This Day in Coast Guard History, April 28

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

April 28

1908  The Revenue Cutter Service became the primary federal agency in charge of patrolling regattas.

USRC Seneca, 1908

1918  CGC Seneca saved 81 survivors from the torpedoed British naval sloop Cowslip while on convoy route to Gibraltar.  Cowslip had been attacked by three German U-boats.

Harry Gabriel Hamlet, USCG, Commandant of the Coast Guard (1932), commanded USS Marietta ,October 1918 – 12 July 1919

1919  While in command of USS Marietta in the Bay of Biscay, Captain Harry G. Hamlet rescued a crew of 47 persons from USS James which was sinking at sea, April 23, 1919.  For his actions that day he was awarded a Gold Lifesaving Medal.  His award citation noted: “This rescue was made extremely difficult and hazardous owing to high seas, which threatened to send the two vessels crashing together. In effecting the rescue, Captain Hamlet displayed admirable seamanship.”  Captain Hamlet would later serve as Commandant of the Coast Guard from 1932-1936. (If this story sounds familiar, it is because the same incident was erroneously reported in the “This Day in Coast Guard History, April 22 / 23.”)

Marietta (PG-15) In European waters. Photo courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone from U.S. Small Combatants: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman

The U.S. Navy amphibious transport dock ship USS Cleveland (LPD-7) underway off the coast of Port Hueneme, California (USA), on 3 February 2000, in support of search and recovery operations for Alaska Airlines Flight 261.

1993  Coast Guard PACAREA LEDETs, operating from the USS Valley Forge and USS Cleveland, boarded the St. Vincent-flagged 225-foot freighter Sea Chariot about 300 miles southwest of Panama.  The boarding team discovered bales of cocaine in some of the containers on board and then seized the vessel.  The vessel was escorted through the Panama Canal to Station Miami Beach where a search of the vessel’s containers turned up 11,233 pounds of cocaine.

2001  A LEDET assigned to USS Rodney M. Davis, with later assistance from CGC Active made the largest cocaine seizure in maritime history to date when they boarded and seized the Belizean F/V Svesda Maru 1,500 miles south of San Diego.  The fishing vessel was carrying 26,931 pounds of cocaine.

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