Daily Chronology: March

Security Levels

March

Daily Chronology of Coast Guard History

1 March

1876- Nuova Ottavia, an Italian vessel, grounded near the Jones Hill North Carolina Life-Saving Station. The rescue attempt by the crew of that station resulted in the loss of seven surfmen, the first deaths in the line of duty since the service began using paid crews in 1870. Among the dead was African-American Surfman Lewis White.

1902- The first regular light stations in Alaska were established at Southeast Five Finger Island and at Sentinel Island. Both were on the main inside passage between Wrangell Strait and Skagway.

1927- The U.S. Lighthouse Service put into effect a system of broadcasting radio weather reports by four lightships stationed along the Pacific Coast.

1933- In the interest of administrative economy and efficiency, the 13th and 14th Lighthouse Districts were consolidated with the 15th Lighthouse District. Also, the aids to navigation on the entire Mississippi River system were placed in charge of a civilian lighthouse engineer as superintendent. This relieved the Army engineers detailed for that duty. The offices at Rock Island, Illinois and Cincinnati, Ohio were discontinued and all the river work was placed under a single office at St. Louis, Missouri.

2003- Administrative control of the Coast Guard transferred to the newly created Department of Homeland Security from the Department of Transportation, where it had served since 1 April 1967.

2 March

1792- Congress authorized the revenue cutters to fire on merchant ships that refused to "bring to."

1799- Congress authorized that "Revenue Cutters shall, whenever the President of the United States shall so direct, cooperate with the Navy of the United States during which time they shall be under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, and the expenses thereof shall be defrayed by the agents of the Navy Department."

1799- Congress authorized revenue cutter officers to board all ships of the United States within four leagues of the U.S., if bound for the U.S. and then search and examine them, certifying manifest, sealing hatches and remaining on board until they arrived in port. They were also authorized to search ships of other nations in United States' waters and "perform such other duties for the collection and security of the Revenue" as directed by the Secretary of the Treasury.

1799- Congress authorized cutters and boats to be "distinguished from other vessels by an ensign and pendant" with the marks thereon prescribed by the President of the United States, to fire on vessels who refused to bring to after the pendant and ensign had been hoisted and a gun fired as a signal, masters to be indemnified from any penalties or actions for damages for so doing, and be admitted to bail if any one is killed or wounded by such firing. On August 1, 1799, Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr., prescribed that the " ensign and pennant’’ should consist of "Sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the union of the ensign to be the arms of the United States in dark blue on a white field." There were sixteen states in the Union at that time.

1799- Congress authorized the President to sell cutters unfit for service and the Secretary of Treasury to apply an unexpended balance of proceeds in the purchase and construction of revenue cutters. (This authority was revoked March 3, 1845).

1807- Congress outlawed the importation of slaves into the United States.

1868- By Act of Congress (15 Stat. L., 249), the Lighthouse Board was "authorized, when in their judgment, it is deemed necessary, to place a light-vessel, or other suitable warning of danger, on or over any wreck or temporary obstruction to the entrance of any harbor, or in the channel or fairway of any bay or sound."

1889- Congress authorized the Secretary of Treasury to keep rivers clear to afford marine species access to their spawning grounds.

1912- The Revenue cutter Hartley seized the vessel Morning Star in Oakland Creek and arrested her crew for carrying 21 "contraband" Chinese migrants.

3 March

1819- Congress authorized the revenue cutters to protect merchant vessels of United States against piracy and to seize vessels engaged in slave trade. The cutters Louisiana and Alabama were built shortly thereafter to assist in the government's efforts against piracy.

1837- An Act of Congress (5 Stat. L., 181, 185) laid down certain restrictions, by providing that the construction of the large number of new lighthouses, lightships, etc., for which this law was appropriating the necessary funds, would not be begun until examined by Board of Navy Commissioners. They reported to Congress those cases where the "navigation is so inconsiderable as not to justify the proposed works." The Navy detailed 22 officers to this duty and, before the end of the year, their recommendations resulted in the deferment of the construction of 31 lighthouses already appropriated for.

1839- Congress directed that Revenue Captain Ezekial Jones, commanding the revenue cutter Washington in the Seminole War, be allowed the same pay as a lieutenant in the Navy would receive for like services.

