The Coast Guard
along the
North Atlantic Coast
by
Dennis L. Noble
From the craggy coast of
The first lighthouse in the country was built in
Boston, and the first ship of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, Massachusetts,
was built in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The federal government
built a series of huts along the New Jersey coast to shelter shipwrecked
mariners, and the U.S. Life-Saving Service performed its first rescue there
in 1850. Those three agencies; the Lighthouse Service, the Life-Saving
Service and the Revenue Cutter Service were later joined, so in truth, the
history of the U.S. Coast Guard began on shores of the North Atlantic.
"Steer for yonder
light"
Early settlers found New England a hostile home.
The rocky soil was difficult to farm and the winters were severe. For
a time the solution was easy; continued dependence upon Europe and the sea.
Sailing ships brought manufactured goods like clothes from England.
Colonial boats fished for cod, and later lobster, throughout Massachusetts
Bay.
Navigation was difficult. Sailors depended upon the
sun, stars and primitive compasses. There were no accurate charts of
the American coasts. As early as 1700, colonists realized the need for
lighthouses to guide ships to port. Massachusetts erected a
lighthouse on a small island in Boston Harbor in 1716. The next year,
a cannon was put on the island to be fired in fog and storms. Boston Light
became both the first lighthouse and the first fog signal in the country.
More lights followed as Americas maritime trade grew:
Brant Point on Nantucket in 1746; Beavertail Light, in Narragansett Bay,
Rhode Island, in 1749; and Gurnet Point, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in
1768. Sandy Hook Lighthouse was built on a New Jersey point outside New York
harbor in 1764. Because it has never been rebuilt, Sandy Hook is the
oldest original lighthouse operating in the country.
Lighthouses played a curious role in the American
Revolution. The colonists and the British both took turns attacking
Boston Light to prevent the other from using Boston harbor. The light
was finally demolished. Nearby Gumet Light was struck by a cannonball
from a British frigate. The first woman keeper was Hannah Thomas who
took over at Gurnet Point Light in 1776 when her husband, General John
Thomas, went to Canada to assume command of American troops there.
An incident in the next war with England demonstrated
how important women would later become to the Lighthouse Service.
During the War of 1812, the British warship Hogue sailed into the
harbor of Scituate. The lighthouse keeper was away on business, but
his two young daughters saw the danger. With a fife and drum, the
girls hid in the dunes and began playing as loudly as they could.
Thinking the Army of Two was a regiment of militia approaching, the British
withdrew and did not attack.
After the revolution, the colonies gave 11 lighthouses
to the new federal government. Realizing the importance of navigation
to the growing country, Congress established the Lighthouse Service in 1789
to erect and repair all the lighthouses, beacons and buoys in the new United
States. In 1790, President George Washington authorized the completion
of a new lighthouse in Portland, Maine, the first built by the federal
government.
As the number of lighthouses along the coast
increased, it became increasingly difficult for the mariner at sea to
distinguish the light of one port from another port. From a great
distance, lighthouses looked like identical steady white lights. The
easiest way to distinguish between the lights was to put more than one light
together. The first twin towers were built on Thatcher’s Island,
near Gloucester, in 1771. Twin towers also were built on Navesink
Highlands, New Jersey in 1828. Three identical towers were built on
Nauset Beach, Cape Cod.
Clearly, building several towers together was not
always easy. Another solution was to change the way the light looked,
for instance make one light steady and another nearby flashing. In 1797,
"eclipsers" were installed on Cape Cod Lighthouse, in Chatham,
making it the first light with an intermittent characteristic.
During the next century, the lighthouses changed with America’s
inventiveness, and a little bit of "Yankee know-how." A fog
bell at White Head Light in Maine was powered by the tide. The flow of water
wound a weight which drove the striking mechanism. Some later aids to
navigation used automatic light-bulb changers.
The history of Navesink Light reads like a science
primer. In 1841, the first Fresnel (pronounced fren-nel) lens used in
this country was installed at Navesink. The lens, designed by a French
optician, Augustin Fresnel, magnified the projected light through beveled
prisms. A generator was installed in 1898 and Navesink became the
first lighthouse to use an electric lamp, making it the most powerful
lighthouse in the country, with 25,000,000 candlepower. Although the
curvature of the Earth prevented ships from seeing the light itself beyond
22 miles, its beam was observed in the sky at 70 miles. The following
year, Guglielmo Marconi transmitted from the light station the first ship to
shore radio messages. In 1917, the first experimental radio beacon was
installed there. Innovation was the hallmark of lighthouse
engineering and building lighthouses was often a test of the latest
technology. Perhaps no light was more challenging than the granite
tower built off the coast of Massachusetts on Minot’s Ledge.
The rocks along the coast of Cohasset, Massachusetts,
claimed many ships and many lives in the early part of the 19th century.
Between 1830 and 1840, 40 ships sank in this treacherous area. Perhaps
the greatest tragedy came shortly before a lighthouse was completed when the
steamer St. John ran aground in an October, 1849 storm and 99 people
were lost, mostly Irish immigrants. The Lighthouse Service constructed
an iron skeleton tower on the Minot’s Ledge between 1847 and 1850.
The engineers believed the open columns would allow the sea to pass below
without resistance.
The beacon was lighted on January 1, 1850, but it
survived barely a year. Storms in March and April the following year
battered the light, loosening and bending cross braces in the pedestal
framework. A storm that began April 8, 1851 struck the fatal blow
against the weakened structure. Sometime during the night of April 16,
the main support stilt snapped and the tower swayed at the mercy of wind and
wave. The two keepers rang the lighthouse bell, heard by the residents
of nearby Cohasset even above the roar of the storm. They also sealed a note
in a bottle and pitched it out to sea. The note, found by a fisherman
the next morning, read, "The lighthouse won’t stand over to night.
She shakes two feet each way now." The bell was silenced when
the tower fell into the sea during the early hours of April 17. The
two keepers donned life preservers and jumped into the ocean. One
drowned and the other died of exposure on a bare rock.
Construction of a second tower began in 1855.
The stubs of the previous stilts were removed and the uneven surface of the
ledge was cut into steps. The work went slowly because the rock was
only exposed at low tide and engineers were stumped by several problems.
One difficulty ingeniously solved was how to keep the
mortar from being washed away before it dried. Workers spread out a
piece of muslin and covered it with mortar. Then the finished stone
was laid on the muslin and plastered with mortar. Finally, the muslin
was wrapped around the stone to prevent the mortar from dissolving in the
seawater.
