■ 'A ■^^4 O "^^.:^ 3 o u « 3 ^*^- l^^^ %'t.' "^^--^.J**- HI atltata, ISm ^otk TJ. S. Goaat Qaard -?--?■*- -j^-^- '■ UNITED STATES 1 9 POAST GUARD GOLD LIFE-SAVING MEDAL AWARDED FOR EXTREME AND HEROIC DARING 1 9 Cornell University Library HJ6645 .A575 1919 United States Coast guard. olin 3 1924 030 225 787 WASHINQTON OOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919 Cornell University Library The original of tinis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030225787 UNITED STATES COAST GUARD WASHING TO N COAST GUARD SURFMEN ON DUTY ON THE NEW YORK WATERFRONT DURING THE WAR. COAST GUARD CUTTER UNALGA, UNITED STATES COAST GUARD. ESTABLISHMENT. THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD was created by the amalgamation of the Revenue-Cutter Service and Life-Saving Service, under authority of an act of Congress approved January 28, 1915. The identity of the Coast Guard with these two services is further emphasized by the fact that the Secretary of the Treasury has been their titular head from the dates of their origin to the present day. The Revenue-Cutter Service was established by an act of Congress approved August 4, 1790. After the freedom of the American colonies had been won in the War of the Revolution, the country returned to a peace basis, and the Continental Navy, which had comprised the sea force of the colonies during that war, was disbanded. After the disbandment of the Continental Navy the first sea force created by the young republic was the Revenue-Cutter Service. Ten vessels were built for that service and placed in commission by November 1, 1791. This comprised the only armed force of the United States afloat thereafter for a period of more than six years, until the commissioning of certain vessels of the newly organized Navy. THE FIRST COAST GUARD STATION. SANDY HOOK. IN. J. The Life-Saving Service was not the creation of a single legislative act, but the result of a series of enactments, dating back to 1848, having for their purpose the saving of life and property from shipwreck along the coasts of the United States. In 1871 a definite life-saving system was inaugurated and administered in conjunction with the Revenue-Cutter Service. On June 18, 1878, the Life-Saving Service was established as a separate organization by Congress. ORGANIZATION. The Coast Guard is organized as a military service. Its vessels are armed ; its officers and men are trained for the acts and circumstance of war, as well as schooled in the methods and inured to the hardships of the sea. Military training and discipline are found to be of the greatest value in the humanitarian work which the service is called upon to perform, bringing promptness and precision to the rendering of relief in times of distress and disaster. At the same time this training and discipline fit the personnel to enter into operation with the Navy when necessary, providing an auxiliary force of value to the country in time of war. A TRAGEDY OF LAKE HURON. In time of peace the Coast Guard operates under the Treasury Depart- ment. The immediate administrative head of the service is the Cap- tain Commandant, with headquarters at Washington, D. C. In time of war the control of the Coast Guard passes by authority of law to the Secretary of the Navy. The personnel of the Coast Guard is made up approximately of 270 commissioned officers, 380 warrant officers, and 4,500 enlisted men. Commissioned officers have relative rank with, and receive the same benefits and emoluments as, the officers of the Army and Navy. The Coast Guard Academy, at New London, Conn., maintained for the training and instruction of cadets, is similar to the cadet institutions of those services, and in like manner supplies the required number of com- missioned officers for its service. Warrant officers are obtained from among the enlisted force, by selection for fitness and general qualifications based upon written examinations which the candidates must pass suc- cessfully before appointment. The organization of the Coast Guard includes four divisions, with a commissioned officer at the head of each, whose title is "Division Com- mander." The headquarters of these divisions are at New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle. The purpose of the divisions is the more immediate control of the operations of the cutters. The shore stations of the service are grouped into 13 districts, and a commissioned COAST GUARD CUTTER BEAR IN AN ICE PACK OFF NOME. ALASKA. officer \\ith the title of "District Superintendent" is in charge of eacli dis- trict. Their headquarters are located at Portsmouth, N. H. ; Province- town, Mass.; Wakefield, R. I.; Bay Shore, N. Y. ; Asbury Park, N. J.; Lewes, Del.; Elizabeth City, N. C. ; Jacksonville, Fla. ; Galveston, Tex.; Buffalo, N. Y.; Grand Haven, Mich.; Green Bay, Wis.; and San Fran- cisco, Calif. EQUIPMENT. The equipment disposed by the Coast Guard for the performance of its various duties includes 20 cruising cutters, 13 harbor cutters, 11 launches, and 273 coastal and Great Lakes