1845- Congress authorized the President to appoint six engineers (later amplified by Act of February 4, 1863) and six assistant engineers, one of each to be assigned to each revenue steamer then in the service. Engineers were to receive the same pay as first lieutenants and assistant engineers the same pay as third lieutenants.

1845- Congress directed no person be appointed as a revenue cutter officer "who does not adduce competent proof of proficiency and skill in navigation and seamanship." This was the first official underway qualifications established for the service.

1845- The duties of the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury as Superintendent of Lights was first put on a statutory basis by an Act of Congress (5 Stat. L., 752. 762), which prescribed that "the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, shall continue to superintend the several matters and things connected with the light-houses, beacons, buoys, and public piers, as heretofore, of the United States, and to perform all the duties connected therewith, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, until otherwise ordered by law."

1847- Congress appropriated $5000 "for furnishing lighthouses on the Atlantic Coast with means of rendering assistance to shipwrecked mariners." This was the first federal appropriation for rendering assistance to the shipwrecked from shore.

1849- Office of Commissioner of Customs was created. Collectors took over control of the revenue cutters.

1859- An Act of Congress (11 Stat. L., 423, 424) authorized the Lighthouse Board to use its own discretion in the discontinuance as necessary of such lighthouses as might become useless by reason of changes in commerce, alteration in channels, or other causes.

1873- Signal Corps of Army established a storm signal service for benefit of seafaring men, at several life-saving stations and constructed telegraph lines as a means of communication between the stations.

1875- Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by Congress to acquire by donation or purchase, right to use and acquire sites for life saving and life boat stations.

1885- Congress authorized Secretary of the Treasury to detail officers and men of Revenue Marine Service to duty under the commissioner of Fish and Fisheries Division of the Bureau of Fisheries when they could be spared for such duty.

1899- An Act of Congress (30 Stat. L., 1121, 1152) required that, whenever a vessel, raft, or other craft was wrecked and sunk in a navigable channel, it became the duty of the owner to immediately mark the sunken craft with a suitable buoy or beacon during the day and a lighted lantern at night. Previously, the Lighthouse Establishment had been authorized by Congress to place, when considered necessary, a lightship or other suitable warning of danger on any wreck or temporary obstruction to the entrance of any harbor or in the channel of any bay or sound.

1905- Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to acquire a suitable site in the state of Maryland upon which to establish a depot for the Revenue Cutter Service; this station eventually became the Coast Guard Yard.

1915- An Act of Congress (38 Stat. L., 926, 928) provided for cooperation between the Lighthouse Service and the Forest Service in the management of the forest land on lighthouse reservations.

1918- By Act of Congress (38 Stat. L., 928), the protection afforded the aids to navigation maintained by the United States government was extended to those established and operated by private individuals.

1947- The SS Oakey S. Alexander reported being in distress 22 miles east of Portland, Maine, with a hatch stove in and shipping water. The Coast Guard cutter Cowslip immediately proceeded on orders from Portland to assist. When she began breaking up, the ship's commanding officer decided to beach at Cape Elizabeth. The cutter Cowslip arrived on the scene, but was unable to approach the beached vessel because of heavy seas. All 32 crewmembers, however, were removed safely from the ship by Coast Guardsmen from the Cape Elizabeth Light and Lifeboat Station using a breeches buoy.

4 March

1907- Congress appropriated $30,000 for installing wireless telegraph on not more than 12 revenue cutters.

1915- Secretary of the Treasury was authorized by Congress to detail cutters to enforce anchorage regulations in all harbors, rivers, bays and other navigable waters of United States.

1925- An Act of Congress (43 Stat. L., 1261), for the first time, provided for disability retirement within the Lighthouse Service.

1929- Congress appropriated $144,000 for seaplanes and equipment for Coast Guard.

1952- An air detachment consisting of three helicopters and necessary personnel, established as the first unit of its type on a test basis at the air station, Brooklyn, New York, began operating in support of port security operations.

1977- ENS Janna Lambine, USCG, the Coast Guard's first female pilot, graduated from naval aviation training at NAS Whiting Field, Milton, Florida.

