Old Weather Forum

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1916 — The official birthday of Coast Guard aviation. On this date, Third Lieutenant Elmer F. Stone reported to Pensacola Naval Air Station for flight training. He was the Coast Guard's first aviator.

1946 — A tsunami swept away the light station at Scotch Cap, Alaska, killing the station's entire five-man crew. They were: BMC Anthony L. Petit, MoMM 2/c Leonard Pickering, F 1/c Jack Colvin, SN 1/c Dewey Dykstra, and SN 1/c Paul James Ness.

1978 — CGC Acushnet changed designation from WAGO to WMEC "to allow for the increased multi-mission utilization of the vessel." Acushnet's primary mission continued to be Marine Science Activities (MSA) "due to its special capabilities for environmental buoy deployment."

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1882 — The schooner Morris was unable to enter Muskegon, Michigan, between the piers and was aided by the lookout of Station No. 8, Eleventh District. He used a heaving-stick and throwing a line to get a hawser to the vessel. The same service was rendered later in the day by two of the station men to the schooner Willis Smith of South Haven.

2014 — CGC Mackinaw, home-ported in Cheboygan, Michigan, conducted an escort on Lake Superior near Whitefish Point. Mackinaw's crew worked together with the crew of Canadian Coast Guard Ship Pierre Radisson, home-ported in Quebec City, as part of an ongoing bi-national agreement between the U.S. and Canada, to break sheet ice that was nearly 40 inches thick.

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1912 — President William Howard Taft recommended abolishing the Revenue Cutter Service. Instead of elimination though, his actions led to the creation of the Coast Guard by consolidating the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life-Saving Service on January 28, 1915.

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1894 — The President authorized the Revenue Cutter Service to enforce the Paris Award, which was concerned with the preservation of fur seals in Alaska.
United States Department of State — Regulations governing vessels employed in fur-seal fishing.

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1938 — Congress passed HR 8982, an amendment to the Alien Fishing Act (50 Stat. 639). The amendment clarified the earlier laws on salmon fishing in Alaskan waters by limiting commercial salmon fishing in the vicinity of Bristol Bay, Alaska, to U.S. citizens only. The act was enforced by the Coast Guard.

1942 — A Coast Guard aircraft directed a Royal Navy trawler to a life boat with 24 survivors off the coast of North Carolina.

1952 — The breakup of ice in the Missouri River and its tributaries at Bismarck, North Dakota, and above, and on the Big Sioux, created the worst flooding conditions in that area in thirty years. U.S. Coast Guard personnel rendered assistance, utilizing small boats, mobile radio stations, automotive equipment, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft. The Coast Guard evacuated stranded persons, transported critical relief supplies, evacuated livestock from low ground, transported personnel engaged in levee construction, and generally assisted the Red Cross, local, state, civil, and military authorities.

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1902 — President Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and his party of 40 guests boarded USRC Onondaga in Charleston Harbor. The cutter, which had been dressed in "rainbow fashion," extended to the President "all honors as prescribed by the Regulations, Revenue Cutter Service." The cutter and its crew of transported them to Fort Sumter and back. The cutter expended "42 6 pdr saluting charges" by firing two separate 21-gun salutes.

