This Day in Coast Guard History, December 2

Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso

Gurnet Point Station. Plymouth Lighthouse, Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA showing the one remaining tower built 1842 in the earthworks of Civil War Fort Andrew.

1883  The schooner Champion with a crew of two men stranded on Dick’s Flat, Plymouth Harbor, near Duxbury Pier lighthouse, at about 6 am. The shoal where she struck was about three miles west-southwest of the Gurnet Point Station (Second District), and the crew of the station were not sure she was aground until about 10 o’clock.  The life-saving crew therefore arrived on board a little before 2 o’clock in the afternoon.  They found one of the men, the captain, at the pumps and the other bailing from the hatch.  The vessel was leaking badly.  The two men on board were wet, cold, and very glad of the assistance of the life-saving crew.  The keeper, at the captain’s request, took charge.  The pumps were manned while another gang went to work bailing.  When she began to right with the incoming tide, they shifted the booms over and canted her the other way, so as to bring the leaky seams out of the water to chinse them with oakum and nail canvas over all to stop the leaks.  After doing this and getting most of the water out, they carried out an anchor into the channel, set all sail and by heaving hard on the hawser, they brought her on an even keel.  She was hauled off the shoal at about 4 o’clock and got safely under way.  As the weather looked bad, the captain concluded to remain in port for the night and accordingly anchored.

2012  BMCS Terrell Horne, III, CGC Halibut’s Executive Petty Officer and Boarding Officer, was killed in action while carrying out law enforcement operations near Santa Cruz, California. The Coast Guard posthumously awarded BMCS Horne the Coast Guard Medal for his heroism that night.  His citation read, in part: “…Shortly after midnight, Senior Chief Petty Officer Horne deployed in HALIBUT’s cutter boat with three other crew members to investigate a vessel loitering in the area without navigation lights.  Upon approaching the unlit vessel and identifying themselves as law enforcement officers, the vessel ignored commands to stop and instead rapidly accelerated directly toward them.  The boarding team immediately maneuvered to avoid the oncoming vessel and fired side arms in self-defense.  When impact with the oncoming vessel became unavoidable, Senior Chief Petty Officer HORNE, disregarding his own safety in order to protect a fellow crewmember, forcibly pushed the coxswain from the helm, directly exposing himself to the oncoming vessel.  The violence of the subsequent collision forcibly ejected him from the boat, and despite immediate recovery from the water and application of first aid by his shipmates, he succumbed to the severe injuries received during the incident.  Senior Chief Petty Officer HORNE demonstrated remarkable initiative, exceptional fortitude and daring in spite of imminent personal danger.  His courage and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard.”

PERU, 10.06.2023, Courtesy Photo, USCG District 11
The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Terrell Horne conducts a patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in support of Operation Southern Shield 2023, October 2023. The Coast Guard recently completed the first high-seas boardings and inspections off the coast of Peru under a newly adopted multi-lateral agreement to monitor fishing and transshipment operations within the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) Convention Area. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

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