5 March

1881- The crew of Life-Saving Station No. 10, Ninth District (Louisville), won acclaim with a dangerous rescue at the wreck of James D. Parker, a well-known river boat lost in the Indiana chute of the Ohio Falls. She was a stern-wheel steamer of over 500 tons owned by the Cincinnati and Memphis Packet Company and bound from Cincinnati to Memphis. Her crew numbered 50, including the captain, and she had 55 passengers on board, a number of whom were women and children.

6 March

1896- Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to detail cutters to enforce anchorage regulations on the St. Mary’s River.

7 March

1883- A dramatic rescue was performed by the crew of Assateague Life-Saving Station in Virginia using a surfboat through a howling storm to save the ten persons stranded on the sinking barkentine Wolverine.

8 March

1942- Coast Guard plane located the lifeboats of SS Arubutan, which had been sunk by a Nazi submarine off the North Carolina coast, and directed CGC Calypso to them.

1973- The first "Coast Guard-controlled drug seizure" took place when the cutter Dauntless seized the sport fishing vessel Big L which was carrying an illicit cargo of one ton of marijuana.

9 March

1944- The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Leopold (DE-319) was torpedoed off Iceland by the U-255. The attack was one of the first times the Germans used a newly developed acoustic torpedo successfully. All 13 officers and 148 (out of 186) enlisted men on board were killed. The 28 survivors were rescued by the USS Joyce (DE-317), another Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort.

1946- The Coast Guard-manned LST-767 was damaged in a hurricane near Okinawa. She was later declared a total loss and was decommissioned.

1966- CGC Point White, on duty with Coast Guard Squadron One, Division 13, in Vietnam, captured a Vietcong junk after a running firefight. Point White was in Vietnam only a month when she started conducting patrols on a VC-controlled area of the Soi Rap River. Point White used a plan of steaming out of the patrol area and covertly returning. On 9 March she spotted a junk crossing the river and attempted to stop it. The junk opened fire with small arms, including automatic weapons. Point White returned the fire and rammed the junk, throwing the occupants into the water. The cutter’s commanding officer, LTJG Eugene J. Hickey, rescued a survivor who turned out to be a key VC leader of the Rung Sat Secret Zone. During March, three WPBs of Division 13 killed twenty-seven VC in action, captured seven more, and confiscated considerable contraband. Click here for a photo.

1996- The first "all-Coast Guard" Ceremonial Honor Guard carried out a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

10 March

1909- The British barkentine Ladysmith, during a thick fog, stranded three miles WSW of the Fisher's Island Life-Saving Station. The keeper was notified by telephone and the life-savers, in surfboat, proceeded to the scene. They safely rescued the Ladysmith's master, his wife, and 9 seamen.

1983- The Coast Guard retired the last operational HU-16E Albatross, ending the "era of seaplanes" for the service.

11 March

1941- The Lend-Lease Program was inaugurated. All 10 Lake-class cutters were transferred to the Royal Navy under the program. Two were lost in action against German forces. These 250-foot cutters had been designed by the Coast Guard and featured a slightly raked stem and a cruiser stern. Their innovative turbine-electric drive power plant was developed by Coast Guard Captain Quincy B. Newman. These were the first ships to have alternating current, synchronous motor for propulsion--the whole ship ran off the main turbine. The auxiliary generators were tied into the main generator electrically, after sufficient speed was attained. At that point, no steam was required to drive the turbines on the auxiliary generators. The propulsion plant achieved remarkable efficiency.

12 March

1955- Effective this date, all foreign and domestic ships were required to give 24-hour advance notice to the local U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port before entering U.S. ports. This order was designed to improve the U.S. Coast Guard's port security program without "material inconvenience" to shipping.

1965- The beginning of the US Navy’s Operation Market Time to interdict resupply of Communist forces in South Vietnam by river and coastal routes. The initiation of this campaign led to the Navy’s request for Coast Guard vessels and crews to participate in riverine and coastal patrols during the Vietnam War.

