PHOTO GALLERY No. 1

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Morrill was moored off Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Dec. 6, 1917, when an explosives-laden freighter exploded in a narrows, leveling much of the city and taking more than a 1,700 lives. The cutter survived the blast and a landing party helped provide aid to the stricken Canadian city.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
In January and February 1937, the U.S. Coast Guard assisted in relief efforts when the Ohio River flooded from Cairo, Illinois, to Pittsburgh. More than 300 people died.

The Nauset Coast Guard Station, one of nine such facilities that once served Cape Cod, Massachusetts, opened under the auspices of the U.S. Life-Saving Service in 1873. It went out of service in 1958. Cape Cod extends from the southeast corner of mainland Massachusetts into the Atlantic Ocean.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

In Keokuk, Iowa, a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary boat crew assisted the Missouri Water Patrol and local firefighters with radio communications and perimeter control at a vessel fire on Sept. 17, 2005.

Post card view of U.S. Coast Guard Air Station on Mississippi Gulf Coast, circa 1930s. The Coast Guard built up its aviation fleet to combat smuggling during the Prohibition-era.  It has expanded every since for search and rescue, law enforcement, etc.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
In the late 1800s, the Revenue Cutter Fessenden - propelled by a paddle wheel - would patrol the Great Lakes. The cutter went into serve in 1869. Its first home port was Cleveland. 

Photo: Inland Marine Radio History Archive
Vintage radio console at U.S. Coast Guard station "NOG" at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, serving shipping on the Great Lakes. This is the CW - continuous wave or Morse Code - operating position.

On April 4, 1933, the Navy airship USS Akron crashed off the Barnegat Lightship in New Jersey. The search employed Coast Guard vessels and aircraft. The Coast Guard cutter Tucker CG-23 was the first American vessel on the scene. The airship crashed tail first in high winds. The final death toll was 73. Three aboard the Akron survived. The crew hadn't been issued life vests.