The second tower was lighted November 15, 1860.
Minot’s Light stands today against waves that sometimes crest above its
97-foot peak. One lighthouse historian called Minot’s Light
"The single greatest engineering achievement" of 19th century
lighthouse construction in this country.
Today, the life of a lighthouse keeper might seem
idyllic but the word they used most often to describe their lives was
lonely. The lights were isolated, often on remote islands; and keepers
could only be away a few hours during the day, and had to remain at the
light constantly during bad weather. The keeper’s job revolved
around maintaining the lamp, tower and quarters. When Lighthouse
Service inspectors visited, the first thing they inspected was the dustpan.
A polished dustpan was the mark of a good lighthouse. During the
1800s, lights used lamps that burned whale oil or lard. The quality of
the light depended upon how well the wick was trimmed. Gradually, keepers
were nicknamed "wickies."
The duties of a lighthouse keeper were tedious and
often dangerous. In addition to the endless maintenance of light and
structure, keepers had to be alert and ready to respond to vessels in
distress. Many keepers were women who, like Katie Walker, assumed the
duties their father or husband could no longer perform. Katie Walker
remained keeper of Robbins Reef Lighthouse in New York harbor for 34 years.
Perhaps the most famous woman keeper was Ida Lewis.
She was keeper of Lime Rock Lighthouse in Rhode Island for 32 years.
Her fame was a result of the many daring rescues she performed. An
excellent swimmer and an expert sailor, she made her first rescue as a
teenager and her last at the age of 64. In all, she is credited with
saving more than a dozen lives.
With electricity, keepers no longer had to remain
awake all night and watch the burning wick. By the 1920s, lighthouses
were built with equipment that did not even need a keeper to turn the light
on. These "automated" lights were the most recent
development in the advancement of lighthouse technology but also meant the
end of an era. The days of the lighthouse keeper were numbered.
In fact, with improved navigation, including such electronic aids as radar
and radio navigation, lighthouses themselves were no longer as important as
during the earliest days of the colonies.
A life by the
lighthouse
Abbie Burgess was 14 when she first went to Matinicus
Rock, off the coast of Maine. Her father was keeper there for eight
years. She helped him light the 28 lamps that warned ships away from
the dangerous ledges in Penobscot Bay. In 1856, winter supplies were
running desperately low and Keeper Burgess decided to make a winter trip
ashore to fetch food and medicine for his invalid wife. He left Abbie
in charge of the light. Soon after he left, a storm blew in and he was
unable to return for several weeks. As the gale raged, Abbie moved her
mother and the children into the light tower for safety. The waves
completely washed away their first home on the island, and from the tower,
Abbie watched the destruction below.
"The new dwelling was flooded and the windows had
to be secured to prevent the violence of the spray from breaking them in.
As the tide came, the sea rose higher and higher, till the only endurable
places were the light-towers. If they stood we were saved, otherwise
our fate was only too certain. But for some reason, I know not why, I had no
misgivings, and went on with my work as usual. For four weeks, owing
to rough weather, no landing could be effected on the Rock. During
this time we were without the assistance of any male member of our family.
Though at times greatly exhausted with my labors, not once did the lights
fail Under God I was able to perform all my accustomed duties as well as my
father’s.
"You know the hens were our only companions.
Becoming convinced as the gale increased, that unless they were brought into
the house they would be lost, I said to mother: "I must try to save
them." She advised me not to attempt it. The thought,
however, of parting with them without an effort was not to be endured, so
seizing a basket, I ran out a few yards after the rollers had passed and the
sea fell off a little, with the water knee deep, to the coop, and rescued
all but one. It was the work of a moment, and I was back in the house
with the door fastened, but I was none too quick, for at that instant my
little sister, standing at the window, exclaimed, "Oh, look! look
there! The worst sea is coming!"
"That wave destroyed the old dwelling and swept
the Rock. The sea is never still and when agitated, its roars shuts
out every other sound, even drowning our voices."
Gradually the storm subsided. Keeper Burgess returned
to find his family and his light safe.
Although her family left the island after her father
was no longer keeper, Abbie stayed and married the new assistant keeper.
She remained on Matinicus until 1875 when her husband was transferred to
White Head Light, near Spruce Head, Maine. Abbie died in 1892, after
spending 38 of her 52 years at a lighthouse. Shortly before her death, she
wrote;
"Sometimes I think the time is not far distant
when I shall climb these lighthouse stairs no more. It has always
seemed to me that the light was part of myself. . .Many nights I have
watched the lights my part of the night, and then could not sleep the rest
of the night, thinking nervously what might happen should the lights fail.
"In all these years I always put the lamps in
order in the morning and I lit them at night. These old lamps. . .on
Matinicus Rock...I often dream of them. When I dream of them it always
seems to me that I have been away a long while, and I am hurrying toward the
Rock to light the lamps there before sunset. . .I feel a great deal more
worried in my dreams than when I am awake.
"I wonder if the care of the lighthouse will
follow my soul after it has left this worn out body! If I ever have a
gravestone, I would like it in the form of a lighthouse or beacon."
Many years later, the author and lighthouse historian,
Edward Rowe Snow, erected a small lighthouse over Abbie Burgess Grant’s
grave.
Sea duty:
Danger and boredom mark life onboard floating lighthouses
The most dangerous duty in the Lighthouse Service was
aboard lightships. These floating lighthouses anchored offshore where
it was impossible to build a permanent tower. They remained on
isolated stations for several weeks, through storms and fog. Because they
marked the sea lanes, several lightships were struck by passing ships
navigating through the dark and fog. One skipper described his duty as
"weeks of boredom, interrupted by moments of sheer terror."
One of the first lightships stationed off the shores of the United States
was at Sandy Hook in 1823. In 1908, that station was replaced by the
Ambrose Channel Lightship, and later a light atop a fixed tower.
Storms were a constant threat to the lightships.
Five Fathom Banks Lightship off the entrance to Delaware Bay was
struggling through a tempest August 23, 1893. Waves washed over the
vessel and carried away the lifeboats. Finally, the lightship was
struck broadside by a wave and capsized. The assistant engineer was
trapped below decks, but somehow managed to reach the surface after the ship
sank. He clung to the wreckage for 16 hours until rescuers arrived.
The other four crewmen were lost with the ship.
Sometimes storms claimed both ship and crew.