13 March

1882- At 7 P.M. the schooner Annie L. Palmer bound for New York from Baracoa, Cuba, with a cargo of fruit, and a crew of six persons, stranded about two hundred yards off-shore, one mile north of Station No. 16, Fourth District, New Jersey. The patrolman reported it to the keeper. The life-saving crew boarded the vessel by 8 o’clock and found that she had grounded at low water and could not be moved until the tide rose. They ran an anchor to keep the vessel from working farther on, and waited for the flood tide. At half past 2 the next morning the tide rose and they succeeded in heaving the vessel off. They then took her to a safe anchorage.

1974- A 200-foot fishing vessel requested evacuation of a crewman, who had severe headaches from a earlier head injury. The vessel was directed to proceed to the vicinity of Boston Light Vessel where upon arrival a motor lifeboat from Coast Guard Station Point Allerton evacuated the patient to Coast Guard Base Boston. A waiting ambulance transported the patient to Brighton Hospital.

2000- The Coast Guard announced the successful completion of Operation New Frontier. The operation was an evaluation of the use of armed helicopters and high-speed small boats to stop small, high-speed smuggling vessels, also known as "go-fasts," that smuggled narcotics to the U.S. Of the six go-fasts detected, all six were captured. CGCs Gallatin and Seneca took part in the evaluations.

14 March

1819-The 23 March 1819 edition of the New York Evening Post reported: "The Artegan Privateer GENERAL ARTIGAS was yesterday brought into this port. The ARTIGAS sailed from Baltimore about 5 months ago, commanded by Captain Ford, with a complement of 60 men and 10 guns. They took no prizes, though they boarded a number of Portuguese vessels but permitted them to proceed unmolested. She touched at St. Domingo, there parted her cable in a gale, then proceeded on her cruise. She sprung a leak and then put into the Chesapeake, the crew then mutinied and nearly the whole of them left the vessel and went on shore. She was taken possession of by the Cutter MONROE, March 14, 1819."

1909- Gloucester, Massachusetts: a launch became disabled 3/4 mile southeast of the station. Surfmen manned the power lifeboat and started to assist. On the trip out a schooner was discovered anchored in a dangerous berth 1-3/4 miles southeast of the station. Surfmen put a towline on the schooner, and, with her sails drawing, she was towed into a safe anchorage.

1987-Coast Guard helicopters rescued the crew of the sinking Soviet freighter Komsomolets Kirgizii 220 miles off the coast of New Jersey during a gale. A HC-130 was first on the scene and stood by the listing freighter until HH-3's from Air Station Cape Cod arrived and saved the freighter's entire 37-person crew.

15 March

1942- The 172-foot tender CGC Acacia was en route from Curacao, Netherlands West Indies to Antigua, British West Indies, when she was sunk by shellfire from the German submarine U-161. The entire crew of Acacia was rescued. She was the only Coast Guard buoy tender sunk by enemy action during the war.

1944- Coast Guardsmen participated in the invasions of Manus (Admiralties) and Emirau (St. Mathias Islands).

1946- For the first time, U.S. Coast Guard aircraft supplemented the work of the Coast Guard patrol vessels of the International Ice Patrol, scouting for ice and determining the limits of the ice fields from the air.

1983- The Coast Guard retired its last HC-131A Samaritan.

1991-The F/V Alaskan Monarch became trapped in the ice-encrusted Bering Sea near St. Paul, Alaska and was in danger of being swept onto the breakwater rocks outside St. Paul Harbor. The CGC Storis and an HH-3 from AIRSTA Kodiak, under the command of LT Laura H. Guth, responded. After a flight of 600 miles, including a winter crossing of the Alaska Peninsula and 400 miles of open water, Guth and her crew rescued four of the six-man crew before waves crashed over the vessel and swept the two remaining crewmen into the frigid water. They both were quickly pulled from the water safely.

1997- Operation Gulf Shield began. This operation is a counterpart to the counter narcotics operation Frontier Shield.

16 March

1909- Assateague Beach, Virginia: the schooner Charley C. Weaver; one of the crew notified the keeper that the schooner was leaking. The surfboat proceeded to the scene, 1-5/8 miles south of the station. The schooner’s crew was nearly exhausted from a long spell at the pump. Surfmen shifted her cargo of oysters. They also tried to locate the leak, but were unsuccessful. They then went ashore and returned with the power lifeboat which towed the schooner safely over the bar.

