Old Weather Forum

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1918 — Congress directed that retired officer personnel may be recalled to active duty during war or national emergency.

1924 — An adjustment of the compensation of vessel officers in the Lighthouse Service was made effective in order to bring the pay of these positions more nearly on a level with that of similar Positions in the U .S. Shipping Board, the Lake Carriers Association, and other shipping interests.

1946 — As a final step in the return of the Coast Guard to the Treasury Department from wartime operation under the Navy Department, the Navy's direct control of the following Coast Guard functions was terminated: search and rescue, maintenance and operation of ocean weather stations, and air-sea navigational aids in the Atlantic, continental United States, Alaska, and Pacific east of Pearl Harbor.

1958 — The new Atlantic merchant vessel position reporting program (known by the acronym AMVER) was established. It was aimed at encouraging domestic and foreign merchant vessels to send voluntary position reports and navigational data to U.S. Coast Guard shore based radio stations and ocean station vessels. Relayed to a ships' plot center in New York and processed by machine, these data provided updated position information for U.S. Coast Guard rescue coordination centers. The centers could then direct only those vessels which would be of effective aid to craft or persons in distress. This diversion of all merchant ships in a large area became unnecessary.

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1918 — Congress passed the Migratory Bird Act and the Coast Guard became responsible for the Act's enforcement after the 1936 passage of the "Act to Define Jurisdiction of Coast Guard."

1986 — The Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration took place in New York harbor. The Coast Guard was in the "forefront" of the celebration due in part to the Coast Guard's base on Governor's Island.

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1884 — An Act of Congress (23 Stat. L., 118) created a special service known as the Bureau of Navigation, under the Treasury Department, with the duty of supervising the work having to do with the administration of American navigation laws. "The act specifically allotted to the bureau the numbering of vessels and the preparation of the annual list of merchant vessels of the United States."

2000 — HH-65A CGNR 6539 rescued 51 persons from a burning oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The aircrew responded to the fire and safely airlifted 15 people to a nearby platform nine miles from the fire. They then evacuated another 36 people to awaiting boats. One of the 6539's crew had landed on the platform to coordinate the rescue. As the helicopter returned to retrieve him, the rig exploded and sent a fireball 100 feet into the air. Unsure whether he survived, the 6539 flew into the thick, black column of smoke and safely rescued him. All four aircrew were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

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1942 — Coast Guard amphibious aircraft V-166 landed in the open ocean and took aboard 21 survivors of a torpedoed tanker in Gulf of Mexico.

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1798 — Hostilities began in the Quasi-War with France. The Revenue cutters Pickering, Virginia, Scammel, South Carolina, Governor, Jay, Eagle, General Greene, and Diligence were the first to be placed under Naval orders, comprising about one-third of the U .S. Fleet.

1838 — Under the authority of an Act of Congress passed this date, the President divided the Atlantic coast into six, and the Great Lakes coast into two, lighthouse districts. A naval officer was detailed to each lighthouse district, a revenue cutter or a hired vessel was placed at his disposal, and he was instructed to inspect all aids to navigation, report on their conditions, and recommend future courses of action.

1884 — Congress directed that cutters be used exclusively for public service and "in no way for private purposes."

1938 — The Coast Guard began an operation to transport and guard each shipment of 77,000,000 pounds of silver bars from New York City to the silver depository at West Point, New York for the Bureau of the Mint. The 1,101,320 bars of silver were moved by truck and the Coast Guard contingent responsible for its safe delivery were under the command of CDR Stephen S. Yeandle, who at the time served as the Intelligence Officer for the Coast Guard's New York Division.

2020 — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Mellon (WHEC 717) returned to their homeport of Seattle on July 7, 2020, after completing the final patrol for the 52-year-old ship. The 150-person crew left Seattle April 17 to conduct missions throughout the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea. During the patrol the crew conducted 38 law enforcement boardings, four search and rescue cases and enforced federal regulations governing Alaska’s $13.9 billion commercial fishing industry. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mellon crew instituted protective measures to ensure crew safety and the safety of the commercial fishing fleet and Alaskan public. Mellon was one the last remaining 378-foot high endurance cutters built for extended offshore patrols. Its capabilities spanned from helicopter operations to pursuit boat operations and served as a key asset for the Department of Homeland Security and humanitarian missions at sea.

