Saturday will be the Coast Guard’s 211th birthday. America’s smallest armed service traces its rich heritage to the very birth of our country. The Coast Guard’s post-revolutionary roots came into being as an act to protect our hard-won liberty. Guarding the coast was one way to ensure this right.
In 1790 the American Revolution was over and a new nation was created. The fledging republic badly needed revenue and one way to raise this money was by taxing imports. Smuggling was rampant, prompting Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, to draft a bill calling for the establishment of a U.S. Revenue Marine Service to enforce the import tariffs. Congress approved the plan to build 10 revenue cutters on Aug. 4 and one of the Coast Guard's predecessors was born. The fleet vessels were known as Revenue Cutters.
Out of that miniscule service and four other federal agencies has grown a Coast Guard that, though small by comparison to the other Armed Forces, supports this nation in many ways. An overview of Coast Guard history includes some examples of the service in the Pacific Northwest.
The early revenue cutters were built for speed to overtake ships on the high seas, sturdy enough to sail off the coast in foul weather, and shallow so they could follow vessels through inland waterways. One cutter, the Jefferson Davis, was sent to the Pacific Northwest on September 28, 1854 to combat smuggling that became rampant due to the intricate system of natural waterways in Puget Sound. Shortly after the cutter’s arrival, it was used as a military platform to help quell the growing unrest between Native Americans and the white settlers in the region. In addition to combat and anti-smuggling duties, the 94-foot cutter responded to mariners in distress off the rocky coasts.
Though treacherous waters combined with rugged coastlines have claimed many vessels and victims here, few lighthouses existed years before the first cutter’s arrival. An increase of maritime trade in the Pacific Northwest called for lights to assist mariners to safety and to avert the rising loss of lives. In response, the U.S. Lighthouse Service (1767) built and manned the first 16 lights between 1852 and 1858 in Oregon and Washington. The region’s geography in some places made it impossible to built lighthouses, so small special vessels, lightships, were operated by the agency with the oldest Coast Guard lineage. Columbia River Number 50, was the first lightship on the West Coast. Its namesake is the waterway it occupies.
At this same time in history, two other agencies that came to be part of the Coast Guard played prominent roles in maritime safety history, namely, the Steamboat Inspection Service (1838) and the Bureau of Navigation (1884). Both agencies later combined to form the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation (1932). Because the inland waterways here were suited to steamboat development, Portland, Ore., opened its first inspection office in 1863. Later, another office was added in Seattle in 1871. Today’s Coast Guard Marine Safety Offices in Portland and Seattle continue to carry out this tradition in modern maritime safety.
The last of the predecessor agencies that would eventually make up the Coast Guard in 1915 was the U.S. Lifesaving Service. However, its origins in the Pacific Northwest stretch back to 1877 with the first establishment of a station in Willapa Bay. Cape Disappointment and Neah Bay stations were commissioned in 1878.
By 1915, the five agencies that were forerunners of the modern-day Coast Guard were now serving in the Pacific Northwest. On Jan. 15, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service merged with the U.S. Lifesaving Service to official form the U.S. Coast Guard. The last consolidation occurred when the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard in 1946.
World War II brought a surge of Coast Guard duties to the Pacific Northwest. Dogs and horses augmented the beach patrols that kept a sharp lookout not only for ships in distress, but more importantly for submarines and saboteurs. Air Station Port Angeles became a training platform for aerial gunners and a practice landing strip for carrier landing training.
The Coast Guard continued to conduct its humanitarian role in the midst of a global war. When the Russian freighter Lamut shipwrecked on the rocks south of Cape Flattery, 44 people were trapped onboard. Since the weather and rocks prevented an ocean rescue, Coast Guardsmen from the Quillayute Station immediately responded by approaching from the cliffs above the wreckage. The urgency of the moment demanded quick action. Shoelaces were tied together to pay out a makeshift messenger line to the boat below. Survivors then attached a hawser to the line for rescuers to hoist above. While clinging to the hawser, the survivors made their way up to safety.
Technology has helped the Coast Guard bring its multi-faceted missions into modern times. Many units, such as the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse were disestablished as a result of better ship navigation. Also, automation has made it unnecessary to inhabit and manually operate lighthouses. Technology has also marked an end of all lightships in Washington and Oregon.
The Integrated Support Command in Seattle, previously a U.S. Army Port during World War II, is now home to a variety of units: Coast Guard Group Seattle, Marine Safety Office, Seattle Station, the cutters Bayberry and the Puget Sound Vessel Traffic Service. Pacific Area high endurance cutters Midgett and Mellon, and the Coast Guard’s fleet of icebreakers, Polar Star, Polar Sea and Healy also make the ISC their homeport.
In all, Coast Guard facilities in the Pacific Northwest total14 small boat stations, 14 cutters, four aids-to-navigation teams, three air stations, two marine safety offices and a technologically-advanced vessel traffic service.
There are more than 2,200 Coast Guard members in the Pacific Northwest, active duty and Reserve, civilian and Auxiliary, who stand ready with counterparts throughout our nation to keep our waterways safe, secure and clean. On an average day, the Coast Guard conducts 109 search and rescue cases; saves 10 lives; assists 192 people in distress, protects $2. 5 million worth of property, cleans up or prevents one oil or chemical spill every 30 minutes, interdicts 14 illegal migrants and keeps $9.5 million of illegal narcotics from reaching our shores.
The Coast Guard has stood the watch for 211 years. Whenever, wherever America needs, the Coast Guard will be there, always ready. Happy Birthday, Coast Guard!
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