ATLANTIC DESTINY
On March 3, 2021, Canadian and American coast guard aviation crews went to aid of the commercial fishing vessel Atlantic Destiny, which sank at George's Bank off Nova Scotia after a fire. All 31 crew members survived. U.S. Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopters hoisted 21 of them. Commercial vessels also answered the SOS. Martin Sullivan, CEO of Ocean Choice, the ship's owners, said: "The Company extends a heartfelt thank you to the Canadian and United States Coast Guards as well as the crews of the Cape LaHave, Maude Adams, Atlantic Preserver and Atlantic Protector for their collective efforts to ensure the safety of our crew.”
SS EASTLAND
Photo: Eastland Disaster Historical Society
A Coast Guard boat crew responded with Chicago's police and fire departments in what the Coast Guard Historian's Office described as the "modern" Coast Guard's first major rescue, the service having been born that year through the merger of the U.S. Life-Saving Service and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service.
In the logbook, Surfman William E. Preston wrote: "We succeeded in rescuing 84, and we recovered 570 bodies."
In its annual
report published in 1916, the Coast Guard said the keeper and the men of the old Chicago
station “let themselves down through the air vents into the water between
decks. Practically all of those whom they found still alive they were able to
pass up through the narrow ports.
"Several of the imprisoned ones were too stout
to be taken out through the exits available, and the rescue of these had to be
deferred until tools could be obtained with which to cut holes through the
deck,” the annual report said.
The crew of the Jackson Park Coast Guard station assisted in the recovery effort that evening.
Ironically, SS Eastland was considered top heavy after the installation of additional lifeboats to accommodate more passengers.
- Vinny Del Giudice, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary
SS GATE CITY
On Feb. 8, 1900, a U.S. Life-Savings Service boat (right of photo) evacuated 46 men and three women from the freighter SS Gate City, which ran aground off Long Island. The ship, bound for Boston from Savanah, George, struck a sandbar 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from the Moriches, New York, life-saving station, drifted and sank in 20-25 feet of water. Cargo was salvaged. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to maintain at station at East Moriches and it gained notoriety after the TWA Flight 800 jetliner disaster in 1996.
Photo: Haze Grey & Underway
Live-saving crew operating "breech buoy" rescue line to wreck. The system consisted of a canvas breech suspended from a line to transfer people to safety. The ship-to-shore line was fired by a small canon to a wrecked vessel. Life-saving crews turned to the beech buoy when rough seas prevented launching rescue boats. Wreck's name unknown.
SS FORT MERCER
Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
On Feb. 18, 1952, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Yakutat towed a life raft with survivors from the foundering SS Fort Mercer. The fuel oil and kerosene transport broke apart off Massachusetts in a gale - the same storm that sank tanker S.S. Pendleton, subject of the 2016 motion picture "The Finest Hours" about a historic rescue by a Coast Guard boat crew. Fort Mercer lost five of its 43-man crew.
Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
A motorized surfboat from Yakutat delivers a pair of survivors from the wrecked bow of the SS Fort Mercer to the cutter.
MS PRINSENDAM
Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
A U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican helicopter hovers over the Holland-America liner MS Prinsendam ablaze in the Gulf of Alaska on Oct. 4, 1980. The ship's SOS call garnered U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard helicopters, U.S. Coast Guard cutters Boutwell (WHEC-719), Mellon (WHEC-717) and Woodrush (WLB-407) as well as others. Burning unchecked, Prinsendam capsized and sank after the complete evacuation of the estimated 550 passengers and crew. The blaze broke out in the engine room.
RMS REPUBLIC
Photo: Wikipedia
On Jan. 23, 1909, the U.S Revenue Cutter Gresham went to the aid of RMS Republic after receiving what was believed to be the first-ever wireless distress signal. The White Star liner collided with SS Florida near Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. Republic's radio operator Jack Binns was hailed for remaining at his post until the ship foundered 36 hours later. An estimated 1,650 souls survived. "Gresham tried using collision mats to stem the flooding but to no avail," Wikipedia said. "A futile attempt was made by Gresham to take Republic under tow." In a strange twist, the Italian passenger liner Andrea Doria sank in 1956 near Nantucket after a collision with a ship named Florida.