17 March

1863- USRC Agassiz defended the Union-held Fort Anderson at New Bern, North Carolina, from a Confederate attack.

1902- All but one of the members of the crew of the Monomoy (Massachusetts) Life-Saving Station perished during the attempted rescue of the crew of the wrecked coal barge Wadena during a terrible winter gale. The dead included the keeper of the station, Marshall N. Eldridge, and six of his surfmen. Eldridge told his crew before they departed on the rescue that: "We must go, there is a distress flag in the rigging." The crew of five from the barge also perished. The sole survivor, Seth L. Ellis, was the number one surfman of the Monomoy station. He was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal as was the man who rescued him, Captain Elmer Mayo of the barge Fitzpatrick.

1915- It was just before dawn March 17, 1915, when the three-masted schooner Silvia C. Hall was wrecked on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and earned herself a permanent place in Coast Guard history. Only 48 days had passed since the U.S. Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service had merged January 28 to form the U.S. Coast Guard. The rescue of the survivors of the ill-fated Silvia C. Hall by the crew of the Coast Guard Station Cape Lookout crew, under the command of Keeper Fred Gillikin, was the new service’s first major rescue.

1941- CGC Cayuga left Boston with the South Greenland Survey Expedition on board to locate airfields, seaplane bases, radio and meteorological stations, and aids to navigation in Greenland. This was the beginning of the Coast Guard's preeminent role in Greenland during World War II.

1962- After requesting the evacuation of a seriously injured crewman, the Russian merchant vessel Dbitelny transferred the patient to the Coast Guard LORAN station on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea. Meanwhile, a Coast Guard aircraft flew a US Navy doctor and a hospital corpsman there to perform an emergency operation. Afterwards, the injured man was flown to Elmendorf Air Force Base, where he was admitted to the U.S. Air Force hospital.

1982- Navy Secretary John Lehman testified before Congress on behalf of the Coast Guard. He characterized the relationship between the Navy and the Coast Guard as being "close and warm." He also praised the new NAVGARD Board, created in November 1980, to formalize the relationship between the two services.

1986-Paramount Pictures began filming the movie "Critical Condition" on Governors Island. The film starred Richard Pryor. Filming continued on the Island until 21 March 1986.

18 March

1909- Stations Holly Beach, and Hereford Inlet, New Jersey: the schooner C.B. parted its chain while weighing anchor. She set a distress signal which was discovered by the lookouts at both stations. The surfboats proceeded to the scene and surfmen swept for the chain and assisted in securing it on board.

1943- CGC Ingham rescued all hands from the torpedoed SS Matthew Luckenbach.

1967-The 378-foot high endurance cutter Hamilton, first in her class, was commissioned. This was the first class of major vessels in the U.S. government's inventory that were powered by jet turbines.

1991- CGC Cape Hatteras (WPB 95305) was decommissioned on 18 March 1991. She was the last 95-foot patrol boat in the Coast Guard. She was then transferred to Uruguay.

1996- The single-hulled barge San Gabriel buckled and split open in rough seas, rupturing two tanks and spilling 210,000 gallons of oil in the Houston Ship Channel near Galveston, Texas. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Galveston established a joint command structure with local agencies and private contractors to isolate and then clean up the spill. Personnel from the Gulf Strike Team, MSO Houston, MSO New Orleans, Aviation Training Center Mobile, and the 8th District supplemented MSU Galveston. The majority of the spill was cleaned up in three days.

2001- CGC Thetis seized the F/V Viviana II which was grossly overloaded with 234 Ecuadorean migrants. The vessel and the migrants were turned over to the Ecuadorean Navy.

2007- The Coast Guard made the largest cocaine seizure in its history (to date) when CGCs Hamilton and Sherman seized 42,845 pound of cocaine aboard the Panamanian-flagged M/V Gatun off the coast of Panama. The Gatun was first located by a HC-130 on 17 March.

19 March

1943- British Steamer Svend Foyne was a victim of an iceberg collision off the southern tip of Greenland. One hundred forty-five persons were rescued by the Coast Guard and others. International Ice Patrol was suspended during this period (1942-1945).

