History

Revenue Cutter Service

4 August 1790 – 28 January 1915 In the years after its founding, the fledgling American Republic was facing serious financial trouble. Smuggling, encouraged during the war to avoid British taxes, now kept badly needed revenue out of the U.S. Treasury. The government needed to stop smuggling, but the Army and the Navy had been …

Domestic Ice Breaking Ops

Icebreaking in the U.S. began in the 1830s, with the advent of steam propulsion. Side-wheel steamers with reinforced bows proved excellent for dealing with harbor ice, a problem common to East Coast ports as far south as the Chesapeake Bay. These seasonal tasks were common, but were strictly local efforts. The RCS became involved with …

Bering Sea Patrol

Titanic and the International Ice Patrol

1912 – Present From the earliest journeys into the North Atlantic, icebergs have threatened vessels. A review of the history of navigation prior to the turn of the century shows an impressive number of casualties occurred in the vicinity of the Grand Banks. Between 1882 and 1890, 14 vessels, not including whaling and fishing vessels, …

The Lighthouse Service

7 August 1789 – 1939 Lighthouses Maritime commerce was a vital part of the life-blood of the newly established English colonies in North America. They quickly realized the importance of maintaining safe, well-marked sea lanes. Most of the early markers were lighthouses. During the colonial period, prior to 1789, each colonial government determined the need …

Steamboat Inspection Service

1852 – 1948 America has always been a seafaring country. The Europeans that molded the country came by sea. They built large fishing fleets. They traded with their mother countries by sea. They built a Navy to gain their independence. They built smuggling ships to defeat the blockade imposed by their enemies. Recognizing the importance …

Life Saving Service

28 Jan 1915 – The Coast Guard

Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeigh’s suggestion of combining the Life Saving Service with the Revenue Cutter Service was sent to Congress in 1913. MacVeigh’s successor, William McAdoo, concurred with the proposal. The bill was passed on 20 January 1915 and President Woodrow Wilson signed it into law on 28 January 1915. On that date, …

WWI

Between the Wars

1915 – 1940 Hostilities ceased at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Coast Guard units began sailing home. Seneca arrived in New York on 1 July 1919, the last Coast Guard unit deployed. Back to the Treasury Department. But Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels believed the transfer to the …

Prohibition

On 16 January 1919, the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquor, was ratified. The Volstead Act (aka Prohibition Act) became law, over the President Wilson’s veto, on 28 October and went into effect on 16 January 1920. Responsibility for enforcing the law was placed with the Treasury Department. Though Secretary …

Post Prohibition – Ocean Weather Stations

The Service now had first class cutters designed specifically for its missions. In his eight years as Commandant, Billard had overseen an expansion unprecedented in Service history. He is recognized as one of the greatest Commandants. He was just starting his third tour of duty when he suddenly died of pneumonia. It was universally agreed …

Merchant Mariner Training

1939 – 1942  The merchant marine in the United States was in a state of decline in the mid-1930s. At that time few ships were being built, existing ships were old and inefficient, maritime unions were at war with one another, ship owners were at odds with the unions, and the crews’ efficiency and morale …

Neutrality Patrols

1935 – 1941 With war clouds looming in Europe and saber rattling in the Pacific, the four Neutrality Acts of the late 1930s represented an effort to keep the United States out of “foreign” wars, an effort resulting in part from widespread questioning of the reasons for and results of America’s participation in WWI. A …

Greenland Patrol

June 1941 – 1945 Greenland, an island mostly above the Arctic Circle, is surrounded most of the year by a wide belt of floating ice that the Eskimos call storis.  During the summer, the temperature in the south reaches 50°, the storis drifts westward, and the southern tip becomes accessible to sea traffic.  Denmark had …

Merged with Lighthouse Service

On 1 July In 1939, Congress incorporated the Bureau of Lighthouses into the Coast Guard as part of a government-wide reorganization.  All lighthouse tenders and lightships became Coast Guard cutters.  The Coast Guard christened the new mission Aids to Navigation (ATON) and continued the traditions of experimentation and adoption of new buoy technology. When the …

Aviation Between the Wars

1915 – 1940 The Coast Guard’s involvement in aviation can be traced to 1900 when two men of the U.S. Life Saving Service Stations in the vicinity of Kitty Hawk, NC became involved with the experiments of Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Wright brothers needed manpower to help get their gliders airborne and the LSS …

World War II

Post WWII to 2000

With the end of the war, the Coast Guard went back to the Department of Treasury and its traditional peacetime missions. By this time, the Coast Guard had assumed the basic elements that would characterize the Service for the rest of the century. It was an armed service that was also the lead federal agency …

The Fleet

Aviation

Korea

Vietnam

Desert Storm

1990 – 1991 A Chronology of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Involvement in the Persian Gulf War 2 August 1990: Iraqi military forces invaded Kuwait. 6 August 1990: President George Bush orders the deployment of U.S. armed forces to defend Saudi Arabia in an operation named “Operation Desert Shield.” 10 August 1990: Marine Safety Offices [MSOs] …

The 21st Century

Noble Eagle The Coast Guard entered the 21st century with a multi-mission role but with aging ships and aircraft. It was clear that capital resources had to be updated. Coast Guard response to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 were widely praised. Coast Guard boats were deeply involved in the evacuation of lower Manhattan …

Katrina

Tropical Depression Twelve formed over the southeastern Bahamas at 1700 EST on 23 August 2005, partially from the remains of Tropical Depression Ten. The system was upgraded to a Tropical Storm on the morning of 24 August and was named: Katrina. Katrina became a hurricane only two hours before it made landfall around 1830 EST …

Deepwater Horizon

Search and Rescue

In numerous coves and behind numerous breakwaters along our many thousand miles of coastline, utility boats (UTBs) and motor lifeboats (MLBs) rock and tug gently at their mooring lines with engines warm and ready to go. The ready crews are working the “regular jobs” of their ratings, in mechanics, avionics repair, corrosion control, supply, and …