stations. Five new cruising cutters and two river steamers are under construction — the latter for service on the Mississippi and its tributaries. Included in the equipment of the Coast Guard stations there are approximately 85 self-bailing, self-righting life boats, driven by gas engine and sail; 380 self-bailing surfboats, driven by gas engine or oars; and 530 boats of other types. Each station is provided with the beach apparatus, by which persons may be rescued from stranded vessels in the breeches buoy. For the purpose of intercommunication between its stations, and with lighthouses and other important points on the coasts and Great Lakes, the Coast Guard owns and maintains over 3,000 miles of land wire and cable telephone lines. By this means reports of wrecks and other disasters are speedily communicated to all units of the service, in con- junction with the various radio installations, involving much less delav in the rendering of assistance than would be caused without the system. It has proved to be of the greatest value during the war, especially en the occasions when enemy submarines were operating on our Atlantic seaboard. A COASTGUARD CUTTER ON ICE PATROL ON THE GRAND BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. In addition to its present equipment for the discovery and rescue of the distressed, the Coast Guard expects to create an air service, by which patrol and observation of the coasts and sea areas can be more effectively maintained. A number of the officers and men of the service are qualified and experienced aviators and airmen, and will be available for the ready inauguration of the project. DUTIES. The following duties have been assigned to the Coast Guard by legis- lative enactment or administrative direction, and will indicate the pur- poses for which it exists as a part of the government of our country: 1. The rendering of assistance to vessels in distress and the saving of life and property at sea and along our coasts and on the Great Lakes. 2. Operation as a part of the Navy in time of war, or when the President shall direct. 3. Destruction or removal of wrecks, derelicts, and other floating dangers to navigation from the paths of ocean commerce. 4. Extending medical aid to American vessels engaged in the deep-sea fisheries. 5. Protection of the customs revenue. 6. Enforcement of the laws and regulations governing the anchorage of vessels in navigable waters. 7. Enforcement of the laws relating to quarantine and neutrality. 8. Suppression of mutinies on merchant vessels. DOOMED ON ACCOUNT OF HER CARGO SHrFTING. 9. Enforcement of the navigation and other laws governing merchant vessels and motor boats. 10. Enforcement of the law to provide for the safety of life on navigable waters during regattas and marine parades. 1 1 . Protection of game and the seal and other fisheries in Alaska. 12. Enforcement of the sponge-fishing laws. 1 3 . Patrol of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland for the United States, under international agreement, for the protection of shipping from ice fields and bergs. 14. Patrol of the western rivers for rescue of life and property during floods, and for other purposes. It will be noted in the summary that of the thirteen duties assigned to the Coast Guard in time of peace seven are essentially humanitarian. The humanitarian idea, so intimately connected with the advance of civilization, found unique ligislative expression for the benefit of the mariner in an enactment of Congress approved December 22, 1837. By it the President was authorized to cause any suitable number of public vessels to cruise upon the coasts in the severe portion of the season, and afford such aid to distressed mariners as they might require. The United States by this act became a pioneer among the Governments of the world in thus assuming, as an obligation of its own Government, the organized and continuous rescue and relief of the seafarer who might be left in distress by the elements among which he lives and earns his livelihood. The beneficence of this policy is patent, and should stand as a high example to mankind and a tribute to the magnanimity of the American people. 10 DERELICT. The Coast Guard is the agency charged with the regular and systematic carrying out of assistance to the mariner under that policy, not only during the severe season but throughout the year. It is the largest and most comprehensive of any organization of its kind and purpose main- tained anywhere in the world to-day. The other duties of the Coast Guard enumerated in the summary are performed in the interest of the enforcement of the laws relating to shipping and maritime commerce. The protection of the customs revenue has always been a function of the service, from the date of its establishment to the present day. Our coast line, inclusive of the Great Lakes, is approximately 10,000 miles in extent. Nearly half of the sea- coast is convenient to the smaller craft that may desire to operate from adjacent islands or mainland of foreign jurisdiction; it