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Article: Alaska-and-Hawaii--A-Brief-History-of-U-S--Coast-Guard-Operations-part-I
The last two states to join the Union, Alaska and Hawaii, encompass some of the most rugged and isolated terrain in the United States. Since the 19th century, the Coast Guard and its predecessor agencies have enforced maritime laws, assisted distressed mariners, and insured that ships were safely outfitted for sea in these remote areas. The story of this service to others begins with three small federal maritime organizations. It is important to trace these agencies for they laid the foundations of today’s Coast Guard. Two of the three organizations dominate the maritime history of both these unique states.
The U.S. Lighthouse Service had the earliest impact on the maritime histories of Alaska and Hawaii. In 1716, the first North American lighthouse was established, but it was not until 1852 that the first light towers were built on the West Coast. When the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, a light was already established at Sitka. This light was located in the cupola of the Baranof Castle, with a seal oil lamp and a large reflector.
Since Washington lawmakers were not completely convinced of the wisdom of Secretary of State William H. Seward’s purchase of Alaska, Congress made little effort to fund any activities in this "ice box," so the Lighthouse Service discontinued the light. The U.S. Army, however, maintained it until 1877.
The Lighthouse Service gradually added more aids to navigation. In 1884, 14 iron buoys were set and a beacon light in Sitka’s harbor followed in 1895. The great gold rush of 1897-1898 brought many ships into the new territory. The 14 buoys and one beacon at this time were the only aids to help guide ships through the difficult channels and rocky coastline. It was inevitable, then, that a great many ships and lives would be lost.
To augment the aids, Congress appropriated $100,000 in 1900 to establish lighthouses in Alaskan waters. Eleven lights were recommended for Southeastern Alaska and four for the Western coast. In June 1901 the Lighthouse Service let contracts to build structures at Southeast Five Fingers Island and at Sentinel Island. These went into operation March 1, 1902. From 1902 to 1905 there was a flurry of building on the Inside Passage to Skagway. A total of seven lights were constructed. All of the early lights in the territory were built of wood and eventually had to be rebuilt.
In 1903, the government built two lights to help ships bound for the Bering Sea. Scotch Cap Light, located on the Pacific Ocean side of Unimak Pass, the main passage through the Aleutian Islands, was first lit on June 18, 1903. This was Alaska’s first coastal light. The tower was an octagonal wooden one, which rose some 90 feet above the sea. Cape Sarichef Light, established July 1, 1904, was the second coastal lighthouse and marks the western passage through Unimak Pass. It was the only U.S. manned lighthouse located on the Bering Sea. By the 1930s, 16 lighthouses dotted the Alaskan coastline.
Alaska was and still is the frontier of U.S. civilization and some of the stations were extremely isolated. At Scotch Cap and Cape Sarichef, for example, "two of the most isolated lighthouses in the United States," keepers were not allowed to bring their families. In one period, from August 1912 to June 1913, keepers at Cape Sarichef were not re-supplied. Their nearest neighbor was a trapper some 10 miles away. Due to the privations they endured, keepers at these two stations carried one year’s leave every four years.
In 1898, just over 20 years after acquiring Alaska, the U.S. annexed Hawaii. The territorial government was first responsible for aids to navigation, many of which dated back to the Spanish period. The Barbers Point Light, for example, was first displayed in 1888. But on January 1, 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt transferred this duty to the Lighthouse Service. The lights were made a sub-district of the Twelfth Lighthouse District, which included California.
When the service obtained this added responsibility, there were 19 lighthouses, 20 daymarks and 20 buoys, along with some 16 private aids maintained by steamboat companies on the islands. In general, the condition of the system was, in the words of one inspector, "very crude." For example, the lamps at Kanahene Point, on the south coast of Maui consisted of two "ordinary kitchen lamps."
Only one lighthouse, Diamond Head, had a Fresnel lens, the standard device for good illumination. Without this type lens, the beam was weak and of limited use to mariners. The Lighthouse Service set out to improve the aids in the islands. It installed Fresnel lenses and rebuilt old towers. It bought private aids and conducted a survey to determine where new lights were needed. Between 1906 and 1920, the service built at least 15 lights and placed beacons and markers throughout the islands.
