11 Memorable Coast Guard Rescues from 2011
From the harsh January storms to Hurricane Irene to the onset of ice season, the year 2011 presented its own unique challenges in the First Coast Guard District.
Based in Boston, Mass., the First District oversees all Coast Guard missions across eight states in the northeastern United States. The area of responsibility includes more than 8,000 miles of tidal shoreline from the U.S.-Canadian border to northern New Jersey. Charged with performing the myriad Coast Guard missions are 12,000 active duty, reserve, civilian and auxiliary personnel, 30 cutters, 200 boats and eight aircraft.
As the maritime community looks forward to a new year in 2012, 11 Coast Guard search and rescue missions offer stark reminders of the need for the maritime community as a whole to stay vigilant and work closely with the Coast Guard as crews across the Northeast keep the region safe.
1) Watchful ears, just in time
While on patrol in the vicinity of Long Island Sound, N.Y. July 14th, an Air Station Cape Cod HU-25 Falcon jet received a distress call over VHF Channel 16. The source reported their vessel, with five persons aboard, was taking on water five miles south of New Haven Harbor. Sector Long Island Sound advised Station New Haven who launched a small boat to assist. The Coast Guard boat crew arrived on scene in time to rescue all five passengers just as the vessel sank. After the passengers were delivered safely to a shoreside safe haven, the Station New Haven crew turned around to assist a commercial salvage vessel that had become disabled during the event.
2) An unexpected site
Coast Guard Station South Portland received a distress call July 31st, from a two-masted site-seeing schooner that ran aground in Casco Bay, Maine, near Great Diamond Island. A 47-foot Motor Life Boat crew from the station worked with the Portland Fire Department to rescue 49 passengers from the schooner, which was grinding into the rocks. The Coast Guard later ensured the vessel was salvaged, did not cause harm to the environment, and did not hinder commerce.
3) A grandfather holds on
The Coast Guard rescued a 77-year-old man after his grandson called to report the grandfather had fallen overboard from his sailing vessel approximately four miles south of Centerville Beach, Mass., August 17th. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England, in Woods Hole, Mass., coordinated with an Air Station Cape Cod MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew and a Coast Guard Station Wood's Hole 41-foot Utility Boat crew. The Jayhawk crew located the man and deployed a rescue swimmer who safely recovered him from the water at 3:16 p.m. The man was wearing his lifejacket and clinging to a flotation device his grandson had thrown him.
4) Fortune amidst disaster
The Rye Fire Department contacted Coast Guard Station Portsmouth Harbor to report three men had called 911 after a wave came over the stern of their boat, capsizing the vessel and knocking the men into the water about a mile off the coast of Rye, N.H., June 24th.
A Station Portsmouth Harbor 25-foot boat crew responded, rescued the trio, and brought them back to the station where they were met by New Castle EMS.
“These men are really lucky,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class John Matthews, the officer of the day at Coast Guard Station Portsmouth Harbor. “The water is only 57 degrees and they weren’t wearing life jackets. In that cold of water it doesn’t take long for hypothermia to set in."
5) Coordination is key
A battered sailboat crew hailed for help 780 miles northeast of Cape Cod, Mass., July 29th. Their sail was broken, the engine was disabled, and the boat was taking on water. The tight-knit maritime community of AMVER system proved its value once again. The The 899-foot motor vessel Kim Jacob, transiting to Port Tupper, Nova Scotia, plucked the mariners from the waters.
"The AMVER program is invaluable to us in extending our search and rescue capabilities outside the normal operating area of our Coast Guard resources," said Rick Arsenault, from the Coast Guard First District command center. "This volunteer program provides a surface picture of readily available vessels who volunteer their services to search and rescue coordinators during cases."
6) Swept to sea, pulled to safety
During the rough post-Irene weather, the sea swept a woman and man from a rock wall near Narragansett Beach, R.I., August 29th. The man struggled to the beach, but the woman was unable to make it in. Local police threw her a flotation device and a helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod was launched. The crew arrived on scene within minutes of the initial report and a rescue swimmer hoisted the woman from the water.
"Being thrown a lifejacket greatly increased her chances of survival," said Chief Petty Officer Justin Urbano, Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England situation watch chief.
7) A life saved, though not at sea
A Coast Guard rescue helicopter crew was shocked to see fire and smoke erupting from a forest near Provincetown, Mass., September 1st. They were on a routine patrol when a small plane carrying two passengers crashed. The crew diverted immediately to aid the pilots. The crew landed and and sprinted to the scene. They were able to rescue the one survivor and ensure her safe delivery to a hospital.
8) The lifejacket can keep its name
Two boaters were torn from their vessel while swimming off Crab Meadow Beach on the northern side of Long Island, N.Y., August 21st. The Coast Guard conducted a search to locate the two swimmers. After locating the two clinging to a shared lifejacket, the rescue crew not only saved the boaters, but their vessel as well.
9) An overdue that ended well
U.S. Coast Guard and Ipswich, Mass., fire and police department crews worked together to rescue a 38-year old man in Ipswich Bay about one mile northeast of the Annisquam River after he was reported overdue from his fishing trip, October 3rd. Approximately 30 minutes into the search, the Station Gloucester boatcrew located and rescued the man from the 62-degree water, alive and responsive. His boat was not found.
10) A team effort
The Coast Guard received a radio distress call from the operator of a 57-foot pleasure craft which was taking on water near the Throgs Neck Bridge, N.Y., May 3rd.
Coast Guard Sector New York search and rescue watchstanders contacted harbor units from the New York Police Department and the New York Fire Department who responded and were on scene shortly after. Crewmembers from Towboat U.S. were also on scene shortly after the initial call and began to dewater the boat.
Coast Guard Station Kings Point, N.Y., launched a 25-foot rescue boat crew, who transported the two individuals to City Island where they were transferred to awaiting emergency medical personnel.
11) Rescue, rescue, rescue
The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Campbell performed three key rescues while patrolling the northern Atlantic Ocean this fall.
Crewmembers medically evacuated an injured fisherman who had lost two fingers and severely injured a third in an accident off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J. in December. Following the radio call for help from the fishing vessel Kennedy Hellen, the Campbell's crew was on scene in less than an hour to administer first aid. A Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City helicopter crew safely transported the fisherman to Atlantic City Medical Center for treatment.
The Campbell's crewmembers also towed two disabled fishing boats to safety when the boats became stranded off shore.
The first took the cutter crew about a day and a half to tow the vessel in eight-foot seas from approximately 60 miles east of Cape Cod, Mass., to Cape Cod Bay, after the fishing boat’s engine broke down.
The second tow took the crew about 12 hours to complete after the fishing boat’s nets became entangled in the propeller approximately 50 miles south of Montauk, NY. The vessel was towed to Block Island, R.I.
Source: US Coast Guard