Pea Island News

The crews of the Coast Guard Cutter Decisive, Coast Guard Cutter Pea Island, Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S), and the Honduran Navy have interdicted a drug smuggling, self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) vessel in the Western Caribbean Sea. SPSS vessels are used regularly to transport illegal narcotics in the Eastern Pacific, and this interdiction is only the fifth Coast Guard interdiction of an SPSS in the Caribbean. Built in the jungles and remote areas of South America, the typical SPSS is less than 100 feet in length, with four or five crewmembers, and carries up to 10 metric tons of illicit cargo for distances up to 5,000 miles.

Vessel named for Coast Guard hero Richard Etheridge. The U.S. Coast Guard’s second, 154-foot Fast Response Cutter, the Richard Etheridge, was launched at Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, La., Thursday, marking a significant milestone in the Coast Guard’s acquisition of the Sentinel- class patrol boats. While in the water, the cutter will undergo a series of tests and evaluations prior to its planned delivery early next year. The launch is one of many steps in the construction process…

1885-Keeper Marcus Hanna of the Cape Elizabeth Light Station saved two men from the wrecked schooner Australia. For this rescue Hanna was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal. He was also awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Port Hudson in 1863. He is the only person to have ever received both awards. 1915- President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the "Act to Create the Coast Guard," an act passed by Congress on 20 January 1915 that combined the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service to form the Coast Guard (38 Stat. L., 800). The Coast Guard, however, still considers the date of the founding of the Revenue Cutter Service, 4 August 1790, as its "official" birthday, even though the Lighthouse Service, absorbed in 1939, is even older than that, dating to 7 August 1789.

1896- The crew of the Pea Island (North Carolina) Life-Saving Station, under the command of Keeper Richard Etheridge, performed one of their finest rescues when they saved the passengers and crew of the schooner E.S. Newman, after that ship ran aground during a hurricane. Pushed before the storm, the ship lost all sails and drifted almost 100 miles before it ran aground about two miles south of the Pea Island Lifesaving Station. Etheridge, a veteran of nearly twenty years, readied his crew. They hitched mules to the beach cart and hurried toward the vessel. Arriving on the scene, they found Captain S. A. Gardiner and eight others clinging to the wreckage.

Rear Admiral Manson Brown presents the ceremonial flag to Gertrude Collins, the wife of Lt. Herbert Collins (Ret.) at his funeral, March 26, 2010. Lt. Collins was the last surviving member of the historic Coast Guard Station Pea Island, the only station in Coast Guard history to have an all African-American crew. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Third Class Victoria Bonk.

1885-Keeper Marcus Hanna of the Cape Elizabeth Light Station saved two men from the wrecked schooner Australia. For this rescue Hanna was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal. He was also awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Port Hudson in 1863. He is the only person to have ever received both awards. 1915- President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the "Act to Create the Coast Guard," an act passed by Congress on 20 January 1915 that combined the Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service to form the Coast Guard (38 Stat. L., 800). The Coast Guard, however, still considers the date of the founding of the Revenue Cutter Service, 4 August 1790, as its "official" birthday, even though the Lighthouse Service, absorbed in 1939, is even older than that, dating to 7 August 1789.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge will welcome back Coast Guard Patrol Forces Mediterranean in a ceremony at Nauticus in Norfolk on June 11 at 3 p.m. The crews of the Coast Guard Cutter Dallas and four 110-ft. patrol boats, two Coast Guard law enforcement detachments, and 45 support and Port Security personnel will be greeted by Secretary Ridge, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins, and Atlantic Area Commander Vice Adm. James Hull. Dallas, homeported in Charleston, S.C., deployed Feb. 8 to work with the Navy’s 6th Fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar. In the months leading up to the war with Iraq, the 378-foot high-endurance cutter helped protect U.S. shipping there from terrorist threats.

United States Coast Guard forces assigned to the Mediterranean region departed Rota, Spain Thursday on their trans-Atlantic journey home following their efforts as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The 378-ft. Coast Guard Cutter Dallas, homeported in Charleston, S.C., and four patrol boats; the CGCs Pea Island and Knight Island homeported in St. Petersburg, Fla.; the CGC Bainbridge Island homeported in Sandy Hook, N.J. and the CGC Grand Isle from Gloucester, Mass., will make several port calls during their transit home before arriving in Norfolk, Va., June 11. The return transit marks the first time 110-ft. patrol boats have sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. To get to the Mediterranean, the patrol boats were carried aboard a commercial freight ship.