Lightkeepers not only tended to their lights but were also involved in rescues. The Lighthouse Service’s annual reports are replete with the heroic rescues by its employees. One case happened near Barbers Point Light in January of 1928. The five-masted sailing ship, Bianca, was struck by a sudden severe squall, leaving its sails in shreds. The ship’s skipper let both anchors go, which held the vessel slightly off a reef. The anchors, however would not hold and if help did not arrive quickly, it would be dashed to pieces.
Keeper Manuel Ferreira, with no telephone or radio at the light, realized the danger and quickly went for help. Through "blasting winds and stinging rain," he ran three miles cross-country to the nearest telephone. Ferreira’s long distance run was instrumental in having a ship tow the Bianca to safety. Tending a light is often pictured as an idyllic existence but many lighthouse keepers faced life-threatening situations. For example, the five keepers at Scotch Cap Light in Alaska were killed when a tidal wave swept the entire station out to sea April 1,1946.
In addition to operating aids to navigation, the Lighthouse Service also commanded a fleet of lightships and tenders. Lightships were placed where lighthouses could not stand to help guide ships through hazardous waters. The service’s tenders maintained the buoys and lighthouses. The rocky and isolated nature of these regions made servicing aids dangerous work.
The Lighthouse Service tender Shubrick was the first steam-powered craft of this class and the first tender on the Pacific coast. The tender was transferred to the Revenue Cutter Service between 1861-1867. But early in 1865 the vessel operated as part of the Navy for 90 days. It served as flagship for six vessels that surveyed the Bering Strait in an attempt to lay cable linking the first telegraph service between Europe and the U.S. In 1908, as part of a fleet of six Lighthouse Service ships, Sequoia, Manzanita and Kukui became the nucleus of the tenders working aids to navigation in the Pacific.
Increased shipping in Alaska and Hawaii changed the tenders operating procedures. Tenders were first stationed in Seattle and sailed to northern waters only sporadically. In 1910, due to increased shipping and growing numbers of aids to navigation, the territory became a separate lighthouse district with a depot and headquarters at Ketchikan, Alaska. Even with this change, tenders still steamed at least 1,400 miles to reach the lights at Unimak Pass. With a great deal of steaming back and forth, the crews aboard tenders were often in the position to assist those in distress.
One such rescue occurred in January of 1916 on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The Lighthouse tender Columbine intercepted a distress call from the bark British Yeoman just off Port Allen, Kanai Island. The Columbine arrived at night and found the bark with no anchors, its rudder carried away and its stern near the breakers. Columbine’s Captain Frank T. Warriner, took charge of the tender’s whaleboat and brought the boat and crew into the "boiling breakers four times" in an attempt to pass a heavy towing hawser to the stricken ship. Each time, however, the line would snap under the strain of the tow.
The Columbine, much older and smaller than the British Yeoman, could not tow the bark. Strong winds and seas made it much more difficult. Warriner radioed tot assistance the next morning and was told that the Navy tug Navajo was enroute. Before the tug arrived however, the Columbine managed to haul the British Yeoman Out of immediate danger. The Navajo took over the tow while the Columbine escorting both ships back to Honolulu. In a letter of commendation, Commerce Secretary William C. Redfield (the Lighthouse Service operated under the Commerce Department then) wrote: "Nothing short of the highest valor, seamanship and determination enabled those aboard the Columbine to save the imperiled vessel and every soul aboard her . . . Despite darkness and storm, undismayed by heavy seas or by the repeated breaking of hawsers, the courageous crew of the tender stood steady at their tasks for 56 hours without let-up until the bark was safe. I bring this incident to the attention of the entire Lighthouse Service to make it an example to all of unselfish devotion to duty."
By 1930 the Lighthouse Service was well established in Alaska. In fact, the Service’s lights had been pushed well out to the far reaches of the Pacific with structures at Midway Island, Guam, and other islands. These lights, as well as other isolated aids in Alaska, were fitted with acetylene so they could go without servicing for longer periods. Even though well established, the service was to undergo a major change at the end of the 1930s. In 1939 the Lighthouse Service officially became part of the Coast Guard. When the Coast Guard took over the Lighthouse Service, it began to automate the isolated lights. One method was electricity while another was solar power.
Changing technology soon made lightkeepers obsolete. No longer was anyone needed to trim wicks or to polish lenses.
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