-17, 24, 115 Bramble ( buoy tender ) 191
Transport Service, 131 World War II and, 152 amphibious warfare, 152, 153, 154, 155 Transport Service, 152
Royal Humane Society, 22 Brown, Boatswain, 68, 69 Brown, Fletcher W., 57-58 Buoys, 37-38, 126, 198
,
British
Bureau of Lighthouses, 38, 39
208
INDEX Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation
(BMIN), 163
Bering Sea Patrol, 82 icebreakers
in,
82-84
Bureau of Standards, 122 Buzzards Bay Light Vessel, 197
Captain Bertholf and, 21 buoys and, 198 Bureau of Navigation see Navigation,
Calypso (patrol boat), 144 Campbell (cutter), 87, 158 Canada, 110
cold war and, 196
Bureau
Cape Arago Lifesaving Station, 26-27 Cape Charles Lightship, 36-37 Cape Henry Light, 31 Cape Sarichef Light, 36 Capron, Walter Clark, 144, 145 Carysfort Reef Lighthouse, 33, 197 Cashman, Boatswain's Mate, 69 Cay ago (cutter), 95 CG-176 (patrol boat), 69 CG-218 (patrol boat), 71, 72 CG-241 (patrol boat), 97 CG-245 (patrol boat), 124-125 CG-290 (patrol boat), 97-98 Champlain (cutter), 71, 81 Chelan (cutter), 75, 95 Childar (freighter), 74-75 China, Communist, 179 Chriswell, Benjamin M., 76 Civil Aeronautics Board, 192 Civil War, 15-16 Lifesaving Service and, 24-25 Lighthouse Establishment and, 30-31 Clermont (steamboat), 40, 41 Cleveland Commission, 20 Cleveland, F. A., 20 Coast Guard, United States, 3, 204-207 Academy, 114 Academy Curriculum Advisory Committee established for, 119 Alexander Hamilton (training ship) in, 118 Congress and, 119 Eagle (training ship) at, 114 entrance examinations for, 120 Harry G. Hamlet and, 114, 119 Alexander Hamilton and, 114 sports in, 119 World War I and, 118 Auxiliary, 194-195 aviation, 76, 96, 196, 199-200, 201, 202 Congress and, 76-77, 78 "flying ambulances," 78 smuggling and, 77-78 Aviation Board, 200-202 "Battle of the Atlantic" and, 141
209
of
communications system in, 65-67, 6869, 73 Congress and, 3, 84, 176, 177, 198, 199-201 Dangerous Cargo Act (1940) and, 146 Danish ships seized by, 147 C. Douglas Dillon and, 5 Ebasco and, 176-177 Espionage Act ( 1917) and, 59 Federal Boating Act (1958) and, 194 floods and, 85-86 founding of, 3, 12, 21 German ships seized by, 147 Greenland Patrol, 142, 143 Alexander Hamilton and, 4, 10-11 hurricanes and, 87 ice breaking, 203 International
Ice
Patrol
see
Interna-
tional Ice Patrol Italian ships seized by,
Korean
War
147
and, 177
Magnuson Act (1950), 178 Port Security, 178, 185 Search and Rescue Units (SAR), 179, 185, 202 'lake class" craft, 73 Lifesaving Service see Lifesaving Service
Lighthouse
Service see Lighthouse Service loran stations, 165-167, 175, 176, 177,
179-180, 181-184, 196-197 Frankhn MacVeagh and, 20-21 "Magic Carpet" operation, 171 merchant marine and, 87-88, 193, 202 Mobile Boarding Team, 195 Motorboat Act (1940) and, 193, 194 narcotics smuggling and, 112 Navy Department and, 4 neutrality patrols, 140
"Northwest
Ocean
Passage"
and,
191-192
Stations and, 175, 176, 177, 185,
186-190, 203 oceanography and, 198, 203 Congress, 198 off-shore structures and, 197 Port Security, 196, 202
INDEX Coast Guard (Continued) postwar rebuilding, 175-177
amphibious warfare, 151-157 antisubmarine warfare, 159, 160-161, 162
Prohibition and, 77, 84, 102, 109, 113 "Battle of Philadelphia," 102-103 Congress, 102, 109 Conyngham (destroyer), 107 destroyer picketing, 106-107 Henley (destroyer), 103
162-163 Beach Patrol, 149, 150, 151 Brueau of Marine Inspection and Navigation (BMIN), 163 160coastal aids to navigation, 161
convoy
"picketboats," 102
escort, 157, 159 demobilization, 169-171
100, 101, 105
rumrunning, 97-111 "six-bitters," 102 12-Mile Treaty, 104
functions, 149, 150 loran stations, 165-167