During a hurricane in 1944, Lightship #73 disappeared from Vineyard Station
near Cuttyhunk Island, Mass. All 12 crewmen were lost, but only two bodies
were ever recovered. During the winter of 1918, the Cross Rip Lightship,
stationed off Cape Cod, was carried out to sea by an ice floe and never
heard from again.
Collisions with freighters and passenger liners were a
constant threat to the lightships . A skipper of the Nantucket Lightship
said, "Some of the larger steamers passed very close aboard during a
heavy fog. A few times almost grazing us." In fact, the Nantucket
was finally rammed and sunk by the steamship RMS Olympic, the
sister ship of Titanic, May 15, 1934. Seven crewmen were lost.
One particularly unlucky lightship was struck twice in one year. The
lightship stationed off Fire Island in 1896 was hit head-on by the steamer Eastern
City in March and then rammed by the steamer Philadelphia in May.
Lightships are no longer used in this country. These
dangerous stations were replaced by towers, like those at Ambrose, Buzzards
Bay and Breton’s Reef or by large buoys, like those at Nantucket or
Portland.
Smugglers, pirates and
war
The American colonies were dependent upon England for
more than manufactured goods and tea. When the French and Indians
attacked settlers along the frontier, English troops came to the
colonists’ defense. But the cost of protecting and supporting the
colonies forced the English Parliament to heavily tax products sent to
America.
The colonists rebelled. In many cases, they simply
refused to pay the English taxes and instead smuggled goods from other
countries. Such patriots as John Hancock joined the smuggling trade and his
sloop, Liberty, was seized by the British. Soon smuggling had
patriotic overtones and became an acceptable means of earning a living.
Finally, war came and one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution
was "no taxation without representation." America won its
freedom but the eight-year war left the fledgling country nearly $80,000,000
in debt with no way to fund its new federal government. To resolve the
nation’s financial problems, George Washington shrewdly appointed
Alexander Hamilton as the first Secretary of the Treasury.
Hamilton, a New York lawyer and aide to Washington
during the Revolution, realized the need to collect taxes and enforce tariff
laws. He also knew Americans resented the taxes Congress passed and
smuggling flourished even after the war. He proposed a seagoing police
force to stop smuggling and raise revenues.
On August 4, 1790, Congress authorized the
construction of 10 ships to patrol the Atlantic coast. Hamilton
instructed his customs agents to supervise their construction; a demanding
job. The cutters had to be fast to overtake ships at sea; sturdy
enough to sail off the coast and endure foul weather; yet shallow so they
could pursue ships up rivers and still cost only $1,000 apiece.
The first Revenue Marine cutter, the Massachusetts,
was built in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and sailed in 1791. It
was built too large and exceeded costs so it was quickly replaced. The
Scammel was built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; the Argus in
Connecticut and the Vigilant in New York.
Hamilton was especially concerned about the conduct of
the Revenue Marine officers. He knew that there was some resentment
among merchants toward the Customs tariffs and agents. Hamilton’s
instructions to his officer’s were clear: "They will always keep in
mind that their countrymen are freemen, and, as such, are impatient of
everything that bears the least mark of domineering spirit. They will,
therefore refrain, with the most guarded circumspection, from whatever has
the semblance of haughtiness, rudeness, or insult."
The early captains and officers were experienced
seamen, all were veterans of the Revolution and some may have even smuggled
some themselves. On March 21, 1791, Hopley Yeaton, of Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, was appointed the first skipper of the Scammel and the
first naval officer commissioned by President Washington.
While 10 cutters could not stop all smuggling along
the coast, Hamilton and his customs agents were pleased with the results:
Revenues increased. Joseph Whipple, Customs officer in New Hampshire, wrote
to Hamilton about the Scammel;
"The services performed by the Cutter I conceive
to have been very important to the safety and preservation of the Revenue.
The Coast which is assigned to her, that of New Hampshire and the District
of Maine, extending nearly 300 miles, many of which afford convenient places
for fraudulent practices which have been checked by the attention and
vigilance of the officers of the Scammel. The services for the past year
consisted in cruising the aformentioned Coast, in entering and examining the
Vessel’s papers, instructing the ignorant coasters, and in bringing to
justice those who break or evade the law."
The cutters were quickly called upon to do more than
law enforcement. The Continental Navy had been disbanded after the
Revolution and the United States found itself without naval defense against
England and France. American sailors were often impressed into service
aboard foreign ships. Countries that refused to recognize the United
States as a sovereign nation simply seized American vessels.
Relations with France deteriorated over America’s
neutrality in France’s war against Britain. As hostilities
increased, Congress assigned the Revenue Cutters the additional job of
defending American ships. "An Act providing Naval Armament" passed
June 14. 1797, directed the service "to defend the Sea Coast of the
United States and to repel any hostility to the Commerce of the United
States..."
Congress instructed the Revenue Cutters to increase
the size of their crew and armament. After a Naval Department was
established, Congress authorized the President to transfer the Revenue
Cutters to the Navy as needed. That policy remains in effect today: In
times of war, the Coast Guard serves under the Secretary of the Navy.
Eight new cutters served with the Navy during the Quasi-War with France in
1798, including the Pickering, built in Newburyport. The Revenue
Cutters seized 16 of the 20 French ships captured by the American Navy and
assisted in capturing two more.
Only five of the eight were returned to the Revenue
Marine at the end of the war. The cutter Pickering remained on naval
duty and sank with all hands in September 1800, the first Revenue Cutter
lost at sea. Revenue Cutters saw combat duty again during the
War of 1812. In October 1814, the cutter Eagle sailed from New Haven,
Connecticut, to rescue the American merchant ship, Susan, that was
captured by a British sloop and the 18-gun brig, Dispatch.
Captain Frederick Lee on board Eagle realized
small cannons were no match for the two British ships. He ran Eagle aground
on Negros Head, Long Island. There his crew and 40 volunteers hauled the
cannons up a steep bluff. When the cannons were in place, the
cuttermen opened fire against the British ships. The gunfire echoed along
the beach for five hours. Dispatch alone fired 300 rounds. Twice the
cutter’s flag was shot away but, according to witnesses, it was replaced
each time by a sailor "amid the cheers of his undaunted comrades and a
whole broadside from the enemy. The stubborn resistance of Eagle’s
crew finally drove off the British. The crippled cutter was
re-floated and sailed for New Haven. Along the way, the British
finally captured it.
