Upper Chesapeake Bay News

Woods Hole Group will be working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services for the operation and maintenance of Physical Oceanographic Real Time System along the East Coast of the USA, and along the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas and Louisiana. NOAA PORTS® is a network of sensors in ports and harbors providing access to information improving maritime commerce and safety. * Houston-Galveston, TX (http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ports/index.html?port=hg) Woods Hole Group also was awarded the five year Operation and Maintenance Contract to support four NOAA National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) stations in Texas.

1799- President Adams authorized by Congress to place revenue cutters in the naval establishment.   1825- Congress empowered the Revenue Marine to enforce state quarantine laws.   1942- Wartime port security delegated to Coast Guard by Executive Order 9074.   2001- The tugboat Swift sank after colliding with the freighter A.V. Kastner on the Elk River in the upper Chesapeake Bay.  Coast Guard units from New Jersey and Philadelphia worked with state police and local rescue agencies to rescue three survivors.  Two crewmen perished.  The Coast Guard also conducted the marine casualty investigation.   (Source: USCG Historian’s Office)

1942- HMS Culver (ex-CGC Mendota--she was one of the "Lake" Class cutters transferred to the Royal Navy in 1941 under the Lend-Lease program) was torpedoed and sunk with 13 survivors. 1948- Mrs. Fannie M. Salter, keeper of the Turkey Point Lighthouse in upper Chesapeake Bay since 1925 and the last woman keeper of a lighthouse in the United States, retired from active service. The first woman had been hired as a lighthouse keeper 150 years before. Salter's retirement temporarily closed the tradition of women serving as keepers at lighthouses. 1975-CGC Vigorous (WMEC-627) became the first cutter to make a seizure of a foreign-flag fishing vessel in the high seas when she seized the Italian fishing vessel Tontini Pesca Cuarto for illegally taking lobster.

1799- President Adams authorized by Congress to place revenue cutters in the naval establishment. 1825- Congress empowered the Revenue Marine to enforce state quarantine laws. 1942- Wartime port security delegated to Coast Guard by Executive Order 9074. 2001- The tugboat Swift sank after colliding with the freighter A.V. Kastner on the Elk River in the upper Chesapeake Bay.  Coast Guard units from New Jersey and Philadelphia worked with state police and local rescue agencies to rescue three survivors.  Two crewmen perished.  The Coast Guard also conducted the marine casualty investigation. (Source: USCG Historian’s Office)

The Coast Guard, in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage, is reviewing a plan submitted by the owners and contracted salvors of a sunken tug and a barge impeding vessel traffic in the Elk River in the Upper Chesapeake Bay. The tug and barge, which sank in the shipping channel following a collision with a freighter, have caused the adjacent C&D Canal to remain closed to all vessel traffic pending their safe removal. Four men remain missing following the incident. The salvage plan, submitted by Norfolk Dredging Marine, the sunken tug Swift's owners, and Ellsworth Salvage, the contractor, must adequately address a number of safety, environmental, and navigational considerations in order to receive the agencies' authorization to begin operations.

Capt. Brian D. Kelley will assume command of Coast Guard Sector Baltimore on Friday at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore. Capt. Kelley will relieve Capt. Curtis A. Springer, who assumed command of Sector Baltimore in June 2003. Capt. Springer will now be Assistant Chief of the Office of Personnel Management in Arlington, Va. As commander of Sector Baltimore, Capt. Kelley will also be Captain of the Port, Officer in Charge of Marine Inspection, Federal On-Scene Coordinator, Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator, and Federal Maritime Security Coordinator for all Coast Guard operational missions in the Sector’s area of responsibility. That area covers the Upper Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, including the Potomac River and the National Capital Region.