Merchant Marine Council, 163 Merchant Marine Hearing Units, 165 Merchant Marine Inspection Divi-
Provisional International Civil Aviation
Organization (PICAO) and, 176 race patrols, 79-82 radar and, 190-191 radio beacons and, 66, 67 radio communications developed in, 65-66, 73 radio compass and, 66 radio direction finder and, 66-67 Reserve, 4, 202 Revenue Cutter Service see Revenue Cutter Service Roles and Missions Study and, 5, 202-
203 "salvage" and, 74 Search and Rescue Units (SAR), 179, 185, 192-193 "secretary class" cutters, 75, 112 smuggling and, 77-78, 84, 97-113
Steamboat Inspection Service see Steamboat Inspection Service tasks of, 4-5 Title 14 and,
200
Treasury Department and, 4, 5 weather forecasting and, 60
Weather
Patrols,
170,
141,
175-176,
185-186
World War
I, 55 Algonquin (cutter) antisubmarine duty
in,
in,
56 56
Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces in, escort duty in,
56-59
lifesaving stations in,
Manning
61-62
(cutter) in, 56
Ossippe ( cutter ) Plan One, 55-56
in,
56
Port Security in, 59-60 Seneca (cutter) in, 56-58 Tampa (cutter) in, 56, 58-59, 62
Yamacraw cutter ) in, 56 World War II and, 140, 144, 151 (
157-
aviation,
"hijackers," 105
"Rum Row,"
151,
56
sion,
164
Normandy
landing, 167-168 Port Security, 144-145, 148, 151 radar, 165
statutory duties, 160-165
Temporary Reservists, 149, 150 weather patrols, 162 Coast Guard Academy, United States, 114 Academy Curriculum Advisory Committee estabhshed for, 119 Alexander Hamilton (training ship) in, 118 Congress and, 119 Eagle (training ship) at, 114 entrance examinations for, 120 Alexander Hamilton and, 114 Harry G. Hamlet and, 114, 119 sports in, 119 World War I and, 118 Coast Guard Auxiliary, United States, 194-195 Coast Guard Reserve, United States, 202 Cold War, 196 Columbine (lighthouse tender), 125 Commerce, United States Department of, 45, 192 Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation see Marine Inspection and Navigation, Bureau of Bureau of Navigation and, 3 Commerce and Labor, United States Department of, 3 Bureau of Lighthouses, 38 Bureau of Navigation and, 48 Lighthouse Establishment and, 37, 38 Lighthouse Service and, 30, 37, 38 Steamboat Inspection Service and, 43, 45
210
INDEX Congress, United States, 14 aviation and, 76-77, 78 Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation (BMIN) and, 135-136 Bureau of Navigation and, 48, 49, 135 Committee on Commerce, 14 Coast Guard and, 3, 84, 176, 177, 198,
199-201 Lifesaving Service and, 23-24 Lighthouse Service and, 23, 30, 31-32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 123 Marine Casualty Investigation Boards, 135-136 Merchant Marine and, 131, 135-136 Revenue Cutter Service and, 10-11, 12, 13-14, 16, 20, 21 Revenue-Marine Bureau and, 17, 18 Steamboat Inspection Service and, 41, 42, 43, 44-45, 47 Treasviry Department and, 10-11, 14, 16 Convoy escorts, 157, 159 Conyngham (destroyer), 112 Coohdge, Calvin, 101 Cornell, Alexander C, 97 Corwin (cutter), 16, 82 Crawford, William H., 41 Cuba, 111 Cunningham, A. L., 94
Dangerous Cargo Act ( 1940 ) 146 Daugherty, Harry M., 101 Davis, A. W., 74-75 Defense, United States Department
Electra (patrol boat), 108 Electric arc light,
Emmett, R. R. M., 152 Engineer Corps, United States Army, 4, 131 Enterprise (yacht), 80 Escort duty (W.W.I), 56-59 Espionage Act (1917), 59, 144, 145, 146, 178 Evans, Richard, 15 Faralon Light, 33 Farley, Joseph F., 171 Faunce, John, 17, 115 Federal Aviation Agency, 192 Federal Boating Act (1958), 194 Federal Communications Commission,
192 Floods, 85-86
Fog
signals, 31, 33,
126
France, 140
World War II and, 148, 151 Eraser, Alex V., 14, 15 Fresnel lens, 32, 33 Fried, George, 67 Fulton, Robert, 40
of,
44 Germany, 140, 142
World War