The speed of the Revenue Cutters proved an advantage
against the heavier British warships. The British privateer Dart had
seized almost 30 American ships in Long Island Sound before she sailed past
Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, October 4, 1813. Captain John Cahoone
aboard the cutter Vigilant took 20 volunteers and sailed out after Dart.
Catching the sloop, Cahoone fired a broadside then boarded it.
After a brief fight, the cutter Vigilant captured the privateer.
Revenue Marine builds
steam
Throughout the 19th century. the United States became
increasingly dependent upon the maritime industry. Land travel was
difficult then. There were few railroads, and travel by horse or coach was
slow and uncomfortable. As sturdier ships were built, more Americans
traveled by sea and more cargo was shipped onboard vessels.
With more ships at sea carrying more passengers, the
chance of disaster increased. Each year, nearly 90 American vessels
were lost, and the North Atlantic coast was littered with the broken hulks
of wrecked ships. To reduce the loss of life, the duties of the
Revenue Cutters were again increased. In 1832 cutters began making winter
cruises along the coast to assist vessels in distress a practice continued
today. The effort was so successful that search and rescue was officially
added to the duties of the Revenue Marine Service in 1837.
For the service to keep up with the growth and changes
of America’s maritime industry, it needed to adapt and grow. In 1843,
Secretary of the Treasury John Spencer, decided to put an experienced sea
captain in charge of the Revenue Marine Bureau. He selected a New York
sailor, a veteran of cruises to the Orient and former first lieutenant
aboard the cutter Alert, stationed in New York. From his
command of the cutter Ewing, Captain Alexander Fraser was promoted to
become the service’s first commandant.
Fraser established order and regulation to replace
what was merely tradition. Spencer reported to Congress that under Fraser
"Economy in expenditures and efficiency in service have been greatly
promoted. The officers and men feel that the service has been elevated, and
a corresponding zeal in the discharge of their duty has been strikingly
exhibited."
Perhaps more important was Fraser’s willingness to
adopt the latest technology for the cutters. Within a year of his
appointment, the service began construction of a cutter powered by steam.
The Legare was built by H.R. Dunham & Company of New York City
and launched in 1844. The propeller-driven Legare is most famous for
beating the side-paddler Great Western in a race off Sandy Hook, N.J.
in 1844, but the early steam cutters were largely a disappointment to
Fraser. He decided that future cutters would be built only on tested and
proven designs.
Fraser also formed an early and temporary union
between his cutters and the Lighthouse Service. The collectors of
customs were directed to supervise lighthouses within their districts just
as they did the cutters. The commanding officers of cutters inspected
lighthouses and other aids to navigation. The Revenue Marine
supervised the first efforts by the federal government to create a system of
life-saving stations. In 1848, Congress gave the Bureau $10,000 to purchase
life-saving equipment for New Jersey’s coast.
The cutters continued to aid ships in distress.
Captain Josiah Sturgis and the cutter Hamilton, of Boston, earned a
distinguished reputation for their humanitarian work and assistance to
mariners. One newspaper account said, "Having a perfect knowledge
of the coast and experience of the dangers incident to shipping by a change
of wind or a storm, Captain Sturgis always kept the cutter in a position
where her services could be rendered most efficient in assisting vessels in
distress. We hazard but little in asserting that he has rendered
assistance to more than 100 vessels during the past winter..."
The Revenue Cutters returned to combat duty during the
Civil War. Fifteen cutters patrolled the coast from Maine to New
Jersey, guarding against Confederate privateers who disrupted Northern
shipping. Rebel ships that successfully broke through the blockade of
southern ports harassed ships and ports as far north as Long Island and
Maine. Captain Charles "Savvy" Read was a daredevil
Confederate pirate. After seizing several boats along the New Jersey coast
in June, 1863, he sailed north. He planned to bombard Portland and plant a
Confederate flag on Maine soil.
The Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing was moored in
Portland. The captain had recently died and half the crew was ashore
for his funeral. The new skipper, Lieutenant James Merryman, was sailing for
Portland aboard the steamship, Forest City. Read and his men
rowed into Portland harbor on the night of June 24. In the darkness, they
boarded the cutter and quickly captured the few men onboard. He sailed the
cutter out of Portland, directly in front of Forest City, with Merryman
aboard.
As soon as the alarm went up, a crowd gathered on the
pier, ready to sail after Cushing. Three boats, loaded with
armed volunteers went in pursuit, including Forest City. The
steamers quickly overtook the cutter on the windless night. Read fired
on his pursuers until the rebels ran out of ammunition. The cutter was
loaded with wartime ammunition, but when it was seized the first lieutenant
threw the key to the stores overboard. Unable to escape or fight, Read
blew up the cutter and surrendered.
After the war, the service continued to grow and
expand. In 1871, the Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell,
appointed a civilian to head the Revenue Marine. A native of Maine,
Sumner Increase Kimball proved an able and thorough administrator and a man
of vision. He lead the service for seven years before he became General
Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service, a position he held until 1915.
Kimball wrote the first regulations of the Revenue
Marine and gave the service a system for discipline. He established an
advancement system based on competition rather than political consideration.
Kimball also established a two-year training program for officers on board
the cutter Dobbin. In 1878, Dobbin was replaced by a new
training ship, the cutter Chase, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
In 1910, Chase was transferred to Arundel Cove,
Maryland. As the size of the school grew, Arundel Cove grew cramped.
A new School of Instruction was established at the former Fort Trumbull in
New London, Connecticut, in 1910, near the home of the present Coast Guard
Academy.
After Kimball left to build the Life-Saving Service,
the Revenue Cutter Service continued to build its own reputation for
life-saving. Cutters, like Gallatin on the Massachusetts coast,
remained at sea during storms and throughout the winter months to render
assistance. During a gale in March, 1879, Gallatin assisted
five widely scattered vessels.
One of the most famous rescues of the century was
performed by the Revenue Cutter Samuel Dexter on January 18, 1884.
The passenger steamer City of Columbus ran aground on Martha’s
Vineyard with 87 passengers and 45 crewmen. Through rugged surf and
gale winds, Dexter’s small boat ventured into the submerged wreck
and plucked survivors from the rigging of the ship’s masts. Between
the efforts of the Dexter crew and local Indians using a
Massachusetts Humane Society boat, 29 people were rescued.
After the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and
sank in 1912, the cutters Seneca and Miami began patrolling
the North Atlantic to warn trans-Atlantic steamers of ice conditions.
The Ice Patrol was made an official function of the Revenue Cutter Service
in 1914.
