1878- The last true sailing cutter built for the Revenue Service, Chase (Salmon P. Chase) was completed on 6 August 1878 at the shipyard of Thomas Brown of Philadephia. Barque-rigged, Chase displaced 142 tons and served as a cadet "practice vessel" for nearly 30 years before being decommissioned and transferred to the U.S. Public Health Service. 1918-The first American lightship to be sunk by enemy action, Lightship No. 71, was lost on her Diamond Shoals station. LS 71 had reported by radio the presence of a German submarine which had sunk a passing freighter. That message was intercepted by the submarine U-104, which then located the lightship and, after giving the crew opportunity to abandon ship in the boats, sank LS 71 by surface gunfire.