192
Denmark, 140 World War II and, 151
151 U-boats
Depression, 132 Destroyer picketing, 106-107 Devereux, N. Broughton, 17 Dew Line, 191 Dewey, George, 19 DeWitt Clinton (steamer), 82 Dexter, Dwight H., 154, 155 Diamond Shoal Lightship, 121-122 Dillon, C. Douglas, 5, 202, 203
Dobbin
32
Emilij (steamship), 26-27
Galatea (cutter). 111 General Green (patrol boat), 95, 198 General Slocum (excursion steamer), 43-
,
4,
Economy Act (1932), 132
II and, 147, 148,
in,
Grant, Ulysses
149-150,
157-159, 160-162
S.,
34
Great Britain, 140, 142
World War
II
and, 146, 147, 148, 151,
155-156 Great Lakes, 126 Greenland Patrol, 142, 143 Gresham (cutter), 64, 190 Griswold, Surfman, 69 GuUion, Major, 78
(training ship), 116
Douglas, Mr., 69
Haida
Duane
Hall,
(cutter), 158, 159
Ducharme, Surfman, 69 Eagle (cutter), 12, 114 Earle, William K., 188 Ebasco Corporation, 176-177, 200, 202, 204
(cutter), 64, 91
Norman
B.,
76
Hamilton, Alexander, 114 Revenue Cutter Service and, 4, 10-11 Hamlet, Harry G., 102, 103, 114, 119
Hammond,
Isaac L., 69
Harding, Lawrence M., 166 Harding, Warren, 101
211
INDEX Lane
Harriet
(cutter), 15, 16
Titanic and, 92
Heineman, P. R., 158 Hewitt, Henry K., 156
Weather Patrol and, 95-96 winter cruising, 64
"Hijackers," 105 Hitler, Adolf, 140
Yamacraiv
Hodgman, James A., 36 Hoover, Herbert, 99
Hudson
(cutter), 9-10, 18
Hunter Liggett
Japan,
(transport),
153,
154,
155 Hurricanes, 87
ICAO
see
64
in,
)
II
World War
Jefferson,
II
and, 154, 169
Thomas, 12
Jester, Maurice, 157, 158 John E. Berwind ( tugboat ) 125 John L. Wade ( tugboat ) 44 Joseph Conrad ( training vessel ) 88 ,
United States, 91-
Office,
,
Joseph T. Dickman (transport), 153, 154, 155
International
Organization
Civil
Aviation
(ICAO)
Kaye Marie (rumrunner), KendaU, David W., 201
Icarus (patrol boat), 87, 111, 157-158 Iceberg forecasting, 90, 93 Icebreakers, 82-84 Ice breaking, 203 Ida Lewis Light, 33
Ingham
cutter
,
Hydronomic maps, 90 Hydrographic 92
(
World War
and, 147, 148 Itasca (training ship), 117 Italy,
Kickapoo (cutter), 82 Kimball, Sumner Korea, 177-179
I.,
17, 21, 24r-25,
28
Korean War, 177
(cutter), 158
Air Force and, 179
Interagency Committee on Oceanography (ICO), 198 International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO), 186 International Conference for the
Safety
of Life at Sea (1913), 91 International Conference for the Safety of Life at Sea (1918),
111, 112
Magnuson Act (1950), 178 Navy and, 179 Port Security and, 178, 185 Search and Rescue Units (SAR), 179, 185, 202 Kristenson, J. B., 94
Labor, United States Department Labrador (ice breaker), 191, 192 LafRte, Jean, 13
89
International Ice Patrol, 64 Achushnet ( cutter ) in, 64
Androscoggin (cutter) in, 64 Cayago (cutter) in, 95 Chelan ( cutter ) in, 95 General Greene (patrol boat), 95 Gresham (cutter) in, 64 Haida (cutter) in, 64, 91 hydronomic maps and, 90 iceberg forecasting and, 90, 93 life in, 92 Manning ( cutter ) in, 64 Marion ( patrol boat ) in, 93-95 Mendota (cutter) in, 95 Modoc (cutter) in, 64, 91, 95 Mojave (cutter) in, 64, 91, 92, 95 oceanography and, 90, 93-95 Ossippe (cutter) in, 64 Noble G. Ricketts and, 93, 95 Seminole (cutter) in, 64 Seneca (cutter) in, 64, 65 Edward H. Smith and, 89-90, 93, 95 steamer tracks and, 91-92 Tampa (cutter) in, 64, 91, 95
"Lake class" craft, 73 Leonard Wood (transport),
153,
of,
39
154,
155 Lewis, Hosea, 33-34 Lewis, Ida, 34 Life car, Douglas Ottinger and, 25 Lifeboat stations, 23, 24, 26-27 Lifeboats,
23
Lifesaving Service and, 23 C. H. McLellan and, 198 William Raymond and, 198 stations for, 23,
26-27
Lifesaving Benevolent Association of New York, 23 Lifesaving Service, 3, 16, 17, 20, 21 Board on Lifesaving Appliances and,
212
25 George Civil
S.