Not our Onondaga and not imaged

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1974 — The oil tanker Elias docked at the Atlantic Richfield Terminal in Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania, caught fire. CG-40412 responded and was first on scene and began SAR for any crew who jumped overboard. CG-40412 crewman Kim Lee remembered: "The response for our crew on 40412 was looking for personnel off the ship Elias that might be in the water. We were first on scene and I called back to base giving the update. The request by us was to shut the Delaware River down to all traffic due to crude oil on fire extending completely across the Delaware River. Captain of the Port (Capt. Goodwin) shut the river down which stopped all vessels traffic in the area. A while had passed and we then received a distress call from the Coast Guard Cutter Cleat and we quickly responded toward the Cleat. The crewmen from the Cleat were in the water and the Cleat was on fire and drifting into the Elias which was totally involved in fire. My crew (Petty officer Joe Friel and Allen Mowbray) began pulling the crew out of the river. We then attached a tow line on the burning Cleat and began towing it toward the middle of the channel. At one point while towing the Cleat our engines on the 40412 stopped because of the ships (Elias) mooring lines in our props. My crew quickly pulled up the mooring lines and cut them apart with a hand ax. Freeing one engine we were able to pull the Cleat to safety and put out the fires on the Cleat. All members of the Cleat crew were accounted for but one engine men who we found still down in the engine room trying to start the Cleat's main.”

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1938 — The Coast Guard established a "Flood Relief Force" to assist the Red Cross and the victims of flooding of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. The "Force" consisted of 26 motorboats, one communication truck, two portable radio sets, one Grumman JF-2 amphibian aircraft, and 60 enlisted men, all under the command of LCDR Roy Raney and based at Selma, Alabama. On April 10 and 11, the Floor Relief Force was "engaged in removing persons from dangerous positions and in transporting Government and Red Cross officials throughout the flood area."

2014 — CGC Seneca returned to its homeport in Boston after completing a 53-day deployment which included two weeks of training at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Virginia, and five weeks of fisheries patrols off the coasts of New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina. Seneca patrolled the Mid-Atlantic Ocean in support of the Coast Guard Fifth District's Operation Ocean Hunter. They boarded 26 fishing vessels from March 2 until April 5. During the patrol, Seneca ensured the commercial fishing fleet was in compliance with all federal fisheries regulations and issued two fisheries violations. In addition to law enforcement, Seneca conducted a workup with the Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team and other deployable specialized forces units. Using Seneca's flight deck, MSRT members completed 76 vertical insertions and 44 hoists. They also completed 210 climbs where they boarded the cutter from a tactical boat via a caving ladder. Seneca also completed several helicopter in-flight refuels and vertical replenishments with Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

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1938 — Coast Guard Patrol Boat CG-240, part of the Coast Guard's Flood Relief Force established to assist flood victims in Alabama, evacuated 102 persons from the vicinity of Hohn Miller's Plantation, below Camden, Alabama.

1952 — Immediately following the crash of a commercial overseas transport aircraft off the San Juan Harbor, Coast Guard forces coordinated with those of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy to rescue 17 of the 69 persons on board.

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1912 — At around 11:40 p.m., RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg off Newfoundland while sailing on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. She sank a little over two hours later. There were 1,517 lost including 103 women and 53 children out of total passenger and crew of 2,207. Subsequently, certification and life saving devices were improved and an International Ice Patrol was created to patrol the sea lanes off Newfoundland and Greenland during the winter months. The Revenue Cutter Service took over the operation of the Patrol the following year.

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1820 — Landing parties from the cutters Louisiana and Alabama destroyed a pirate base on Breton Island.

1944 — The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Joyce, along with her sister warship USS Peterson and a Navy DE sank the German submarine U-550 off New York. The U-boat first torpedoed what was at the time the largest tanker in the world as the convoy it was joining was forming up outside of New York harbor. The destroyer escorts then attacked the U-boat, forcing it to the surface, and then sank it in a surface gun-battle. Joyce rescued the surviving u-boatmen as well as those off the stricken tanker.

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2014 — Coast Guard marine inspectors conducted safety and security examinations on the first-ever container ship to arrive in Cleveland. The Fortunagracht, a 450-foot Dutch-flagged container ship, delivered the first-ever load of containerized cargo to the Great Lakes. Before the establishment of the Cleveland-Europe Express, shippers relied heavily on rail service to transport goods from the larger east coast container ports, such as New York and Baltimore, to the Great Lakes region. Talks to bring CEE to Cleveland began in the fall of 2013 with cooperation between the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, the FBI, and other government agencies.