JOHN B KING
On June 26, 1930, the Canadian scow John B. King was drilling and blasting on a channel in the St. Lawrence Seaway when lighting struck - detonating dynamite. The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Curter 211 witnessed the blast and rescued 12 souls. Thirty others died. A scow is a flat-bottomed boat with sloping ends used in harbor dredging. The freak accident occurred near Brockville, Ontario.
SS LYMAN STEWART
The U.S. Coast Guard harbor cutter Tulare (AB-14), tugboats and others answered the distress call when petroleum tanker SS Lyman Stewart slammed onto the rocks after a collision near San Francisco on Oct. 7, 1922, according to Wikipedia. The collision, with the freighter Walter A. Luckenbach, occurred during a dense fog.
PRISCILLA
Photo: National Park Service
Rasmus S. Midgett of the U.S. Life-Saving Service was a legend. In 1899, the schooner Priscilla was struggling aground on the Outer Banks of North Carolina while Midgett was on beach patrol. Acting alone, with no time to return to his station for help, Midgett rushed into the surf and shepherded the survivors to safety. This is a photo of the surfman perched on the wreck after the storm passed.
HONDA POINT
Navigation errors grounded seven U.S. Navy destroyers at Honda Point, California, on Sept 8, 1923, killing 23 sailors. The convoy was traveling at 20 knots in fog. The lead ship used dead reckoning instead of recently installed radio navigation gear. Locals assisted with the rescue, setting up life lines. "The destroyers were speeding through the fog hugging the shore in single file formation when they piled up on the rocks from 200 to 500 yards apart about 300 yards off shore," the Associated Press reported. "The fatalities were divided among two destroyers. Seven were from the Delphy and the others died on the destroyed Young, which turned turtle and sank in one minute and 37 seconds. The other destroyers, the S. P. Lee, Nicholas Fuller, Chauncey and Woodbury, went aground in a position which gave their officers and crews a better chance."
SS ARGO MERCHANT
Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
Two halves of SS Argo Merchant swirl in a sea of foam before going under on Dec. 21, 1976. The tanker ran aground six days earlier, southeast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, causing one of the 20th Century's largest oil spills. Helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod lifted 38 crew members from the taker on Dec. 15 and 16.
SS MANHATTAN
Photo: U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mohave moves in to assist passenger liner S.S. Manhattan, which ran aground 300 yards off the beach at Lake Worth Inlet, Florida, on Jan.14, 1941.
SUBMARINE H-3
On Dec 16, 1916, the U.S. Navy submarine H-3 ran aground in heavy fog attempting to enter Humboldt Bay, California. The crew was brought to shore via a Breeches Buoy operated by U.S. Coast Guardsmen, according to Wikipedia. Photo at low tide after rescue.
DIXIE ARROW
Photo: National Archives, U.S. Coast Guard
"On March 19, 1942, Dixie Arrow departed Texas City, Texas, with a cargo of 86,136 barrels of crude oil for Paulsboro, New Jersey. At dawn on March 26, 1942, U-71 was working near the Diamond Shoals Light Buoy hoping to intercept targets when it spotted Dixie Arrow. U-71 fired two torpedoes that slammed into Dixie Arrow's starboard side. In less than a minute the tanker was fatally damaged and engulfed in flames. Dixie Arrow's crew had no warning and was unprepared for U-71's violent attack. Of the 33 man crew only 22 survived." - NOAA Monitor National Marine Sanctuary
SS EMIDIO
Responding to a call from the torpedoed
SS Emidio, a motor lifeboat piloted by Chief Boatswain Garner J. Churchill of the
Humboldt Bay (California) Lifeboat Station evaded a Japanese submarine in the early days of World War Two. The enemy attacked Emidio, a tanker, off Cape Mendocino on Dec. 20, 1941 - and then attempted
to ram the Coast Guard rescuers, according to the Coast Guard Bulletin, February
1942. Churchill was accompanied by four Coast Guardsmen. The Emidio attack was said to be the first by a Japanese submarine off the Pacific coast.
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