War
Boutwell and, 24 and, 24-25
Congress and, 23-24 Emily ( steamship ) and, 26-27 Sumner I. Kimball and, 24-25
INDEX lifeboats,
23
radio and,
C. H. McLellan and, 27, 28
37
river jurisdiction and,
mechanization of, 27-28 William Raymond and, 22-23, 25
35
Naval Appropriations Act (1916) and, 39, 121
26-27 lighthouses and, 23 mechanization of, 27-28 Organic Act and, 25 Revenue Cutter Service and, 28 weather forecasting and, 60 H. E. Wilcox and, 26 Lifesaving stations, 26-27 establishment of, 23 Revenue-Marine Bureau and, 24 World War I, 61-62 Lighthouse Board, 32-33, 34, 35, 37, 38 Lighthouse Establishment, 14, 15, 30-31 Appropriations Act (1837) and, 31 Appropriations Act ( 1851 ) and, 32 Board of Navy Commissioners and, 3132 buoys and, 37-38 Civil War and, 34-35 Department of Commerce and Labor and, 37, 38 electric arc light and, 32 Fresnel lens and, 32, 33 Lighthouse Board and, 32-33, 34, 35, 37, 38 radio and, 37 river jurisdiction and, 35 Lighthouse Service, 3, 20, 45 buoys used in, 126 Bureau of Lighthouses and, 38, 39 Bureau of Standards and, 122 Congress and, 30, 31-32, 34, 37, 38, 39, 123 Department of Commerce and Labor and, 30, 37, 38 fog signals used in, 126 functions of, 124 Great Lakes service of, 126 inspectors of, 38 Lighthouse Establishment and, 30-31 Appropriations Act (1837) and, 31 Appropriations Act ( 1851 ) and, 32 Board of Navy Commissioners and, 31-32 buoys and, 37-38 Civil War and, 34-35 electric arc light and, 32 Fresnel lens and, 32, 33 Lighthouse Board and, 32-33, 34, 35, 37, 38
George R. Putnam and, 38 radio beacons and, 127
stations for, 23,
radio fog signal
developed by,
122-
123 retirement plan for, 123 Franklin Delano Roosevelt and, Treasury Department and, 30 Woodrow Wilson and, 121 World War I and, 39, 121-122
128
See also Lighthouses Lighthouse Service, The ( Institute of Government Research ) excerpt from, 32 ,
Lighthouses, 29 Baltimore Light, 198 Beavertail Lighthouse, 33
Boston Light, 29-30 Cape Henry Light, 31 Cape Sarichef Light, 36 Carysfort Reef Lighthouse, 33, 197 Congress and, 23, 30, 31-32 Faralon Light, 33 Ida Lewis Light, 33
Lime Rock Light, 33-34 Montauk Point Light, 31 Navesink Light, 32 Pharos Light, 29 St. George Reef Light, 35
Sandy Hook Light, 30 Scotch Cap Light, 36 Southwest Pass Light, 31 Stannard Rock Light, 126 Tillamook Rock Light, 35
West Quoddy Head
Light, 31 See also Lighthouse Service Lightships, 31, 197 Ambrose Channel, 31
Cape
Charles, 26-27
Nantucket, 37, 39
Lime Rock
Light, 33-34
Lincoln (cutter), 16 Lipton, Thomas, 80
Loran
165-167, 175, 176, 177, 179-180, 181-184, 196-197 Louisiana (cutter), 13 Lucas, Captain, 26 stations,
MSTS
see Military Sea Service (MSTS) McCulloch (cutter), 19
Machias (gunboat), 9
213
Transportation
INDEX Montauk Point
Mackerson, David, quoted, 72-73 McLane, Louis, 13, 14, 115 McLellan, C. H., 27, 28, 198 MacVeagh, Franklin, 20-21 Madison (cutter), 12 "Magic Carpet" operation, 171 Magnuson Act (1950), 178 Maine (battleship), 18 Manasquan ( weather ship ) 166 Manhattan (transport), 153
Light, 31 Morgenthau, Henry, 79, 84, 112, 141 Morro Castle disaster, 132-135 Motorboat Act (1910) 45, 49, 50 Motorboat Act (1940), 193, 194 Motorboats, 49-50
NDRC
Manning (cutter), 56, 64 Manyon, Norman C, 125 Marine
Investigation
Casualty
135-136 Marine Corps, United
World War
II and,
States, 4,
Boards,
183
152
amphibious warfare, 152, 153, 154 Marine Hospital Service, 16-17 Marine Inspection and Navigation (BMIN), Bureau of, 135, 175 Congress and, 135-136 Dangerous Cargo Act (1940) and, 146 Maritime Service, United States, 88 Marion (patrol boat), 93-95, 198 Massachusetts Humane Society, 22, 23, 198 Matthisen, Captain, 75 Mellon, Andrew W., 78, 103
