We're all familiar with the white hulled Coast Guard Cutters (both with and without racing stripes), and also with red hulled and black hulled cutters -- with the colors associated, rather loosely with their duties.

There were, of course, grey hulled cutters during several wars -- and it's hard to say what color the 47 footers are.

But there was once a Coast Guard Cutter with a hull painted bright canary yellow.

What was her name, and what was her mission?

The Answer

In the early 1950s, fears of a Eastern-bloc freighter sailing into a port, armed with a nuclear bomb, gave the Coast

Guard a unique Cold War task.  Since the Soviet Union and its communist allies had no long-range bomber force and ballistic missiles were ten years in the future, delivery of a bomb by a vessel sailing into an unsuspecting port and then being detonated was the most likely form of nuclear attack on the United States.  From August 1951 every vessel entering into a U. S. anchorage had to notify Customs of its intended destination and cargo 24 hours before it was to arrive.  The names of these vessels were passed to the appropriate Captain of the Port and Coast Guard patrol boats identified and checked each, boarding and examining those that appeared suspicious.

The Coast Guard began a trial program, under the auspices of the Port Security Division, whereby a cutter, known as an "examination" vessel, would be stationed at the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay.  There all incoming vessels were requested to supply their identity, cargo, homeport, and last port of call.  They would then receive clearance from the cutter to proceed.

USCGC Tahoma, a 165' patrol gunboat, was re-designated as the examination vessel (her hull designation was changed from WPG-80 to WAGE-10) on 1 May 1952.  Her hull was painted in "canary yellow" and the word "GUARD" was painted on both sides of her hull in black, while her superstructure remained white.  She then took up station outside of the Chesapeake Bay after being recommissioned on 16 July 1952.  Her crew size was augmented with special boarding teams and more radio and radar operators.

Tahoma was released from guard duty on 30 May 1953.  That  duty then fell to the Coast Guard shore stations near the entrance of the bay.  Tahoma was decommissioned on 5 June 1953 and stored at Curtis Bay, Maryland.  She was sold for scrap on 17 October 1955 to the Bethlehem Steel Company.

More information about USCGC Tahoma can be found at this Coast Guard History page.

QUESTION

On August 4th 2003 the US Coast Guard officially celebrated it's 213th anniversary.

The Coast Guard was formed in 1915 by a merger of the US Revenue Cutter Service founded in 1790 (and alternately known as the Revenue Marine) with the US Life Saving Service founded in 1848 — adopting the founding date of its earliest component part.

A case can be made that the USCG is actually one year older, and could easily claim 1789 as its founding date.

Why?

The Answer

In 1939 the U.S. Lighthouse Service was amalgamated into the operations of the U.S. Coast Guard. Personnel of the former Bureau were given the choice of being brought into the Coast Guard through a military position or remaining as civilian employees. About half chose to remain civilians and about half went the military route.

Prior to 1789, during the colonial period, each colonial government determined the need for a lighthouse in their colony, financed its construction, and oversaw its operation. Twelve colonial lighthouses remained in the hands of the individual states throughout the period of confederation with additional lighthouses being erected.

On August 7, 1789, President George Washington signed the ninth act of the United States Congress which provided that the states turn over their lighthouses, including those under construction and those proposed, to the central government. In creating the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment, aids to navigation became the responsibility of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Thus, if the Coast Guard had followed the precedent of adopting as its founding date, the founding date of its earliest component part, the Coast Guard could lay claim to 1789 as its date of establishment.

21 JULY 2003 QUESTION

The USCGC Boutwell is currently in port at Coast Guard Island.

Coast Guard cutters normally fly the U.S. Union Jack (pictured to the right)

from their jack staffs.

The Boutwell, however, is flying the flag pictured below.

What flag is it? Why is it being flown?

The Answer

12-5 member Don Hatcher got it just about right!

"That is the original Navy ensign.  They are flying that ensign because they
just returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom which would put them in a war
situation so they are under orders by the Dept. of the Navy."

Here's a few more details:

The USCGC Boutwell's flying of the First Navy Jack in lieu of the traditional U.S. Union Jack is the result of its recent CHOP to the Navy where  it assisted in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The "First Navy Jack" was one of a number of rattlesnake flags popular in the Continental Navy as well as throughout the colonies during the American Revolution.  The symbolism is of a deadly animal that strikes only after giving fair warning.  The rattlesnake is portrayed with 13 rattles symbolizing the 13 colonies.  In 1975, the Secretary of the Navy directed that this jack be flown in lieu of the normal union jack from the Navy's 200th birthday, October 13, 1975, through the end of the bicentennial year of 1976.  The flag was so popular that in 1980 a Secretary of the Navy instruction directed that it continue to be flown in place of the union jack by the ship in regular commission with the longest time of active service.  That is currently the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.

More recently, on May 31, 2002, Secretary of the Navy Gordon England directed that "the first Navy jack will be displayed on board all U.S. Navy ships in lieu of the union jack, in accordance with sections 1259 and 1264 of [Navy Regulations]" for the duration of the global war on terrorism. Display of the striped jack throughout the fleet actually began at morning colors on September 11, 2002, first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, in accordance with Chief of Naval Operations message 301329Z Aug 02. Although by specification the First Navy Jack is in the same proportions (about 7:10) as the normal union jack, flags in commercially available proportions including 2:3 and 3:5 were distributed to meet the September 11 deadline.

Coast Guard cutters, in general, continue to fly the traditional U.S. Union Jack. And Coast Guard Auxiliary vessels, even when on patrol and under operational orders, fly no "jack" at all because they are not "commissioned" vessels.

The First Navy Jack is a variation of the Gadson flag (pictured to the right) which has a representation of a coiled snake on a yellow field, and which was also used on vessels of the Continental Navy. Patriot Colonel Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina designed it, copying a design he saw on a banner. Commodore Esek Hopkins, commander of the new Continental fleet, carried a similar flag in February 1776, when his ships put to sea for the first time. Hopkins captured large stores of British cannon and military supplies in the Bahamas. His cruise marked the salt-water baptism of the American Navy and it saw the first landing of the Corps of Marines, on whose drums the Gadsden symbol was painted.

The First Navy Jack is also similar to, and may be an adaptation of the Sons of Liberty Flag -- the so-called  "Rebellious Stripes" created at the time of the Stamp Act Congress, and which also featured thirteen red and white horizontal stripes.