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1942 — CGC McLane and the Coast Guard-manned patrol craft USS YP-251 reportedly sank the Japanese submarine RO-32 off Sitka, Alaska. However, the Navy Department did not officially credit either vessel with the sinking. The RO-32 was stricken from the Japanese Navy rolls in April, 1942 as obsolete and Japanese records indicated that no Japanese submarine was lost or damaged in Alaskan waters on that date.

1946 — Sixteen Coast Guardsmen were killed when the B-17 aircraft they were flying as passengers in crashed into Mount Tom, Massachusetts. These Coast Guardsmen were all returning from duty in Greenland.

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1820 — The Revenue cutter Gallatin captured 19 men illegally recruited for the Columbian privateer Wilson and chased that vessel and her Spanish prize, Santiago, to sea from the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina.

1882 — At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, during a violent storm of wind and rain, the steam-yacht John Bueg, of Rochester, New York, having on board a party of twelve excursionists, consisting of two men, two women, and eight children, was driven ashore one mile and a half east of the harbor piers at Charlotte, Lake Ontario, New York. She was discovered by a surfman of Station No. 4, Ninth District, who waded out to her in the surf, carried the children in his arms, and then assisted the women to shore. The yacht was towed off by a steamer, having sustained slight damage.

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1818 — The Revenue Cutter Dallas seized and libeled the Venezuelan privateer Cerony off Savannah for having violated the nation's neutrality laws.
https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by- ... llas-1816/

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1926 — The first radio-beacon established in Alaska was placed in commission at Cape Spencer.

1960 — Following the loss of a propeller, which resulted in fuselage damage and an engine fire, a Northwest Airlines DC-7C airliner carrying 58 persons ditched in Philippine waters. During the Coast Guard-coordinated air search in the vicinity of the Polillo Islands, a Coast Guard UF amphibian aircraft sighted four life rafts, landed, and rescued 23 survivors. A U.S. Navy P5M seaplane, meanwhile, rescued 34 others and also recovered from the water the body of the only fatality.

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1870 — Congress directed that the revenue cutters on the northern and northwestern lakes, when commissioned, shall be specially charged with aiding vessels in distress on the lakes.

1870 — An Act of Congress (l6 Stat. L., 291, 309) directed the Lighthouse Board to mark all pierheads belonging to the United States situated on the northern and northwestern lakes, as soon as it was notified that the construction or repair of pierheads had been completed.

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1994 — CGC Polar Sea departed from Victoria, British Columbia on operation Arctic Ocean Section 1994 and became the first U.S. surface vessel to reach the North Pole. She then transited the Arctic Ocean back to her homeport in Seattle, Washington.

1996 — TWA Flight 800 crashed off New York with no survivors. Numerous Coast Guard units conducted search and rescue operations and then aided in recovery operations.

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1818 — The Revenue Cutter Active captured the pirate vessel India Libre in the Chesapeake Bay.

1866 — Congress authorized officers to search vessels and persons suspected of concealing contraband.

1928 — Clarence Samuels assumed command of Coast Guard Patrol Boat AB-15, thereby becoming the second African-American to command a Coast Guard vessel, the first being Revenue Captain Michael Healy.

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1942 — The Herald-Tribune of July 20, 1942, carried the following story: "A new Coast Guard regiment, made up of tough, hand-picked men, all heavily armed and with the headquarters company mounting machine guns in speedy jeep cars, has been organized for extra protection of the Port of New York, it was announced yesterday. Regimental offices of the commando-like outfit, led by Captain Francis V. Lowden, will be in the Barge Office at the Battery. There will be five battalion headquarters – one each in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey, and a floating one set up a harbor patrol craft. The new contingent for sabotage precaution will be known as the Port Security Regiment…The selected men recruited for the Port Security Regiment are being trained in a variety of rough and rigorous combat tactics to fit them for meeting surprise actions. Captain Lowden, on leave from his post as Mayor of Roselle, N.J., has had twenty years of experience in organizing protective services for the port properties of Standard Oil of New Jersey."