Mendota
(cutter), 95 Merchant Marine, 129 Bureau of Navigation and, Al-AS Coast Guard and, 87-88, 193, 202 Congress and, 131, 135-136 World War I and, 129-131 World War II and, 140, 163-165 Merchant Marine Act (1936), 87, 88, 136 Merchant Marine Council, 163 Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, 194 Merchant Marine Hearing Units, 165 Merchant Marine Inspection Division,
164
Mexican War, 15 Mexico, 111 Midgett, John A., 62 Military Sea Transportation (MSTS), 191 Mirlo (tanker), 62 Mobile Boarding Team, 195
Modoc
(cutter),
Mohawk
64,91,95 87
(cutter),
Mojave (cutter),
64, 91, 92,
Monomoy (weather
95
ship), 162
see
National Defense
Committee
,
Research
(NDRC)
Nantucket Lightship, 37, 39 Narcotics smuggling, 112 National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), 165 National Search and Rescue Plan ( 1956), 192 Natwig, S. B., 124 Naulo Point Loran Station, 183 Naval Appropriations Act (1916), 39, 121 Navesink Light, 32 Navigation, Bureau of, 3 Congress and, 48, 49
Department of Commerce and Labor and, 45, 48 functions of, 48, 49, 50 Merchant Marine and, 47-48 Motorboat Act ( 1910) and, 49, 50 motorboats and, 49-50 Jarvis Patten and, 48 purpose of, 48 Seamen's Act ( 1915) and, 50-51 Tarragon ( motorboat ) and, 50 Treasury Department and, 48 Wireless-Ship Act (1910) and, 49, 50 World War I and, 129-131 See also Marine Inspection and Navigation, Bureau of: Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection Service, Bureau of, 132 Congress and, 135 Morro Castle disaster and, 132-135 See also Marine Inspection and Navigation, Bureau of Navy, United States, 4, 12, 15-16, 19, 20, 191
Service
Korean War and, 179 Oceanographic Office, 4 Revenue Cutter Service and, 9-10, 15-16 World War I and, 55-56, 65, 129 World War II and, 140 NC-4 (flying boat), 76, 77 Neutrality patrols, 140
214
12,
INDEX Newcomb, Frank H., 9, 10 Newport News Shipbuilding Company, 132 Yacht Club, 80 Niblack, Rear Admiral, 58 Normandy (W.W.II), 167-168 North Africa, 155-156 Northern Task Force, 156 Northland (cutter), 82, 104 "Northwest Passage," 191-192 Norway, 140
New York
Ocean
Porter (destroyer), 81, 82 Port Security, 59-60, 144-145, 148, 151, 178, 185, 196, 202 Postwar rebuilding, 175-177 Potomac ( Presidential yacht ) 108 ,
Prohibition, 77, 84, 113 "Battle of Philadelphia," 102-103
Congress and, 102, 109
Conyngham (destroyer), 107 destroyer picketing, 106-107 Henley (destroyer), 103
Stations, 175, 176, 177, 185, ISft-
190, 203 Oceanographic OfBce, United States Navy, 4 Oceanography, 90, 93-95 Coast Guard and, 198, 203 Congress and, 198 Officer procurement, 115 George S. Boutwell and, 115 cadet system, 115-116, 117 Dobbin (training ship) and, 116 John Faunce and, 115 Itasca (training ship), 117 Louis McLane and, 115 Salmon P. Chase (training ship) and, 116, 117 School of Instruction and, 116-117 "Officers of the Customs," 11 Offshore structures, 197 Ogg, Richard, 188, 189 Oil Transfer No. 20 (barge), 71-72 Okinawa Loran Station, 183 Olsen, Carl B., 78-79 Olympic (steamship), 127 Onondaga (cutter), 76 Orchid (hghthouse tender), 37 Organic Act of the Old Revenue-Marine, 11, 25 Ossippe (cutter), 56, 64 Ottinger, Douglas, 25
PIACO
Plan One, 55-56 Poland, 140 Pontchartrain (cutter), 188-190
"hijackers," 105 "picketboats," 102
"Rum Row,"
100, 101, 105
