This Day in Coast Guard – July 13

2001- CGC Sherman became the second cutter to circumnavigate the globe when she returned to the United States from a six-month deployment to the Arabian Gulf in support of U.N. operations.  She conducted 219 queries, 115 boardings, and five diverts.  Her crew saved 38 lives, including 11 Iraqi smugglers when their vessel sank in a storm off UAE.  She towed a 33,000 ton carrier foundering in 50-foot seas off the Cape of Good Hope, saving 22 lives and keeping the ship from running aground at the entrance to Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  Her crew also saved 5 Costa Rican fishermen found after they were adrift for 21 days.  (The Eastwind was the first cutter to circumnavigate the globe on a cruise in 1960-1961.)

(Source: USCG Historian’s Office)