SS MATAAFA
Dramatic photo of U.S. Life-Saving Service boat rescuing crewmembers of the bulk carrier SS Mataafa after it broke apart in Lake Superior near Duluth, Minnesota, in November 1905. Fifteen of 24 survived in a forward cabin. "The poor fellows on the stern end of the boat had little protection. In the engine house they could find no shelter for the waves covered the deck to the height of the rail. They finally climbed up under the shelter of the big smokestack, but wet as they were and with the biting cold they could not long stand the exposure," the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern reported.
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy responded when the passenger vessel SS Harvard ran aground in fog off Point Arguello, California, on May 30, 1931. Everyone survived.
SS MOHAWK
Early on the night of Jan. 1, 1925, the passenger line SS Mohawk caught fire off New Jersey. The vessel left New York that day for Florida with more than 200 passengers and crew. A distress call brought Coast Guard cutter Kickapoo (WAGL-56) out of Cape May, New Jersey. It arrived before dawn on Jan. 2. The SOS was received at the Navy's Cape Henlopen Radio Compass Station in Delaware. Passengers were taken about the cutter and commercial tugs to Lewes, Delaware. On Jan. 24, 1935, a replacement vessel also named SS Mohawk sank after a collision with the Norwegian freighter Talisman off Sea Girt, New Jersey, killing 16 passengers and 31 crew.
AFRICAN QUEEN
On Dec. 30, 1958, the Liberian taker African Queen ran aground off Ocean City, Maryland, and broke in two causing a huge oil spill. "Forty-five of the men were air-lifted from the stern of the broken vessel by nine Coast Guard, Navy and Marine Corps helicopters in a coordinated shuttle," The New York Times reported.
SS FOUNDATION STAR
Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
It was Semper Paratus on Sept. 8, 1952. "When SS Foundation Star sent a distress signal that she was in rough seas and in danger of breaking in half, four Coast Guard vessels and three commercial vessels proceed to her assistance and rescued the crew before the ship broke apart and sank," according to the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. The wreck occurred off Charleston, South Carolina. The tanker was built in 1916.
SS OAKLEY L. ALEXANDER
On March 3, 1947, shore-based U.S. Coast Guardsmen used a Lyle Gun and breech buoy to evacuate the crew of the collier SS Oakey L. Alexander, which broke apart and ran aground at High Head, Maine, in heavy seas and high winds.
FREIGHTER IOWA
Front page of the Morning Oregonian reporting on the wreck of intercoastal freighter Iowa, which smashed into Peacock Spit in a storm near the entrance to the Columbia River on Jan. 12, 1936, killing the crew of 34. The Coast Guard cutter Onondaga responded to a distress call. "A few moments after we first sighted the wreck, the stack and bridge went over the side," said the cutter's captain, R. Stanley Patch, quoted by The New York Times. Captain Lars Bjelland at the Point Adams Life Station said he suspected the Iowa broke in two. Bjelland said the Fort Stevens Radio Compass Station heard the distress call at 5:35 a.m
ROSENCRANS
San Francisco Call front page on loss of crude oil tanker Rosencrans in a gale. The U.S. Life Saving Service struggled to reach the wreck at Peacock Spit, Oregon, on Jan. 7, 1913. "Life saving crews from Fort Canby and Point Adams put out against the gale," The New York Tribune said. "Big waves broke over the crews in the lifeboats, and it was found impossible to reach the Rosecrans. " Only four of the crew of 35 survived. In 1912, the steamship General Washington went aground at the same place.
SUBMARINE S-19
Photo: Wikipedia
On Jan. 13, 1925, the U.S. Navy submarine S-19 ran aground at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in a storm that knocked it off course. Coast Guard cutters Tampa and Acushnet and the crews of two lifesaving stations responded. "Heavy seas made it impossible to pass a line to the grounded submarine or to reach her by boat until late in the evening of 14 January, when a party from the Nauset, Massachusetts Coast Guard station succeeded in boarding," according to Wikipedia. "By the morning of 15 January, S-19's crew had been safely brought to shore. After strenuous effort by Navy tugs and the Coast Guard cutters, S-19 was finally freed from the shoal."