rumrunning, 97-111 "six-bitters," 102 12-Mile Treaty, 104 Prohibition Bureau, 99 International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO), 176 PuUen, Thomas C, 191
Provisional
Pusan Loran Station, 183 Putnam, George R., 38 Radar, 190-191 Radiation Laboratory, 165 Radio beacons, 66, 67, 127 Radio communications, 37, 65-67, 68-69,
73 Radio compass, 66 Radio direction finder, 66-67 Radio fog signals, 122-123
Raymond, William, 22-23, 25, 198 Redwing ( cutter 69, 74-75 )
,
Regatta patrols, 79-82 Republic (transport), 78-79 Reservists,
Temporary
(W.W.II),
149,
150
Revenue Cutter Service, Alabama (cutter), 13
see Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PIACO)
Patten, Jarvis, 48 Patterson, C. T., 17
Paulding ( destroyer ) 68, 69 Pearl Harbor, 148 Perth Amboy (tugboat), 61 Pharos Light, 29 Pickering (cutter), 12 "Picketboats," 102 Pierce, Robert F., 61 Pirates, 13 ,
3, 4,
9
Alaska and, 16, 19 Army and, 15 Bear (cutter), 16 Bering Sea Patrol and, 16 George M. Bibb and, 15 Civil War and, 15-16 Congress and, 10-11, 12,
13-14,
20,21 Corwin (cutter), 16 Eagle (cutter), 12 functions of, 11, 13
Alexander Hamilton and,
215
4,
10-11
16,
1
INDEX Revenue Cutter Service (Continued) Harriet Lane (cutter), 15, 16
Hudson Thomas
Richard Evans and, 15 Captain Faunce and, 17 Alex V. Fraser and, 14, 15 Sumner I. Kimball and, 17, 21
(cutter), 9-10, 18 Jefferson and, 12
Lifesaving Service and, 28
lifesaving stations and,
Lincoln (cutter), 16 Louisiana (cutter), 13 Franklin MacVeagh and, 20-21 McCulloch (cutter), 19 Louis McLane and, 13, 14 Madison (cutter), 12 Mexican War and, 15 Navy and, 9-10, 12, 15-16 Navy Department and, 12, 15-16, 19,
oflBcer
20 Frank H.
Newcomb
"Officers of the
Organic Act of
Salmon
P. Chase (training ship) and, 116, 117 School of Instruction and, 116-117
School of Instruction, 18, 116-117 18, 19 C. T. Patterson and, 17 William Windom and, 18
and, 9, 10
Leonard G. Shepard and,
Customs" and, 1 the old Revenue-Marine
and, 11 Pickering (cutter), 12 pirates and, 13 Revenue-Marine Bureau,
11,
12,
19,
20
24
procurement, 115 George S. Boutwell and, 115 cadet system, 115-116, 117 Dobbin (training ship), and, 116 John Faunce and, 115 Itasca (training ship), and, 117 Louis McLane and, 115
Richmond, A. C, 201 Ricketts, Noble G., 93, 95 River jurisdiction, 35 Robert E. Lee ( steamship ) 68, 69 Roles and Missions Study, 5, 202-203 ,
Alaska and, 16, 19 George S. Boutwell and, 16-17 Congress and, 17, 18 N. Broughton Devereux and, 17 Richard Evans and, 15 Captain Faunce and, 17 Alex V. Fraser and, 14, 15 Sumner I. Kimball and, 17, 21 C. T. Patterson and, 17 School of Instruction, 18 Leonard C. Shepard and, 18, 19 William Windom and, 18 Scammel (cutter), 12 Seminole War and, 13 Spanish-American War and, 9-10, 1819 John C. Spencer and, 14, 15, 17 Surveyor (cutter), 12 Tariff Act and, 10, 11 Thetis (cutter), 16 traditions of, 10 Treasury Department and, 12 Vigilant (cutter), 12 War of 1812 and, 12 "winter cruising" and, 14 Wolcott (cutter), 16 Hopley Yeaton and, 11 Revenue-Marine Bureau, 24 Alaska and, 16, 19 George S. Boutwell and, 16-17 Congress and, 17, 18 N. Broughton Devereux and, 17
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 63, 84, 128, 140, 144, 163
Roosevelt (steamship), 67 Roosevelt (tugboat), 75 Roosevelt, Theodore, 44
"Rum Row,"
100, 101, 105
Rumrunning, 97-111 Russia, 178
SAR
see Search and Rescue Units (SAR) George Reef Light, 35 "Salvage," 74 Salmon P. Chase (training ship), 116, 117 Samrock V (yacht), 81 Samson (tugboat), 72 Samuel Chase (transport), 155, 156 Sandy Hook Light, 30 Satterlee, Charles, 58 Savannah (steamboat), 40, 41 St.
