The aftermath of the collision shows the floating wreckage of the Stolt Dagali. U.S. Coast Guard photo.
1964 The Israeli passenger liner Shalom and the Norwegian tanker Stolt Dagali collided off Point Pleasant, New Jersey in a dense fog. Nineteen tanker crewmen were killed in the collision which sliced the tanker into two pieces. CGC Point Arden was the first on scene. Five other cutters and “a fleet” of Coast Guard and Navy helicopters soon joined in the rescue and salvage operations, resulting in the rescue of 24 of the tanker’s crew. One injured Shalom crewman was airlifted by a Coast Guard helicopter for medical treatment and survived. No one else from the liner was injured.
“…the accident instantly put into motion one of the largest search-and-rescue operations of the time, combining 11 Coast Guard and Navy helicopters, six cutters, and even the crews of three passing Merchant Marine vessels acting as Good Samaritans. The operation was coordinated by Lt. Junior Grade Joseph DiBella, who was officer in charge at the Rescue Coordination Center in lower Manhattan. Functionally, the 24-year-old was fairly low-ranking for what was shaping up to be a massive effort. When his superior appeared and asked whether DiBella should be relieved, the message from top brass was: No, let him stay in control.” –Miami New Times, February 7, 2017
WPB 95311, Cape class cutter similar to USCGC Cape Providence.
1968 While en route from Apia, Western Samoa to Pago Pago, Polynesian Airlines Flight 5WFAA sighted the wreckage of an overturned vessel and reported it to the Federal Aviation Agency Flight Service at Tafuna, American Samoa. CGC Cape Providence (WPB 95335), a 95 foot Cape class patrol boat, moored at Pago Pago on search and rescue standby, was notified of the sighting. With an assist from the Polynesian airliner, the cutter located the disabled fishing vessel named Main Sun No.2 and found 17 survivors clinging to the overturned hull. Despite the rough seas breaking over the hull, the Cape Providence rescued 13 of the survivors, while 4 more were retrieved from the water by the fishing vessel Chie Hong No.20, which had arrived on scene to assist. Two members of the 19-man crew, however, had been trapped in the engine room on the capsized vessel and had perished.
1995 Coast Guardsman Michael E. Earley rescued a 12-year-old boy who had fallen from the Astoria-Megler Bridge into the frigid, swiftly flowing waters of the Columbia River. Petty Officer Earley was on liberty and driving along the highway towards the bridge when he noticed several people on the bridge waving their arms. When he stopped to offer assistance, he saw a young boy struggling to stay afloat in the strong flooding tide of the river. Without hesitation, Petty Officer Earley hurried to the shoreline, tied a rope to his belt, and disregarding his own safety, plunged into the churning 52-degree water and rescued the young boy. He was awarded a Gold Life-Saving Medal for his heroic action.
1996 A Coast Guard HC-130 located a grossly overloaded Haitian freighter off the coast of Haiti. Crewmen from the cutters Dauntless, Chandelier, Monhegan, and Nantucket helped to transfer the largest group of Haitians ever found on a vessel to CGC Northland. One Haitian died of severe dehydration, the other 581 were repatriated.
The 370-foot freighter M/V Kuroshima, ran aground in a heavy storm in Summer Bay, Alaska, in 1997. Image credit: USCG
1997 Two crewmen died when the Japanese freighter Kuroshima ran aground in a storm near Dutch Harbor. Bitter weather, with 90-m.p.h. winds and seas at 20 feet, made any air rescue impossible. Eighteen other crewmen were rescued by Coast Guardsmen who used a tow rope to haul a life raft to safety. The Coast Guardsmen were from CGC Midgett that was fortuitously in Dutch Harbor for a mid-patrol break. The freighter was later refloated.
2002 President George W. Bush signed into law a bill that created the Department of Homeland Security, the largest reorganization of the federal government in fifty years. The Coast Guard was one of a number of agencies that transferred to the new Department; the transfer was scheduled to go into effect on March 1, 2003.
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