offers to them comfortable harborage in abundance for smuggling operations. The foregoing represent the principal duties of the Coast Guard, but still fall short of covering the whole scope of its activities. *■ It is generally recognized that all departments of the Government may and do call upon the Service for any special work not specifically assigned, or for which resources are not elsewhere obtainable. Scientific expeditions are carried, officials and mails transported to outlying points, observations of all sorts are made and data collected at places not accessible to commercial transport, tests of various marine devices are made, and expert advice is sought and given by the personnel on numerous varied subjects relating to affairs of the maritime world. The term "cooperation" has always been one of active application in the annals of the service ; the spirit of it is ever present and continually operative, alike for the Government departments and for our citizens. 11 COAST GUARD CUTTER ALGONQUIN. OPERATIONS IN PEACE. At the close of each fiscal year the Captain Commandant of the Coast Guard submits to the head of the Department a report of the operations of the service during the preceding 12 months. The report for the year ended June 30, 1917, may be cited. It covers the last of the pre-war activities and the months of the war between April 6 and June 30 of that year. The report is an octavo volume containing 281 pages of matter. Data covering the rescue and assistance work are contained in a summary, and the results are set forth as follows : Lives saved or persons rescued from peril 2, 153 Persons on board vessels assisted 13, 796 Persons in distress cared for 841 Vessels boarded and papers examined 20, 3 1 7 Vessels seized or reported for violation of law 857 Fines and penalties incurred by vessels reported $205, 429 Regattas and marine parades patrolled in accordance with law 30 Instances of lives saved and vessels assisted 1, 584 Instances of miscellaneous assistance 1, 572 Derelicts and obstructions to navigation removed or destroyed 11 Value of vessels assisted (including cargoes) $14, 960, 910 Value of derelicts recovered and delivered to owners $50, 000 This summary is a compilation from the individual reports submitted by the units in the field. These reports are passed upon by a board of officers at the headquarters of the service, and the merits of each case are thus determined for assignment under the proper head. It may be noted 12 AVING LIFE AT SEA. that in the one item alone of marine property saved the service has feturned in this year $2.38 for every dollar expended in its maintenance. The lives of 2,153 persons were actually saved; no instance is recorded under this head unless all the evidence indicates that the individual was in extreme peril and that he would in all probability have lost his life had the Coast Guard agency not removed him from his place or condition of peril. In addition to these persons thus saved, 13,796 persons were on board ships or small craft saved. These individuals were in more or less dangerous situations by reason of the conditions surrounding the vessels, and some of them might have lost their lives but for the timely assistance rendered by the Coast Guard. Money value is assigned only to the marine floating property saved ; all other salvage appears under the head of "miscellaneous assistance." Likewise all forms of assistance other than to marine floating property actually saved are placed under this head ; during the course of a year it will include for the units of the service, distributed as they are over the whole coast and coastal waters, almost the complete tale of accident and mishap it is possible for human beings to suffer. A few cases taken at random include lost children found and restored to their parents ; vessels warned away from danger by night signal ; automobiles mired and pulled out; fires in dwellings extinguished; disabled boats picked up; bodies recovered from the bottom by dragging; funeral parties transported by boat ; fuel supplied to boats whose tanks were exhausted ; mail carried to outlying lighthouses ; food and shelter given to parties caught out on the sands by storm ; injured women conveyed to places reached by ambulance ; 13 COAST GUARD CUTTER ITASCA. women lost in sand dunes found and given shelter; effected repairs to disabled launch engines; carried sick children to doctor; piloted vessels across bar; blew up masts of sunken vessels; saved teams fallen in river; reported lights not burning and buoys adrift; lighters adrift at sea towed in; and a multitude of other benefactions which inure to the public good. On all occasions of disaster which have occurred in regions where the Coast Guard is established its men and equipment have been dispatched to the scene and the work of rescue and relief promptly begun. Illus- trative of this are the instances of the eruption of Mount Katmai, in Alaska; the great fires at Baltimore and San Francisco; the hurricane which devastated Galveston; the