Scammel (cutter), 12 Scotch Cap Light, 36 Seamen's Act (1915), 45, 50-51, 136 Search and Rescue Units (SAR), 179, 185, 192-193, 202 Secret Service, 84 "Secretary class" cutters, 75, 112 Seminole (cutter), 64 Seminole War, 13 Seneca (cutter), 56-58, 64, 65, 70-73 Seward, William H., 16
216
INDEX Shepard, Leonard G., 18, 19 Sherman, John, 116 Shipping Board, United States World War I and, 129 officer personnel, 130-131 Sims, William S., 59 "Six-bitters," 102 Smith, Eward H., 89-90, 93, 95 Smugghng, 77-78, 84, 97-113 Solomon Islands, 154 Southwest Pass Light, 31
Bureau of Navigation and, 48 Coast Guard and, 4, 5 Congress and, 10-11, 14, 16 Lifesaving Service see Lifesaving Service Lighthouse Service see Lighthouse Service Marine Hospital Service, 16-17 Prohibition Bureau, 99 Revenue Cutter Service and, 12 Revenue-Marine Bureau see Revenue-
Marine Bureau Roles and Missions Study and, 5
Steamboat Inspection Service, 3, 40 Congress and, 41, 42, 43, 44-45, 47 William H. Crawford and, 41 Department of Commerce and Labor and, 43, 45 Depression and, 132 Economy Act ( 1932) and, 132 functions of, 47 General Slocum (excursion steamer) and, 43-44 International Conference on Safety of Life at Seas and, 45 Motorboat Act ( 1910) and, 45 Seamen's Act (1915) and, 45 Steamboat Act (1852) and, 41, 42 Titanic ( steamer ) and, 45 Treasury Department and, 16 and, 130, 131 See also Navigation and Inspection, Burer.u of
Steamer Stone,
Secret Service, 84 Special Customs Agents, 84 Steamboat Inspection Service, 16 Triton (cutter). 111
Truman, Harry Tuscarora Tusitala
)
,
States
Department of Agriculture see Agriculture, United States Department of
Department
of
Commerce
Steamboat
Com-
of
Department of Commerce and Labor see Commerce and Labor, United States Department of Department of Defense sec Defense, United States Department of Department of Labor see Labor, United States Department of Marine Corps see Marine Corps,
20
United States see Navy, United States Treasury Department see Treasury Department, United States
(cutter), 56, 58-59, 62, 64, 91,
Navy
95, 134 Tariff Act, 10, 11
92
see
merce, United States, Department
Sugden, Lieutenant, 76 Surveyor (cutter), 12
Tarragon (motorboat), 50 Thetis (cutter), 16, 82, 111 Tillamook Rock Light, 35
88
Congress see Congress, United States
91-92 77
Titanic (steamer), 45,
training vessel
17-53 (submarine), 59 United States of America, 148 Army see Army, United States Coast Guard see Coast Guard, United
Storis (ice breaker), 191
Tampa
S., 169, 178 cutter ) , 68
U-boats, 56, 61, 122, 157-159, 160-162
F., 76,
Taft, William,
(
(
12-Mile Treaty, 104
I
tracks,
Elmer
3,
192, 198-203 Alcohol Tax Unit, 84
Sovereign of the Skies (airplane), 188 Spanish-American War, 9-10, 18-19 Spar (buoy tender), 191 Special Customs Agents, 84 Spencer (cutter), 158, 159 Spencer, John C, 14, 15, 17 Stannard Rock Light, 126 Stark, Surfman, 69 State Department, United States, 101 Steamboat Act ( 1852), 41, 42
World War
200
Title 14,
Transport Service, Army, 131 Treasury Department, United States,
Vicksburg (gunboat), 118 Vigilant (cutter), 12
217
INDEX Volstead Act, 99
Steamboat Inspection Service and, 130,
Waesche, R. R., 60, 141 Walter Tracy (tugboat), 44 Wakefield, 153 War Department, United States, 145
Tampa
131 (cutter) in, 56, 58-59, 62 U-boats in, 56, 61, 122 U.S. Shipping Board and, 129
Yamacraw (cutter) in, 56 World War II, 144, 151
War of 1812, 12 Ward Line, 134 Warms,
F.,
amphibious warfare, 151-157
133
antisubmarine M^arfare, 151, 157-159, 160-161, 162 Army and, 152
Warrington (destroyer), 58