The versatility of the Revenue Cutter Service was
repeatedly praised by politicians and journalists. One service that
performed so many missions seemed to exemplify American efficiency.
Indeed, there was only one duplication of effort... to resolve. In
1912, the Captain Commandant of the Revenue Cutter Service, Captain E.P.
Bertholf and the elderly Kimball, still General Superintendent of the
Life-Saving Service, wrote a bill to join the two agencies. In 1915,
the bill passed and the Coast Guard was born.
"You have to go
out"
If first settlers complained the new colonial lands
were inhospitable, they got little sympathy from early American sailors.
The North Atlantic waters are cold and unforgiving. The rocky coast is
protected by submerged ledges and treacherous shoals. The violent
winter gales can blow for weeks at a time.
The first ships in America were relatively small,
usually about 100 feet in length. Driven by sails, they were at the
mercy of the wind. Early navigation was not very precise so sailing on the
open ocean was dangerous and time-consuming. Most ships traveled along the
coastline.
Before railroads and automobiles, most cargo in this
country was moved by ship. In 1789, 70,000 tons traveled by sea, by
1830 that increased to 500,000 tons and before the Civil War the volume grew
to 2.6 million tons. This method of trade was called
"coasting." Coasting meant navigating the dangerous rocks
and shoals. Ships were blown ashore by sudden storms or grounded in
uncharted waters. As more passenger ships began the coastal routes,
the chance for loss of life was great.
Even if victims of shipwrecks reached the shore, they
could expect little help. In the winter months, survivors might die of
exposure on the isolated beaches. The ill-fated schooner Nottingham
Galley wrecked on Boon Island, Maine, during a winter storm in 1710.
The crew survived the wreck, but there was no food on the island. They
ate mussels and seaweed scraped from the rocks until they lost their fingers
to frostbite. Finally, they resorted to cannibalism.
As early as 1786, Americans acted to help the
shipwrecked sailor. The Massachusetts Humane Society built a shelter
on Nantasket Beach in Boston Harbor to protect survivors from the weather.
Twenty years later they built a boathouse at Cohasset, Massachusetts. Local
volunteers used the boat and equipment but there was no assigned crew or
formal training. Other boathouses followed, but they were located
primarily around busy ports. The long stretches of barren coastline
remained without haven or assistance for the shipwrecked.
The effort gained strength from other charitable
agencies and business concerns, including the New York Life-Saving
Benevolent Association and the Philadelphia Board of Underwriters . The
federal government also attempted to reduce the loss of life by constructing
lighthouses, improving coastal charts and having the Revenue Cutters patrol
during the winter.
The coast of New Jersey was particularly dangerous.
The passenger ship Mexico ran aground on sandbars there in 1837,
claiming all 112 lives. At the time, New York City was the busiest port in
the hemisphere. The dangerous approach to New York Harbor was a
constant threat to the immigrants and cargo bound for the city. In the
decade prior to 1848, 338 ships wrecked along the New Jersey and Long Island
coasts.
A Congressman from New Jersey, Dr. William Newell,
sponsored a bill to spend $10,000 for a series of huts along his state’s
coast to shelter the survivors of wrecks. The Revenue Marine
constructed the eight stations, the first at Spermacetti Cove, near Sandy
Hook, N.J., and provided some equipment to be used by volunteers.
Revenue Marine Captain Douglas Ottinger surveyed what was available at the
time and purchased surfboats, mortars and, a recent invention, life-cars.
The life-cars were enclosed, watertight metal boats that could be hauled
back and forth between the shore and a wrecked ship by a guideline.
The life-cars were particularly effective along the Atlantic coast where
storms and heavy surf could prevent rescuers from launching boats.
Like the Cohasset station, the stations did not have
full-time personnel but depended upon volunteers from the local towns to use
the equipment according to instructions Ottinger had printed. Six
months after the shelters were complete, volunteers performed the first
rescue of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. The British bark Ayrshire ran
aground several hundred yards offshore from Squan Beach, N.J. Volunteers
used a mortar to shoot a hawser to the ship. A pulley system shuttled
the lifeboat to the wreck and returned loaded with passengers. Of 202
persons aboard, 201 were rescued. One man died when he ignored the
rescuers and attempted to ride ashore clinging to the outside of the
life-car.
Within 10 years, 56 stations lined the shores of New
Jersey and Long Island. Investment in life-saving was sporadic.
There was no money for training or to maintain the equipment until the New
Era disaster in 1854. The 1,800-ton ship ran aground 500 yards off
the coast of Asbury Park, N.J., and its master and crew quickly abandoned
ship, leaving more than 500 German immigrants aboard. Nightfall delayed
rescue efforts until the next day, and when the line-cannons were finally
used, the lines snapped due to corrosion and decay. Some passengers were
able to wade ashore, but more than 350 people perished.
As a result, paid keepers were hired in 1856 to direct
the volunteers. More stations were built in New England under the direction
of the Humane Society, and by 1874 stations stretched up the coast to Maine.
However, there were no regulations and little administration. Sumner
Kimball, then Chief of the Revenue Marine Division, organized the
Life-Saving Service into one of the most efficient agencies of the federal
government. In 1878, he became General Superintendent of the Service, the
only person to hold that job.
The service used primarily two methods to rescue
people from distressed ships. Surfboats or lifeboats were used to reach
those who were farther from shore. Ships that were aground close by the
beach could be assisted with the breeches buoy, or a life-car.
When ships were within a few hundred yards of the
beach, the life-savers fired a projectile with a line attached over the
ship. These were fired from small cannons, the most famous of these was the
Lyle gun. Once the line was fastened to the ship, a pulley system was used
to transfer the survivors in either the breeches buoy or the life-car,
depending upon the surf conditions.
The crews at the stations were called surfmen.
Typically, they were experienced sailors or fishermen who had proven their
abilities against the sea. They drilled almost daily, and at night walked
long beach patrols, keeping constant watch for distressed ships. The work
was seasonal, depending upon shipping and weather but usually lasted from
November to April. By the turn of the century, many stations were manned all
year.