great floods of the middle west rivers some years ago. Forces of the service were present during the crucial days of each of these events and contributed effectively to the rescue and succor of the inhabitants. Expeditions, frequently most hazardous, are organized by the service for special cases of distress. Instances of this are presented by the overland' relief expedition of the service which landed from the cutter Bear near Nunivak Island, Alaska, and made its way for more than 1,000 miles across the Arctic wastes in midwinter with herds of reindeer and other food supplies for a fleet of whaling vessels caught in the ice near the northwest point of the continent ; the assistance given by two cutters to American fishermen caught in the ice on the coast of Newfoundland ; the midwinter cruise of a cutter to Yakutat, Alaska, to carry medical and other aid to the natives suffering from an epidemic ; the aid given and food 14 A WRECK ON THE COAST OF ALASKA. supplied to the victims of forest fires along the shores of Lake Superior; the rescue work performed by one of the cutters in the harbor of Halifax at the time of the destruction of a part of that city by the explosion of a munitions ship. These and hundreds of other instances can be cited as indicating the nature of the work done by the Coast Guard. Probably no other insti- tution in the world is called upon to render to the public services of so varied a nature. OPERATIONS IN WAR. The military history and traditions of a service are not without their value for its members, and are often of interest to those whom it serves. In its dual character of a force for belligerent operations, as well as an institution for the service of humanity in time of peace, the Coast Guard has ever taken a part in the application of force by the Government which involved for its people their honor, their safety, or their interest in good order and the enforcement of the law at sea and along our coasts. Founded originally for the protection of the revenue of the new republic, the service within a few years found itself called upon to protect our coasts and shipping from attack by pirates and privateers, in addition to combating the efforts of a swarm of alien and domestic smugglers at- tracted to our coasts by the gain to be derived through evasion of the then recently levied duties on imports. 15 fiSE COAST GUARD CUTTER GRESHAM. The first fleet of ten cutters, all in commission by the end of the year 1791, were smart little sailing vessels, approximately 50 feet in length, costing about $1,000 apiece, designed to carry small cannon and manned originally by two officers and six seamen. This little fleet became very busy from the outset of its career. Its inadequacy for the task in hand is evidenced by the representations made to Congress soon after it began operations; larger and more heavily armed vessels were authorized and built, and the beginning of the French and American difficulties in 1798 found the service in a condition to enter actively into the hostilities which ensued. In addition to operations along the coast by individual cutters, eight others, brigs and schooners, carrying from ten to fifteen guns apiece, were divided among four naval squadrons to cruise in West Indian waters. These eight cutters captured during the operations seventeen prizes and assisted in the capture of one. The appearance of this larger type of cutter shortly prior to the French and American difficulties, taken in connection with the public utterances of certain officials of the Government at that time, indicated a tendency in the Government toward the expansion of the Revenue-Cutter Service into a sea force for the larger belligerent operations, and this somewhat at the expense of appropriations for frigates and ships of the line in the regular Navy. Thispolicy was not long pursued. Hence it is noted that the cutters employed in the operations of the War of 1812 were smaller vessels, their part, in conjunction with numerous small gunboats, being 16 A VIEW ON THE WASHINGTON COAST. confined to the protection of the coasting trade by convoy between ports, in attacking or warding off the attacks of privateers and armed boat flotillas sent out by the British squadrons which ranged freely along our coasts, and in making captures of armed hostile merchantmen. The nine cutters so engaged captured in the course of their operations fourteen British prizes, one of them a well-armed privateer, taken after a brisk action and laying on board by the cutter Vigilant. The topsail schooner Patriot, taken by the cutter Jefferson, is recorded as the first prize captured in the war. During the Seminole Indian War (1836-1842) eight revenue cutters took part by cooperation with the Army and Navy in the operations. Duty performed by these vessels and their crews included attacks on parties of hostile Indians and the breaking up of their rendezvous, pick- ing up survivors of rriassacres, carrying dispatches, transporting troops, blocking rivers to the passage of the Indian forces, and the landing of riflemen and artillery from the cutters for the defense of the white settle- ments. These duties covered the whole coast of Florida and won com- mendation from the Army and Navy officers in charge of operations. When a naval force was sent to Paraguay in 1858, the revenue cutter Harriet Lane was ordered to join the squadron. Commodore Shubrick, in reporting to the Secretary of the Navy on the operations of the expe- dition, made special mention of the skill and zeal shown by Captain Faunce, the commanding officer of that cutter, and of her value to the squadron. 