This Day In Naval History: April 26
1860 - The screw steamship Mohawk captures the slaver Wildfire with 530 slaves on board in the Bahama Channel, taking them to a camp in Key West guarded by Mohawks Marines until returned home. 1869 - As a post-Civil War push for re-enlistments, the Good Conduct Medal, then called Good Conduct Badge, is authorized by Secretary of the Navy Adolphus E. Borie. 1918 - USS Stewart (DD 13) collides with an unidentified steamer near Brest, France. Just days earlier, Stewart crew members attacked a German submarine and saved the SS Florence H crew when she exploded internally.
Portsmouth-Based Cutter Returns from Patrol
The Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane returns home Saturday, June 7 at 1 p.m. from a 61-day patrol in support of maritime homeland security, counter-drug operations and alien migrant interdiction in the Florida Straits and Caribbean Sea. At the opening of Operation Iraqi Freedom and with the national threat level at orange, Harriet Lane was ordered to patrol the Florida Straits and positively identify shipping traffic approaching the southern U.S. through the well-traveled old Bahama channel. The immediate threat in the region was high-speed small boats (often called go-fasts), which ferried illegal Cuban migrants between Cuba and the Florida Keys 80 miles to the north.
Coast Guard Steps Up
In response to a possible increased flow of migrant activity from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba toward South Florida, the Coast Guard is increasing its patrols and surveillance of the Windward Pass, Old Bahama Channel and the Straits of Florida. Coast Guard cutters, boats and aircraft are increasing their already significant presence in these areas for the direct purpose of interdicting migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally. These patrols save lives by removing migrants from unsafe vessels and deterring dangerous activity. They simultaneously cover the overlapping transit routes for smuggling of drugs and other contraband.