1945-The first all-Coast Guard hunter-killer group ever established during the war, made up of four units of Escort Division 46, searched for a reported German U-boat near Sable Island. The hunter-killer group was made up of the Coast Guard-manned destroyer escorts USS Lowe, Menges, Mosley, and Pride, and was under the overall command of CDR R. H. French, USCG. He flew his pennant from the Pride. Off Sable Island the warships located, attacked and sank the U-866 with the loss of all hands. Interestingly, the Menges had been a victim of a German acoustic torpedo during escort of convoy operations in the Mediterranean in 1944. The torpedo had detonated directly under her stern, causing major damage and casualties, but she remained afloat. She was later towed to port and the stern of another destroyer escort, one that had been damaged well forward, was welded onto the Menges. She then returned to action.

1989-The Aoyagi Maru slammed into a reef in Lost Harbor, Alaska. She was declared a total loss after being gutted by fire when 1,200 pounds of explosives were ignited to burn off the 100,000 gallons of fuel left aboard and her cargo of 74,000 pounds of rotting cod.

20 March

1929- The most notable incident from which international complications resulted during the Prohibition era was that of the schooner I’m Alone of Nova Scotia, a vessel built for the rum trade. She had successfully plied this trade for over four years when she appeared off the Texas coast and was picketed by the cutter Wolcott in the spring of 1929. Boatswain Frank Paul marked her at 10.8 miles from shore and signaled her to heave to. Several blanks were fired and this brought the vessel to a stop. Captain Randall of the schooner allowed the Boatswain on board, there was a discussion, but when he returned, I’m Alone continued on her way. The chase resumed and shots were fired into her rigging. On the second morning, some two hundred miles south of the U.S., the cutter Dexter came up to assist and proceeded to fire into the runner, sinking the vessel. One of her crew was drowned. Repercussions were heard immediately from Canada, Britain, and France, as the drowned seaman was French. The initial complaint was that of the position of the schooner at the point of contact. Her captain maintained she was only a 7-knot vessel and she was anchored about 15 miles out in safe waters. The second infraction was that the pursuit was not a continuous one, the intervention of Dexter muddied this question. Since the speed of the suspect vessel is a consideration in determining how far out it might be seized, it should be noted that I’m Alone managed to stay ahead of Wolcott, a nearly new cutter capable of at least 11 knots, for over 24 hours. As I’m Alone was sunk, the captain’s statement that her engines were in need of repair also could not be proven. In any case, the international round of diplomatic niceties did not cease until 1935 when the United States backed off and compensation was paid to the crew of the schooner.

1941- Sabotage was discovered on an Italian vessel at Wilmington, North Carolina. The Coast Guard investigated all Italian and German vessels in American ports and took into "protective custody" 28 Italian vessels, two German and 35 Danish vessels. Coast Guard boarding teams discovered that their crews had damaged 27 of the Italian ships and one of the German ships. The Coast Guard also took into custody a total of 850 Italian and 63 German officers and crew. Two months later these vessels were requisitioned for service with the United States by order of Congress for the Latin American trade.

21 March

1791- Hopley Yeaton of New Hampshire was commissioned as "Master of a Cutter in the Service of the United States for the Protection of the Revenue." This first commission of a seagoing officer of the United States was signed by George Washington and attested to by Thomas Jefferson. Twelve other commissions of officers of revenue cutters were signed on the same date. Yeaton was subsequently assigned to command the Revenue cutter Scammel, stationed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

1916- On this date Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone, USCG became the first Coast Guard officer ordered to flight training. He reported to Pensacola Naval Aviation Training School.

22 March

1917-The first Coast Guard aviators graduated from Pensacola Naval Aviation Training School. Third Lieutenant Elmer Stone, USCG, became Naval Aviator #38 (and later Coast Guard Aviator #1).

1919- The Acting Secretary of the Treasury advised that light keepers and the officers and crews of vessels were not entitled to the benefits of the Public Health Service free of charge after retirement.