Wartime Safety Measures
for the Merchant Marine (Coast Guard manual), 164 Weather Bureau, United States, 60, 140,
162-163 Beach Patrol, 149, 150, 151 Bureau of Marine Inspection and Naviaviation,
141, 187
Weather
Patrol,
gation
95-96,
141,
162,
Coast
170,
175-176, 185-186 Wellington (collier), 57-58 West Quoddy Head Light, 31
140,
149, 150 coastal aids to navigation, 160-161
convoy
escorts, 157,
159
demobilization during, 169-171 Denmark and, 151 France and, 148, 151 Germany and, 147, 148, 149-150, 151 Great Britain and, 146, 147, 148, 151,
Western Naval Task Force, 156 Whatzis, 111 White, Henry Clark, 162 Wilcox, H. E., 26 Will, J. M., 191 Williams, O. A., 125 Willmington (gunboat), 9 Willmot, Robert R., 133 Wilson, Woodrow, 21, 63, 121 Windom, William, 18 Winslow (gunboat), 9-10 "Winter cruising," 14, 64 Wireless-Ship Act ( 1910), 49, 50 Wolcott (cutter), 16 Wood, Surfman, 69
155-156 148 Japan and, 154, 169 loran stations, 165-167 Marine Corps and, 152 Merchant Marine and, 140, 163-165 Merchant Marine Hearing Units, 165 Merchant Marine Inspection Division, 164 Navy and, 140 Normandy landing, 167-168 North Africa and, 155-156 Norway and, 151 Italy and, 147,
World War
I, 55 Algonquin (cutter) in, 56 antisubmarine duty and, 56
Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces in, 56 Bureau of Navigation and, 129-130
Port Security, 144-145, 148, 151
Coast Guard Academy and, 118 escort duty and, 56-59
61-62 Lighthouse Service and, 39, 121122 Manning ( cutter ) in, 56 Merchant Marine and, 129-131 Navy in, 55-56, 65, 129 officer personnel in, 130-131 Ossippe ( cutter ) in, 56 Plan One, 55-56 Port Security and, 59-60 Seneca (cutter) in, 56-58
(BMIN), 163
Guard fimctions during,
radar, 165
Solomon Islands and, 154 statutory duties during, 160-165
lifesaving stations during,
Temporary
Reservists, 149, 150 Transport Service during, 152 U-boats in, 157-159, 160-162 United States and, 148 weather patrols, 162 "Wreckers," 22
Yamacraw
(
cutter )
Yeaton, Hopley, 11 Yeandle, S. S., 81
218
,
56, 64
Captain Walter C. C apron graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in 1928. His first assignment was aboard the destroyer Conyngham, followed by duty aboard the cutSeneca as navigator. After three years as communications and public relations officer in Boston, he next served in the cutter Comanche as executive officer, and later as its commanding officer. While in command of the cutter Calypso at Baltimore in 1940, he ter
was temporarily detached and became the Coast Guard Captain-of-the-Port of first Baltimore. He then served on the staffs of Commander, Transports, Atlantic Fleet; Commander, Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet; and Commanding General U.S. Army Engineer Amphibian Command. In 1943-44, he commanded the cutter Spencer on Escort of Convoy duty in the Caribbean and transAtlantic into the Mediterranean. After the
war he became Chief, Enlisted Personnel Division at Coast Guard Headquarters. Following graduation from the National War College in 1952, he served as operations officer and later Chief of Staff of the 12th
Coast Guard District in San Francisco. His last regular tour of duty was 1957-1962 at as Deputy Chief of Staff. Retiring in
CGHQ
1962, he was immediately recalled to active duty for an assignment with the Advisory Council of the Defense Study of Military
Compensation. Holder of the Army Commendation Medal, Navy Commendation Medal with combat "V," and the Legion of Merit, he new resides in Arlington, Virginia.
575
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