CZARINA
It was not the finest hour. On Jan. 12, 1910, the freighter Czarina bound for San Francisco from Coos Bay, Oregon, wrecked in a storm before reaching open ocean. About two dozen people died. Rescue efforts failed and the keeper of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Station was dismissed for incompetence, according to Encyclopedia Oregon. The ship was carrying cement, coal and lumber.
SS CORWIN
Photo: Wikipedia
U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear (front) and steamer SS Corwin in ice field near Nome, Alaska, about 1914. SS Corwin shuttled between Nome and the Seward Peninsula, according to University of Alaska Fairbanks archives.
SS PRINCESS MAY
Photo: Wikipedia
On Aug. 5, 1910, SS Princess May on the rocks at low tide after running aground near the Sentinel lighthouse in Alaska at 10 knots. It was was retrieved and repaired. "The wireless operator, W.R. Keller, did not have time to send out a distress call before the main power was lost," Wikipedia said. "Thinking quickly, he ran down to the engine room, where the incoming water was by then waist deep. Keller rigged an improvised electrical connection with the engine room telegraph battery, and using this was able to send out a wireless distress call before the engine room was completely flooded."
SS CITY OF FLINT 32
U.S. Coast Guard boat crew rows to aid of railroad car ferry SS City of Flint 32, which ran aground on Lake Michigan during the 1940 Armistice Day storm. It was one of the luckier big vessels that day. Three others foundered with the more than 60 lives.
SS PENNSYLVANIA SUN
Photo: Library of Congress
On July 15, 1942, the German U-boat U-571 attacked the tanker SS Pennsylvania Sun off Key West, Florida, setting it ablaze. The Navy destroyer USS Dahlgren DD-187 rescued the survivors. The tanker survived, too! Repairs were completed in 1943 and Pennsylvania Sun served for another 20 years. The U-boat didn't fare that well. Aircraft sank the submarine in the North Atlantic on Jan. 28, 1944.
SS SANTA ROSA
On July 6, 1911, the costal steamer SS Santa Rosa, bound for San Diego from San Francisco, went aground in fog with 200 passengers and 78 tons of cargo. Four crewmen died attempting to establish a lifeline to shore, according to some news reports. Everyone else survived. The captain was accused of negligence.
CUTTER MOHAWK
Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mohawk was repaired after running aground on Bartlett Reef in Long Island Sound on May 29, 1916. A little over a year later, Mohawk was struck by the tanker SS Vennacher in Ambrose Channel off Sandy Hook, New Jersey on Oct. 1, 1917 and sank. The crew of 77 survived.
On July 15, 1942, the German U-boat U-571 attacked the tanker SS Pennsylvania Sun off Key West, Florida, setting it ablaze. The Navy destroyer USS Dahlgren DD-187 rescued the survivors. The tanker survived, too! Repairs were completed in 1943 and Pennsylvania Sun served for another 20 years. The U-boat didn't fare that well. Aircraft sank the submarine in the North Atlantic on Jan. 28, 1944.
SS SANTA ROSA
On July 6, 1911, the costal steamer SS Santa Rosa, bound for San Diego from San Francisco, went aground in fog with 200 passengers and 78 tons of cargo. Four crewmen died attempting to establish a lifeline to shore, according to some news reports. Everyone else survived. The captain was accused of negligence.
CUTTER MOHAWK
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Mohawk was repaired after running aground on Bartlett Reef in Long Island Sound on May 29, 1916. A little over a year later, Mohawk was struck by the tanker SS Vennacher in Ambrose Channel off Sandy Hook, New Jersey on Oct. 1, 1917 and sank. The crew of 77 survived.
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