2003- Three Iraqi sailors were captured in the northern Persian Gulf, the first Enemy Prisoners of War (EPOWs) taken by Coast Guard forces deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 24-member crew of the CGC Adak plucked the Iraqi sailors from the sea. The Iraqis had jumped overboard as their patrol boat was destroyed by coalition forces operating in the Gulf. The POWs were taken aboard the Adak and later transferred to an undisclosed location.

23 March

1974- The 40-foot sailing vessel Lorisel II reported she was aground one mile southeast of North Rock, Bahamas, off the eastern shore of Bimini. An HU-16 aircraft and the CGC Cape Shoalwater were dispatched to assist. The aircraft located the vessel and a local island boat, which was diverted to remove two women and a child from Lorisel II. Cape Shoalwater re-floated the vessel, returned the passengers, and the Lorisel II got underway with no apparent damage.

24 March

1909- Muskeget, Massachusetts: the schooner Vigilant parted moorings, and stranded one mile south of the station. The owner applied to the keeper at 10:30 p.m. for assistance. Surfmen proceeded to the scene, carried out an anchor and line, and hove the schooner into deep water. During the storm the owner was sheltered and supplied with meals at the station for two days. But for the security afforded by an additional anchor and cable loaned by the crew, Vigilant would have stranded a second time.

1920-The first Coast Guard air station was established at Morehead City, North Carolina. The station was closed on 1 July 1921 due to a lack of funding.

1989- The tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 10.1 million gallons of crude oil. This was the worst oil spill in U.S. history to date. Coast Guard units responded and prevented the entire cargo from spilling, cleaned up the oil which did spill, and conducted an investigation into the causes of the accident. The spill provided the impetus for the passage of the Oil Protection Act of 1990, which greatly increased the Coast Guard's role in protecting the nation against spills.

25 March

1911- The Treasury Department directed the keepers of life-saving stations to keep a lookout through the beach patrol for stray buoys washed ashore, to secure such buoys when it could be done, and to report their discovery or action to the nearest representative of the Lighthouse Service.

26 March

1938- On 26 March 1938 the US Coast Guard motor lifeboat Triumph departed from the Point Adams Station, located near Hammond, Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River. It proceeded out to the bar and stood by while several crab boats crossed in. The tug Tyee with a barge load of logs in tow was attempting to cross out. Tyee passed too close to the life buoy and the barge drifted into the outer break on Clatsop Spit. Triumph, while attempting to assist Tyee, lost Surfman Richard O. Bracken overboard in the breakers of Clatsop Spit. Bracken would have been drowned had it not been for the skill of BN (L) John F. McCormick, Officer-in-Charge of Triumph, and the cooperation of the crew, namely CMOMM (L) Albert L. Olsen and Surfman Harold W. Lawrence. In making the rescue, Triumph was carried broadside on the face of a wave a distance of approximately 50 yards. The masts had been completely submerged, then the boat righted itself. Bracken had been washed overboard by the force of the sea. McCormick acting with exceptional skill maneuvered Triumph against the strong current, into the breakers and picked up the drowning man. Olsen remained in the engine room during all these maneuvers, stayed at the controls under perilous conditions, and rendered commendable service. McCormick was awarded a Gold Life-Saving Medal for this rescue. Olsen and Lawrence were awarded Silver Lifesaving Medals for their actions during this rescue.
1945- Coast Guardsmen participated in the landings at Geruma Shima, Hokaji Shima, and Takashiki in the Ryukyu Islands.

1946- International Ice Patrol resumed after being suspended during World War II.

27 March

1943- CG-85006 (ex-Catamount) exploded off Ambrose Light. Nine crewmen were lost.

1964- An earthquake (which hit 9.2 on the Richter scale) and an ensuing tsunami struck Alaska, killing 125 people and causing $311 million in property damage. Coast Guard units responded in what was called "Operation Helping Hand." Within two hours of the earthquake, which began at 1732 local time, the cutters Storis, Minnetonka, and Sorrel were ordered to Prince William Sound; the Bittersweet to Seward; and the Sedge to Valdez. "The following morning, three fixed-wing aircraft from Air Detachment Kodiak surveyed the damage while helicopters evacuated those in need. By March 31, most of the direct assistance had been rendered and the task of repair and clean up began. Approximately 360 civilians were evacuated from villages and isolated areas in Kodiak Island and Prince William Sound. The Storis was diverted to Cook Inlet for icebreaking duties in the Port of Anchorage until 18 April." [Arbogast, et al, The U.S. Coast Guard in Kodiak, Alaska, p. 15.] A number of the Coast Guard stations in the area sustained damage, some of it severe. The only Coast Guard fatality occurred when the tsunami struck the light station at Cape St. Elias and one crewman, EN3 Frank O. Reed, was swept out to sea and perished.