Newspapers sang the praise of these "soldiers of
the surf" and "storm warriors." Even the official reports
written by Kimball read like adventure novels . The Annual Report of the
Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service are chronicles of
human courage, and terrible tragedy. Those tales were no more
spectacular than the accounts by eyewitnesses. W.G. Nash, of Logansport,
Indiana, recounted a rescue he watched on the coast of Maine in October
1880:
"The English brig Kate Upham was driven into
Western Bay, between Pond Point and the Crumples, during a fearful storm,
and struck on a ledge near Fisherman’s Island. She had lost her rudder,
her boats, and was otherwise injured. The brave crew of the life-saving
station, with more courage than it required to face a battery [of guns),
launched their surf-boat, and went to the rescue. Standing on Beal’s
Island, looking through my glass, I had a good view of the surroundings. It
seemed impossible for a boat to live in such a sea. "Tempest
tossed" was no longer an imaginary picture. On every hand the sea was
breaking, and the life-boat, with her noble crew, seemed but the sport of
the angry waves; one moment hidden in the trough of the sea, the next borne
rapidly on a vast comber toward the ill-fated brig. While I could but admire
the spirit that prompted the daring men to risk their lives in the noble
service, it seemed a suicidal attempt; for the chances were looking greatly
against them. By almost superhuman efforts they reached the brig and saved
the crew-eleven men."
At times the odds set too heavily against the
lifesavers and many died in attempting rescues. One of the most tragic
incidents was the loss of the keeper, Capt. David Atkins and two crewmen,
Elisha Taylor and Stephen Mayo of the Peaked Hill Bar station on Cape Cod.
In the early hours of Nov. 30, 1880, the station boat was launched to assist
the grounded sloop C.E. Trumbull. The crew reached the sloop
and removed four crewmen, but the pilot and the skipper insisted on
retrieving their baggage. The surfboat brought the first group ashore
and returned for the others. While waiting in the rough surf for the
two men, the surfboat was snagged by the sloop’s boom and capsized. F our
of the surfmen swam to shore, but Atkins and the others drowned in the icy
waters.
Probably the most famous of the life-savers was Joshua
James. He first joined the crew of a Massachusetts Humane Society boat
at 15 and earned his first bronze medal for heroism at 23. During his
75 years, he saved more than 600 lives. He directed the rescue of five
boats off Nantasket Beach during the famous Blizzard of 1888. His crew
worked without food or rest for 24 hours to rescue 29 people trapped on
boats grounded by the storm. For these rescues, James received gold
medals from the Humane Society and the federal government. James
finally joined the Life-Saving Service in 1889, at age 62 -- 17 years beyond
the service’s age limit. But he had no difficulty passing the
physical examination required of the younger men, and he passed again at age
74.
Because of his outstanding service to the Humane
Society, James was appointed first keeper of Point Allerton Life-Saving
Station, Hull, Massachusetts. His crews earned many awards for their
daring rescues. The rigors of rowing a surfboat through pounding surf
and the practice needed to quickly assemble the breeches buoy rigging
demanded regular training. James drilled his crews even in poor
weather, as he did March 19, 1902. Two days earlier most of the crew
of the Monomoy Point LifeSaving Station died while attempting to rescue the
crew of a stranded barge. James clearly understood the dangers of his
trade and the need for training.
James steered the boat through the surf for more than
an hour. He ordered the boat ashore and leapt onto the beach. Glancing
at the sea, he told his men: "The tide is ebbing." Then
Joshua James fell dead on the beach.
James’ last words were prophetic. With the new
century, the days of the sailing ships were ending. Equipped with
engines and better navigation, fewer ships ran aground. Soon the motor
lifeboat replaced the open skiff as the Coast Guard ushered in a new era of
life-saving.
In a biography of Joshua James, Sumner Kimball
described the men of the Life-Saving Service:
"They are hardly known to their countrymen living
inland; but to the inhabitants of the coast, especially that portion
interested in our sea and lake commerce, and to those who follow the sea,
they are well known indeed! To the latter, when the tropical hurricane or
the chilling blast of the Arctic winter storm is driving their helpless
craft into danger and possible destruction, or when the impenetrable fog
envelopes them for days at a time, rendering chart and reckoning worthless,
the assurance that a practically continuous line of keen-eyed and sleepless
sentinels march and countermarch along the surf-beaten beaches or stand
guard with warning signals in hand upon the jutting cliffs and headlands
reaching far out into the sea for unwary victims, lends a comfortable sense
of security. That this confidence is not misplaced is attested by the
statistics, which show that of more than a hundred thousand lives imperiled
upon vessels wrecked or in distress within the scope of the operations of
the station crews ... less than one percent has been lost, and that a
considerable portion of even this small percentage is made up of those whom
no human agency could save..."
Guardians of the Sea
The era of sail was ending with the close of the
1800s. The expansion of railroads reduced the coasting trade.
Fewer sailing ships were built and technology made navigation safer.
By World War I, steamships and motorboats, many equipped with wireless
radios were common. The new century brought changes that would make
Hamilton, Fraser and Kimball proud. In fact, Kimball helped create the
biggest change. As superintendent, he helped draft legislation that merged
the Life-Saving Service with the Revenue Cutter Service.
In 1915, Congress created the United States Coast
Guard. Hamilton’s fleet of 10 cutters had grown to 43 and
Ottinger’s eight huts had increased to 279 along both coasts, the Great
Lakes and some inland rivers . The Lighthouse Service was added in 1939.
The new service would continue the missions of its predecessors, and take on
several new ones as well. The first of these was commercial vessel safety
and inspection.
Lives at sea are only as safe as the ships they sail
upon. From the earliest days, steamboats had a poor safety record.
Faulty boilers exploded, catching the wooden decks afire. The
excursion steamer General Slocum burned in New York’s East River,
in 1904. The fire claimed 957 lives, mostly women and children.
The Steamboat Inspection Service was unpopular because many people felt the
federal government was interfering with the private sector.
Gradually, public sentiment grew to support needed
regulation. The lack of sufficient lifeboats on the Titanic and
other incidents of negligence prompted strong federal safety measures.
The Coast Guard gradually took over the job of the Steamboat Inspection
Service. After 1936, the Coast Guard enforced all federal laws,
including the safety statutes, on the high seas and in U.S. navigable
waters. During World War II, Coast Guard personnel inspected vessels and
supervised cargo loadings as part of the port security operations.
After the war, the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was added to
the Coast Guard.
The first test of the young Coast Guard was
Prohibition. The 18th Amendment outlawed making, transporting or
selling liquor. But soon outlaws were everywhere, and the same
gangsters who fought the FBI in Chicago and New York challenged the Coast
Guard at sea.
The easiest way to get illegal liquor was to bring it
from outside the country. Ships loaded with liquor waited offshore,
outside U.S. waters, for small speedboats that ferried the contraband ashore
in the dark of night. The job of stopping the flow of illegal booze
fell to the Coast Guard. Of course, fighting smugglers was
nothing new for the Coast Guard —the Revenue Cutters had done it for 125
years. These new smugglers were called "rum-runners."
