By the close of 1941 the United States Coast Guard was operating under an accelerated and expanded program as a direct result of several important Acts of Congress, its transfer to the Navy Department and the assumption of additional and special duties of a national defense character. In a round-up of the year's progress the following activities are most noteworthy.
Larger quotas of cadets were assigned to the entrance classes at the Coast Guard Academy, necessitating an expansion of the Academy's teaching staff and physical plant. The authorized number of enlisted personnel was likewise increased and speedier training regimes instituted for these groups.
The building, reconditioning and rearmament of ships at the Coast Guard Yard at Baltimore, required the construction of additional plant facilities and a larger working force. Construction of building-ways and a floating drydock was put under way at the same yard.
Participation was increased in the neutrality patrol and other naval operations in the north Atlantic in addition to the transfers of certain ships and personnel groups for naval duties.
As a national defense measure, a Coast Guard air detachment and a chartered ice-breaker were used to assist the regular ice-breaking vessels to expedite the opening of navigation on the Great Lakes in the spring and to retard its closing in the fall.
A national system of radio direction finder stations, of great benefit to shipping, and previously operated by the Navy, was taken over by the Coast Guard during the year.
The number of officers serving as Captains of the Port was increased and their powers broadened.
The former non-military Coast Guard Reserve was resolved into the present Coast Guard Auxiliary, and in its place a fully militarized Coast Guard Reserve was established as a result of recent legislation.
To offset the ship shortage occasioned by transfers to other services, the Coast Guard speeded up its building program in two ways: — first, by adding ship buildingways to the facilities of its yard at Baltimore; and second, by awarding contracts to private shipyards.
As the duties of the Captains of the Port became heavier, small boats, necessary to their work, were required in increasing number. To fill this need, one contract was awarded early in the year, which, by December, resulted in the commissioning of approximately one new boat a week. Another contract, to provide 100 small boats within three months, was awarded in November. The Coast Guard's production in its own boat building shops practically doubled itself. Under Coast Guard Reserve legislation, a full complement of 270 boats was commissioned; Congress also authorized the outright purchase of 100 small boats in the open market.
Largely through the efforts of the Coast Guard in breaking channels through ice in strategic parts of the Great Lakes, the earliest opening of navigation in forty years took place through the Federal locks at Saulte Ste. Marie, Michigan, on April 13, 1941. These locks, situated as they are at the falls of the St. Mary's River, control the movement of traffic between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. This early opening of navigation on the Lakes aided defense activities by reestablishing the flow of iron ore from the Lake Superior region to the steel mills upon the lower lakes.
The new fully militarized Coast Guard Reserve, established by an Act of Congress, February 1941, has contributed much in additional personnel and small boats to aid the work carried on by the Captains of the Port. Much of this work involves inshore patrol duty aimed toward prevention of sabotage, and the control of ship movements in the large ports, to which Reservists with their small boat experience are found to be well adapted.
Under the law which provides that members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary (a voluntary non-military organization) may offer to the Coast Guard the vessels which they own, the Service has been able to acquire, for temporary use, a fleet of 270 small but serviceable craft suitable for inshore patrol duties. In many cases the owners of these boats are now serving aboard their own craft. Toward the end of the year the Coast Guard Reserve consisted of 217 officers and 1,620 enlisted men, nearly all of whom were on active duty. The non-military Auxiliary had increased to about 5,000 members, owning about 4,500 boats.
An important plan designed to meet emergency conditions in the Mississippi River basin in time of flood or disaster, was worked out during the year. This plan will act as a guide to the personnel of the St. Louis District, and will also serve to acquaint personnel of certain adjoining districts with the kind of cooperation which they may be called upon to afford.
As a result of consolidation with the former Lighthouse Service, increased facilities were placed at the disposal of the Coast Guard to operate a far more effective flood relief plan than any that had previously been tried. Basically, this plan divided the Mississippi valley into definite sectors which serve as administrative units. An action timing plan, defining a zero gauge for river conditions at various points, establishes a height which constitutes zero hour at which positive action begins. Important parts of the plan are instructions for equipping and shipping boats, location of available unloading points, and communications instructions. Comprehensive provisions were made, for the first time, to utilize the service of the men and boats of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.
The Coast Guard continued to carry on during the past year weather patrol work upon the north Atlantic. This service was established in 1940 for the systematic reporting of facts concerning upper and lower atmospheric conditions, as an aid to aircraft in determining flight conditions over the Atlantic. Two stations are maintained; one, about 500 miles east of Bermuda and the other about 500 miles west of the Azores. The meteorological service is conducted by observers from the Weather Bureau, assisted by Coast Guard personnel. Plans are being made to use other vessels, recently acquired, on this weather patrol work, and release the regular cutters for other service.
During 1941 approximately 1,000 navigational aids were added to the 31,000 already functioning. The greatest increase took place in the buoys, beacons, and small automatic lights. A considerable proportion of these new aids was established as a result of the further extension of the Intracoastal Waterway and the deepening of existing channels for vessels of greater draft. Several new radiobeacons have been established at certain lighthouses, and also, they have been placed upon buoys, the latter an innovation of recent years.
Another system of navigational aids, consisting of 22 direction finder stations, originally developed and maintained by the Navy, was turned over to the operation of the Coast Guard during the year. The maintenance of these aids to marine navigation is a peacetime function having an ever greater significance in time of national emergency when the safe and expeditious movement of ships without our harbors and along our coast is of vital importance. Not only is the Coast Guard maintaining the normal system of aids, but these facilities are being rapidly expanded to embrace the American naval bases being established upon foreign territory.
Anticipating its role in the preparedness plan, and the resultant demand for more officers, the Coast Guard expanded the teaching facilities of its Academy, located at New London, Connecticut. New buildings and additions to existing buildings provided the necessary quarters and academic equipment.
An important acquisition to the sea training equipment of the Coast Guard Academy was the gift of the yacht, Atlantic, by her owner, Mr. Gerald B. Lambert, of New York, who is rear commodore of the New York Yacht Club. This famous yacht, a steel schooner, 145 feet long, of 303 gross tons, which was built in 1903 at Shooters Island, New York, came to the Coast Guard without any restrictions but with the hope of the owner that it would be used in the training of future officers. The Atlantic has an outstanding record among all sailing yachts. She made the run from Sandy Hook to the Lizard, under sail, in 12 days, 4 hours, 1 minute, a mark which has never been attained by any other sailing vessel, including the clipper ships.
The acute shortage of adequately trained merchant seamen has effected important changes in the policy of the Maritime Service. This organization, administered by the Coast Guard for the U. S. Maritime Commission as a training service, modified its policy to accommodate larger groups of enrollees.
It became necessary to provide thorough training for large numbers of young men who had no previous seagoing experience, because of the greatly expanded merchant shipbuilding program and number of skilled seamen being drawn into the shipbuilding trades. A probationary training course of six months for these apprentice seamen is now provided, except for those being trained as merchant marine radio operators who require a ten months' course. Upon completion of the probationary course, the present large groups of previously inexperienced enrollees become eligible for the same benefits as provided the regular enrollees.
With six training stations and five training ships, the training capacity of the Maritime Service has been more than doubled during the past year, and now provides training for approximately 1,000 licensed officers and 5,400 unlicensed men a year. It is expected that shortly the facilities will accommodate 1,200 licensed officers and 10,000 unlicensed men per year.
As a result of Executive Order No. 8929, signed by President Roosevelt on Nov. 1, 1941, the United States Coast Guard ceased to function as a part of the Treasury Department, and is now operating as a part of the U. S. Navy. Authority for such transfer in time of war or national emergency has been on the statute books since 1915.
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