2003- Coast Guard cutter Wrangell, homeported in Portland, Maine, along with a Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Honolulu, escorted the first waterborne humanitarian aid shipment into the port of Umm Qasr without incident, while members of Coast Guard Port Security Unit 311, from San Pedro, Calif., assisted other coalition forces protecting the harbor. The shipment, consisting of vital aid donated by numerous countries, was carried aboard the British ship RFA Sir Galahad.

28 March

1968- The Secretary of Transportation released his Report on Recreational Boat Safety. The report contained a detailed explanation of the proposed legislation and the programs the department intended to undertake if the proposal was adopted.

1993-A Colonial Pipeline Company pipe ruptured, spilling 400,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the Sugarland Run creek in Herndon, Virginia. The EPA requested the assistance from the National Strike Force. Other units mobilized for the clean-up operation included a helicopter from AIRSTA Cape May, an air-eye HU-25 from AIRSTA Cape Cod, personnel from MSO Baltimore, the CGC Capstan, and reservists from the region. The strike team used the new DESMI 250 skimmer and pump to control the spill. Coast Guardsmen assisted with the cleanup and safety operations as well as provided technical assistance. By 2 April, Colonial Pipeline, who claimed responsibility for the spill, had more than 250 contract personnel handling cleanup operations. The strike teams stayed on site to monitor the cleanup. The last strike team member left the spill site on 10 April.

29 March

1867-The lighthouse at Timbalier Bay was destroyed in a hurricane. The brick tower "was leveled to the ground and covered with from three to six feet of water." The Lighthouse Board commended the keepers, "who faithfully performed their duty, barely escaping with their lives, and living for some days in an iron can buoy . . ."

1898- Lieutenants David Jarvis and Ellsworth P. Bertholf and Surgeon Dr. Samuel J. Call of the USRC Bear reached Point Barrow, Alaska, after a 2,000 mile "mush" from Nunivak Island that first started on 17 December 1897, driving reindeer as food for 97 starving whalers caught in the Arctic ice. This Overland Rescue was heralded by the press and at the request of President William McKinley, Congress issued special gold medals in their honor.

1938- By an Executive Order of this date, President Franklin Roosevelt enlarged substantially the number of "personnel in the Lighthouse Service who are subject to the principle of the civil service," which allowed advancement in the Service solely on individual merit.

1984-Coast Guard AIRSTA Cape May and Group Cape May responded to severe flooding in southern New Jersey and Delaware after a late winter storm struck the area on 29 March 1984. Coast Guardsmen evacuated 149 civilians from Cape May and Atlantic City.

1985- The last lightship in service with the Coast Guard, the USCGC Nantucket I was decommissioned. This ended 164 years of continuous lightship service by the Government. Nantucket I was the last of the U.S. lightships and the last of the Nantucket Shoals lightships that watched over that specific area since June of 1854. Launched as WLV-612 in 1950 at Baltimore, the ship also stood watch as the light vessel for San Francisco and Blunts Reef in California, at Portland, Oregon, and finally at Nantucket Shoals. The CGC Nantucket I also served as a "less-than-speedy" law enforcement vessel off Florida for a time.

30 March

1867- Alaska purchase treaty signed with Russia.

1942- By Presidential proclamation, the Coast Guard was designated as a service of the Navy to be administered by the Commandant of Coast Guard under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, similar to the administration of the Marine Corps.

31 March

1932- United States signed Whaling Convention at Geneva with 21 other countries.

1995- Coast Guard Communication Area Master Station Atlantic sent a final message by Morse Code and then signed off, officially ending more than 100 years of telegraph communication.

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Last Modified 7/15/2008