17 COAST GUARD CUTTER MANNING, The Revenue-Cutter Service participated in the Civil War (1861-1865), both in naval engagements and in the more trying blockade duty. At the attack on Fort Hatteras; in the reconnaissance of the batteries at Norfolk; in the bombardment of Drurys Bluff, on the James River; and in operations in Chesapeake Bay the cutters were actively engaged. During the Spanish-American War thirteen revenue cutters cooperated with the Navy and seven with the Army. One of these, the McCulloch, was with Admiral Dewey's squadron in the Battle of Manila Bay, and was the subject of commendation by him in one of his reports to the Secretary of the Navy. The revenue cutter Hudson, Lieutenant Frank H. Newcomb commanding, took part in the action at Cardenas, Cuba. In this engagement such bravery was shown by Lieutenant Newcomb his officers and crew, in the rescue of the torpedo boat Wiaslow from imminent danger of destruction by the shore batteries that Congress awarded a gold medal to Lieutenant Newcomb, and silver and bronze medals, respectively, to the other officers and members of the crew of the Hudson. Immediately upon the declaration of war against Germany by the United States, April 6, 1917, the entire Coast Guard passed automati- cally under the jurisdiction of the Navy Department, and all of its active units and personnel operated from that date as a part of the Navy. Six of its cruising cutters were sent abroad to join the naval forces in the war zone, and served principally as ocean escorts for convoys of merchant 18 '< ' ■ • "■X'£ii(li fHmmmm COAST GUARD CUTTER SEMINOLE. ships, traversing the submarine infested waters from the Bristol and English Channels to Gibraltar with their convoys until the signing of the armistice, on November 11, 1918. In addition to these, a number of Coast Guard officers commanded armed yachts and auxiliary vessels in the war zone. The Coast Guard forces at home operated under the various naval districts, some of the cutters for a time with the Atlantic Patrol Squadron. A number of Coast Guard officers were assigned to naval administrative duty and to naval vessels. When the history of the naval part of this war is written the service will be found to have served a most honorable part, and it is not necessary here to anticipate that tribute. One incident may be given as typical of what all our man- hood stood to face who took up arms in that great cause. On the night of September 26, 1918, the Coast Guard cutter Tampa, being then in the Bristol Channel, England, as escort to a convoy bound for Pembroke, suddenly steamed ahead of the convoy, possibly antici- pating an attack. The shock of an explosion was felt by some of the fleet shortly afterwards. It marked the complete destruction of the cutter and all on board, of which no trace was found, save a few pieces of wreckage and the bodies of two of her men. The Tampa is listed as de- stroyed by the torpedo of an enemy submarine. Her complete com- plement — 7 commissioned officers, 4 warrant officers, and 100 enlisted men — thus gave up their lives. It w as the heaviest single loss suffered by our naval forces during the war. 19 A COAST GUARD STATION CREW RETURNING FROM BOAT DRILL, INFORMATION. It has been the purpose of the preceding pages to give the reader a brief general outline of the purposes and methods of the Coast Guard. For those who are more particularly interested in the details of appoint- ment to cadetships or of the terms of enlistment, or desirous of obtaining specific information regarding the operations of the service, recourse may be had to the Captain Commandant, at Washington, or to any of the division commanders or district superintendents at the places previously named. Under normal peace-time conditions Coast Guard cutters are stationed at the following ports: Portland, Me.; Boston, Mass. ; Woods Hole, Mass. ; New York, N. Y. ; Baltimore, Md. ; Phila- delphia, Pa.; Norfolk, Va.; Newbern, N. C. ; Wilmington, Del; Savan- nah, Ga. ; Key West, Fla. ; San Juan, P. R. ; Mobile, Ala. ; Galveston, Tex. ; Detroit, Mich. ; Milwaukee, Wis. ; Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. ; San Francisco, Calif. ; Astoria, Oreg. ; Port Townsend, Wash. ; and Seattle, Wash. The commanding officers of the vessels may be consulted if these ports prove more convenient of address to the inquirer. 20 f 21 22 23 c^'CTjC^iI/CtijiCii'iI'*!' 24 ^.i #%^ m -^-^f^s?- <^ip« ■nr^ ^ 1^^^ ,, .tv* ^^s^-^'^%... ^' ^1-