This Day in Coast Guard History – October 14

1801-Secretary of the Treasury Gallatin announced the decision to reduce "Revenue Cutter Establishment" as near as circumstances will permit within its original limits.

1943-CGC E.M. Dow grounded and was abandoned near Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. All hands were saved.

1944-CGCs Eastwind and Southwind captured the Nazi weather and supply vessel Externsteine off the coast of Greenland after a brief fire-fight.  There were no casualties.  The Coast Guardsmen christened their prize-of-war USS Eastbreeze and placed a prize crew on board.  The prize crew was commanded by LT Curtiss Howard and consisted of 36 men, including some from Southwind.  After sailing with the Greenland Patrol for three weeks, Eastbreeze sailed on to Boston where the Navy renamed it as USS Callao. The Externsteine/Eastbreeze/Callao was the only enemy surface vessel captured at sea by U.S. naval forces during the war.  The Eastwind and Southwind had gone farther north and returned under their own power than any vessel ever before.  Finally, this naval battle had taken place farther north than any previous battle, laurels enough for the Greenland Patrol.

1947-CGC Bibb rescued 62 passengers and 7 crew members of the transatlantic flying boat Bermuda Sky Queen in mid-Atlantic in one of the most dramatic rescues undertaken by the Coast Guard in the open ocean.

1961-After US Air Force B-52G [serial number 58-196??] with eight persons aboard was reported overdue and possibly down in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere off Newfoundland, the Coast Guard commander, Eastern Area, coordinated the extensive search that resulted.  Participating in it were 79 US Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force, and Canadian aircraft, 5 US Coast Guard cutters, and 2 merchant ships.  Despite this search that lasted through 18 October and covered 286,225 square miles, no trace of the missing B-52 or its crew was found.

(Source: USCG Historian’s Office)