At first the service had neither the men nor cutters
to fight the rum war. In 1925, large numbers of new recruits were
sworn into the service and 20 aging destroyers were borrowed from the Navy.
The destroyers were based at Boston, New York and New London, Conn.
The destroyers couldn’t catch the smaller, more maneuverable speed boats
used by the rum-runners. So the Coast Guard built new patrol boats;
thirteen 100-footers and thirty-three 125-footers, and small boats 75 feet
long. More than 200 seized boats were turned over to the Coast Guard
as well.
Bootleggers and gangsters were notoriously violent and
smugglers traded gun fire with Coast Guard cutters. Three rum runners
were killed in Narragansett Bay when they turned abruptly and were struck by
warning shots as they tried to elude a patrol boat. Chief
Boatswain’s Mate Carl Gustafson was killed by machine gun fire while
pursuing a smuggler off Montauk Point, N.Y. in 1925.
Prohibition ended in 1933 but the Coast Guard soon had
new interests and another war to fight. In 1941, another war
came to the North Atlantic coast. Boston and New York were primary ports for
supply convoys bound for embattled England. German U-boats attacked ships
within sight of the coast and saboteurs threatened American ports and ships.
The Coast Guard operated under the Department of the
Navy during World War II. Cutters moored in the Northeast were
assigned to escort the convoy ships across the Atlantic. Beach patrols
were assigned to watch for saboteurs and invasion. Coast Guard personnel
supervised the operations of major ports to insure the safety of war
materials. Personnel assigned to the Coast Guard when the U.S.
entered the war were quickly assigned to duty afloat on Coast Guard and Navy
ships. To handle the work they left behind, ten thousand men were recruited
in New England for the Temporary Reserve. TRs served on coastal boats,
walked beach patrols and worked as signalmen. Training schools for the
TR’s were established at Bourne, Fairhaven and Gloucester, Massachusetts.;
and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Volunteers also patrolled the coast,
watching for German submarines. The 2,000 boats of the Coastal Picket
Patrol were operated by Temporary Reservists, Coast Guard Auxiliarists and
members of the Cruising Club of America. They were later replaced by
regular and reserve personnel of the Coast Guard. Beach patrols,
once a vital part of the Life-Saving Service, were revived. Coast
Guardsmen and Temporary Reservists walked more than 3,000 miles of
coastline, watching for enemy agents as well as ships in distress. The
patrols, with dogs and horses, plodded along the beach around the clock, in
any weather, all months of the year.
On the foggy night of June 13, 1942, Seaman John C.
Cullen, of the Amagansett Station on Long Island, New York was making his
six mile patrol when he spotted four men on the beach. While
questioning the men, Cullen became suspicious. The group’s spokesman first
threatened the sailor, then tried to bribe him. Cullen, outnumbered,
accepted the money and then, when out of sight of the men, raced to his
station. An armed party of Coast Guardsmen returned to the beach, but
the four men had disappeared. A search of the area uncovered four
boxes of explosives buried in the dunes. The FBI was notified and the
four enemy agents were caught. Their capture led to the arrest of four
more saboteurs who had landed in Florida.
After the war, the service concentrated on organizing
its varied missions. The official list of Coast Guard duties included:
aids to navigation, law enforcement, military readiness, search and rescue,
ice patrol, icebreaking, commercial vessel safety and motorboat safety.
Growing concern for the environment added another mission in the 1970s.
Shipwrecks involving oil tankers spewed thousands of gallons of crude oil on
American shores fouling beaches, killing fish and wildlife. Already
responsible for the safety of these vessels, the Coast Guard now tried to
limit the damage they could cause.
In December, 1976, the Liberian tanker Argo
Merchant ran aground 29 miles off Nantucket, threatening the Georges
Bank fishing grounds with 7.3 million gallons of thick fuel oil. In
the following six days, members of the Boston Marine Safety Office and the
Atlantic Strike Team, a special pollution response unit, attempted to
offload the cargo and refloat the tanker. Gradually, the weather
worsened. Winds increased to 30 knots and seas reached eight feet. Suddenly Argo
Merchant split in two. The oil emptied into the ocean.
Although the spill did not have the devastating
environmental impact many people expected, the incident led to broad new
laws and new Coast Guard involvement in tanker safety. The passage of
the Tank Vessel Safety Regulations, a direct result of the Argo Merchant disaster,
required tankers to carry current charts and navigation gear.
The Coast Guard earns
its wings
1942. FDR was president. Clark Gable was the
biggest star in Hollywood. And Coast Guard helicopters arrived at
Floyd Bennett Field in New York. The air station was crucial in
developing the helicopter for use in search and rescue. CDR Frank
Erickson made one of the first landing on a ship’s deck in 1944 when he
landed an HNS-1 on the deck of the Coast Guard Cutter Cobb in Long
Island Sound. Erickson pioneered helicopter search and rescue by developing
much of the equipment himself. He also flew the first life-saving
flight when he delivered two cases of blood plasma to the Navy destroyer Turner
after an on board explosion near Sandy Hook, New Jersery, January
3,1944.
Erickson made the first helicopter hoist of a man in
1945. The technique he developed is still used in rescue operations
today. One of Air Station Brooklyn’s most dramatic rescues took
place in 1945 when a Canadian Air Force plane crashed in a remote area of
Labrador. An HNS-1 helicopter was disassembled at Brooklyn and loaded
on a cargo plane. It was reassembled in Labrador to fly the rescue
mission. Only 48 hours elapsed from the first distress message until the
survivors were safe in hospitals.
"Call the Coast
Guard!"
Whenever there’s trouble on the water, whether
it’s a boat accident or waste washing ashore, people know to call the
Coast Guard. From Toms River, New Jersey to Eastport, Maine, they call
the First Coast Guard District. On any day you’ll see the 3,000 men
and women of the First District working hard at nearly a dozen jobs: safety
inspectors aboard a foreign freighter, an aircrew flying a desperately ill
infant ashore from a remote island, boarding officers counting and measuring
the catch of a commercial fishing boat, a boat crew searching for a sailor
lost at sea. In winter, our tugs break ice in New England’s harbors and
rivers.
