Barkentine Priscilla (1899)

A Gull Shoal Life-Saving Station, North Carolina, surfman conducting a horseback beach patrol on Aug. 18, 1899, came upon the grounded barkentine Priscilla. Given his distance from the station, surfman Rasmus S. Midgett knew he had to act alone, moving as close to the wreck as possible and shouting instructions to its crew to jump overboard one at a time as the waves receded. As they did so, Midgett was able to pull seven men to safety on the beach before the returning waves could reach them. Learning another three remained aboard the Priscilla, too weak to help themselves, Midgett swam out to the ship and pulled each to safety. His solo rescue of 10 lives earned him a Gold Lifesaving Medal.

Keeper George N. Gray and the Charlotte, New York, Life-Saving Station (1902)

Deep snow drifts, heavy seas, and ice confronted the crew of the Charlotte, New York, Life-Saving Station, under the command of keeper George N. Gray, when the schooner John R. Noyes was wrecked on the night of Dec. 14, 1902. Gray commandeered a train and sleds to move the station’s beach cart and equipment through the snow in order to launch their surfboat. Working through the night and most of the next day, the crew – covered in ice, frostbitten, and with little rest – spent some 13 hours under oars, pulling in a heavy seaway for nearly 60 miles, to rescue four men and one woman from the wreck. They received the Gold Lifesaving Medal in recognition of their efforts.

Overland Rescue in Arctic Ice (1897)

Eight whaling ships, with a total crew complement of 265, became trapped in the Arctic ice near Point Barrow, Alaska, in November 1897. Responding to appeals from the whaling companies that the men might not survive the long winter without new supplies, President William McKinley sent a relief expedition. The U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear set sail from Port Townsend, Washington, in late November, but was blocked by ice long before it could reach the stranded ships. Lt. David H. Jarvis was placed in charge of a shore mission, using dogs and reindeer to pull sleds, while he and fellow officers Lt. Ellsworth P. Bertholf and surgeon Samuel J. Call, along with three other men, donned snowshoes and skis for the 1,500-mile journey. They departed on Dec. 16 but did not reach Point Barrow until March 29, 1898. They lost 66 reindeer on the arduous trip, but still delivered 382 to the whalers, along with other supplies and medical care. For their work, Bertholf, Call, and Jarvis received gold medals from the U.S. Congress.

Bermuda Sky Queen Flying Boat (1947)

On Oct. 14, 1947, the flying boat Bermuda Sky Queen, carrying 69 passengers from Foynes, Ireland, to Gander, Newfoundland, ran low on fuel flying against gale-force winds. Unable to reach either Newfoundland or Ireland, the captain flew toward the CGC Bibb, operating on Ocean Station Charlie in the North Atlantic, planning to ditch the flying boat and have the Bibb pick up his passengers and crew – a difficult and dangerous transfer in the cold 30-foot seas. The cutter deployed a 15-man rubber raft to the aircraft’s escape door; the passengers jumped into the raft, then were transferred to a smallboat that had accompanied it from the Bibb. Darkness and foul weather forced a suspension of that effort after 47 had been rescued, but the remaining passengers and crew were safely transferred to the cutter as dawn broke with improved weather conditions. The rescue was widely reported in the national press and Bibb and its crew received a hero’s welcome on their arrival in Boston, having saved everyone aboard the ill-fated Bermuda Sky Queen.

Mississippi River Flood (1937)

When a disastrous flood struck the Mississippi River in 1937, the Coast Guard “removed from perilous positions to places of safety” 43,853 persons and 11,313 head of livestock. A total of 674 Coast Guard personnel and 128 U.S. Coast Guard vessels and boats were involved in the relief operations, which actually exceeded the number of individuals the service rescued following Hurricane Katrina nearly 70 years later.

Honorable Mentions:

Chicamacomico, North Carolina, Lifeboat Station (1918)

The British steamship SS Mirlo was sailing north along the Atlantic Coast on Aug. 16, 1918, when it struck a mine laid by a World War I German U-boat about a mile off the Wimble Shoal buoy, near the Chicamacomico, North Carolina, Coast Guard Station. The damaged ship began leaking gasoline and refined oil that ignited and turned the surface of the sea into a mass of flame and smoke, which combined with heavy seas and the large quantity of wreckage to make rescuing the crew extremely difficult. Nonetheless, Boatswain John A. Midgett and the Chicamacomico Station crew forced their boat through the flames and wreckage to rescue six men found clinging to a capsized lifeboat. They returned to pick up two more boatloads (36 men) of the Mirlo’s crew, carrying them to safety through the heavy surf. For their rescue of 42 sailors, Midgett and his crew were each awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal.

Lt. Cmdr. Carl Christian von Paulsen (1933)

Locating a boy adrift in a skiff off Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Jan. 1, 1933, Lt. Cmdr. Carl Christian von Paulsen set the seaplane Arcturus down in a heavy sea to attempt a rescue. The open water landing caused so much damage to the seaplane it could not take off and ultimately washed onto the beach, with the boy and the entire Arcturus crew surviving. For his role in the rescue, von Paulsen and crew were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal; his resulting fame also led to his appearance in the mid-1930s comic book Unsung Heroes.

When the number of lives saved exceeded 1 million, then-Commandant Adm. Thad W. Allen summed up the service’s more than two-century record: “What began as America’s only lifesaving service charged with the dangerous duty of saving sailors from shipwrecks along our coasts has evolved into a modern-day, multi-mission Coast Guard that demonstrates the same commitment to saving lives that it did more than 200 years ago.”

This article first appeared in the U.S. Coast Guard 225th Anniversary: A Special Edition of Coast Guard Outlook.