Based on the Coast Guard Historian’s timeline, https://www.history.uscg.mil/research/chronology/
With inspiration from Mike Kelso
December 3
Joseph Francis Life-Car. Image credit: Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
1852 The merchant ship Georgia grounded in a gale off Bonds, New Jersey with 290 persons on board. The life car was used to affect their rescue and all survived.
Old Harbor U.S. Life Saving Station is a historic maritime rescue station and museum, located at Race Point Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It was originally located at Nauset Beach near the entrance to Chatham Harbor in Chatham, Massachusetts.
1883 The schooner Pallas with a crew of three men encountered strong head winds and heavy seas off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. About half past 5 in the morning, abreast of Nausett lights, she sprung a leak and became unmanageable. Being close to the breakers, the crew was fearful they would be washed overboard as soon as she struck and took to their boat. Fortunately, they were discovered by the Nausett Station keeper, pulling vigorously to keep away from the surf. The surfboat was launched and the three men rescued. They were brought ashore by the life-saving crew, though not without a thorough drenching because the station boat was nearly swamped on the bar. The schooner meanwhile drifted into the surf, three quarters of a mile north of the station and soon broke up.
1982 MSO St. Louis took charge of the response when the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers flooded their banks. In all over 100 Coast Guardsmen took part in the relief efforts that covered an eight-state area.
GULF OF MEXICO – Petty Officer 3rd Class Suren Chandrasena, a boatswain’s mate, watches as Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf’s Over-The-Horizon small boat departs to receive personnel from Coast Guard Cutter Chandeleur, June 18, 2008. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Anderson
2001 Coast Guard forces, including the cutters Chandeleur (WPB-1319) and Farallon (WPB-1301), as well as aircraft from Air Station Miami and boat crews from Station Miami Beach rescued 185 Haitian migrants from the grossly overloaded 31-foot sailboat Simapvivsetz off Old Rhodes Key, Florida.
USCGC Polar Star. USCGC photo.
2013 CGC Polar Star departed Coast Guard Base Seattle for Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze for the first time since 2006 with the task of resupplying the National Science Foundation Scientific Research Station in McMurdo, Antarctica. During the summer of 2013, Polar Star conducted sea trials in the Arctic to test all of the ship’s equipment and train the crew prior to embarking to Antarctica. During the summer trip, Polar Star spent weeks in the Beaufort Sea north of Barrow, Alaska, testing propulsion machinery, conducting emergency drills, and qualifying crewmembers in individual watch-stations. The cutter was recently out of a three-year, $90 million overhaul, part of the Coast Guard’s plan to reactivate the heavy icebreaker.
December 4
Mesquite aground on her final voyage
1989 USCGC Mesquite ran aground near Keweenaw Point in Lake Superior. She was deemed damaged beyond repair and was sunk as an artificial reef. There was no loss of life.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
My father (CG Reservist) was activated for Flood Duty in 1982. The CG had closed down the river, but a tow boat with a dozen barges decided to ignore the order and came downstream. A civilian in his house watching the wake knock over sandbags diked around neighbors homes upstream and flooding said homes, took matters into their own hands and fired a 30-06 hunting rifle into the pilothouse of the towboat. Dad told me the Master was happy to be taken into custody and his boat seized to get the gunfire to stop… Luckily no one was hit. Tow company had to pay damages, and charges were dropped on both sides, eventually. Didn’t have anyone argue with the MSO shutting down the river for many years afterwards.