These many jobs require coordination and careful
planning. The staff offices in Boston oversee the operations of 32
cutters, 15 aircraft and more than 200 small boats to insure the safety of
more than a million recreational boats and thousands of commercial vessels
that sail the North Atlantic coast. Just 100 years ago, navigation was
uncertain at best, and ships often ran aground along the Atlantic coast.
Today, radar and radio navigation is very precise and major accidents are
infrequent.
The mariner can depend on many different aids to
navigation to plot a course. The First District maintains 4,700 buoys
that mark clear channels and dangerous areas. Some buoys and
lighthouses are equipped with radio beacons and radar beacons. Radio beacons
emit a designated tone that is indicated on a chart, and can be tracked by a
radio direction finder. Radar beacons transmit a signal that appears
on the radar screen as a Morse code symbol and also appears on a chart.
Many sailors use LORAN (Long Range Aid to Navigation),
basically a grid of radio waves in many areas of the globe that allows exact
precision plotting. Two LORAN transmitting stations are located in the
First District. As navigation improved, it was no longer necessary to
use every lighthouse along the coast and some were extinguished. The
technology that improved the lighthouses over the past 200 years also made
it possible to replace the keepers. Some lighthouses are even
solar-powered now, and many automated lights are equipped with radio relays
to notify the closest Coast Guard station if there is a problem with the
light.
The First District maintains 141 lighthouses,
including many of the oldest in the country. Seven lights are still
manned and will be automated within the next two years. Because it was
the first built in America, Boston will be the last light to be unmanned,
now scheduled for 1990. To help preserve these historic structures,
the Coast Guard attempts to find alternate uses for the keeper’s quarters
and other buildings at automated lighthouses. Many are used for Coast
Guard housing or by other government agencies. Others are leased to
non-profit groups for use as museums and hostels. Some people call the
Coast Guard the law of the sea. Alexander Hamilton designed the Revenue
Cutter Service to stop smuggling and enforce customs laws. Today the
Coast Guard does that and much more.
Boarding officers enforce all applicable federal laws
aboard U.S. vessels and all vessels operating in U.S. waters. The Coast
Guard stops drugs, combats piracy, and inspects vessels for compliance with
safety and pollution regulations. The First District is home to
several large commercial fishing fleets. Working with the National Marine
Fisheries Service, the Coast Guard enforces federal fisheries laws to
protect our national resource. Boarding officers inspect nets and
equipment, and routine patrols keep boats away from restricted areas during
spawning season.
The Coast Guard works closely with other federal,
state and local law enforcement agencies to stop drug smuggling. The
popularity of cocaine has reduced the amount of high bulk marijuana
smuggling in the northwest Atlantic area. The harbors of the First
District are some of the most strategic ports for the military resupply
effort. In addition to Boston and New York, the Navy operates critical bases
at Groton, Connecticut, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Maine’s Bath
Iron Works’ shipyards in Portland and Bath are key ship repair facilities
for both the Coast Guard and Navy.
In wartime, the Coast Guard must defend these vital
areas from attack and sabotage. To prepare its personnel for that job,
the Coast Guard trains with Department of Defense forces in realistic war
games in the actual ports. In recent years, First Shield exercises
have been held in Narragansett Rhode Island, Portland, Maine, and Groton,
Connecticut.
Under an agreement between the Department of
Transportation and Secretary of the Navy, the First District Commander is
also Commander of the Maritime Defense Zone Sector One, and in charge of all
military forces assigned to coastal protection in the region. Sector One
includes all the coast line of the First District and waters out to 200
miles. During a war, Coast Guard personnel would provide security at
pier and dockside facilities, keep the snipping lanes clear of underwater
mines and conduct search and rescue missions. Other jobs might include
anti-submarine warfare, salvage work, explosive ordinance disposal and
surveillance and interdiction. Things go wrong. Even against
the best precautions, accidents happen. And when they do, the Coast
Guard is ready to respond on a moment’s notice, literally. The small
boats and helicopter crews are on immediate stand-by, and when the alarm
sounds they drop everything and scramble to launch. Personnel are
specially trained for this work. Boat coxswains and crews practice
plucking people from rough water. Many boats carry qualified emergency
medical technicians. Helicopter pilots are trained to make difficult
hoists to lift an injured person from the water or off the deck of a rolling
boat.
When they go out, crews don’t depend much on luck.
Search and rescue is a science and Coast Guard personnel are experts.
A search pattern is developed by the group or district operations center
based on weather and sea conditions, type of resource used, and size of
object. In addition to boats, cutters, helicopters and jets, the
Coast Guard coordinates with state and local resources. Our
communications network also puts other recreational boaters and commercial
vessels on alert to watch for the distress.
With more than a million recreational boats registered
in the First District, there is potential for accidents. The Coast
Guard works to reduce the danger on the waterways through several programs.
Coast Guard boat crews conduct thousands of safety inspections each year.
Boarding officers check life preservers, fire extinguishers and distress
markers. Enforcing all applicable laws, the officers may also cite
boaters for reckless operation and drunk boating.
The Coast Guard Auxiliary is a group devoted to
boating safety. These volunteers teach free courses in boating skills
and seamanship. Boaters may also get a Courtesy Motorboat Examination to
insure their boats are ready for the water. Auxiliary members also use
their own vessels to patrol and assist boaters. The boating safety
office coordinates major boating events such as regattas, processes boarding
violation reports and registers boats used in salt water for the state of
New Hampshire. Oil tankers, foreign freighters, tankers loaded
with liquified natural gas, barges, ferry boats; thousands of commercial
vessels that pass through First District waters. The Coast Guard helps them
sail safely.
Marine safety offices provide many services to the
commercial mariner. All vessels more than five net tons are
documented. The owner is given paperwork similar to an automobile
registration that lists a document number, a description of the vessel and
ownership. This paperwork must be completed before the vessel gets
underway, and is inspected each time the Coast Guard boards the ship.
Merchant seamen must be qualified to work onboard
commercial vessels. They are tested by the regional exam centers for a
basic seaman’s license and each subsequent advancement. The
vessels themselves are examined too. Inspectors check the vessel’s
seaworthiness, lifesaving equipment and proper crew size. Vessels and
seamen that fail don’t sail. The daily traffic of New England’s
busy harbors is monitored by port operations personnel who conduct routine
safety inspections of shore facilities and establish safety and security
zones in the harbor. Marine safety units also protect the
environment. If there is an accident or chemical spill, personnel from the
pollution response section assess the damage and investigate the cause. When
the source of a spill is determined, the Coast Guard can recover the cost of
the clean-up work.