Coast Guard Cutters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scammel

Captain Hopley Yeaton, commissioned on 21 March 1791, is the first comissioned officer in the United States Revenue Cutter Service, the predecessor of the Coast Guard. Then Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton created the Revenue Cutter Service to help collect tariffs and restrict smuggling.

Answer: Eagle was forced to surrender

Eagle was stationed in Long Island Sound to protect it from the British during the War of 1812. Eagle encountered the British brig Dispatch and moved to protect the merchantman Suzan from capture. Realizing he was outmatched, Captain Frederick Lee beached Eagle and had her guns moved atop a steep bluff.

The Americans began to fire on the British, and they were forced to retreat. The next day, Eagle limped back to port and was captured.

Answer: Harriet Lane

Fort Sumter was besieged by the Confederates. The steamer Nashville approached. To prevent her capture, the Harriet Lane fired across the Nashville's bow. Both ships later went on to have distinguished careers. The Nashville became an infamous Confederate blockade runner. The Harriet Lane was captured by the Confederates at Galveston in 1863.

Answer: Bear

In 1897, President McKinley sent to Bear to the Bering Sea to rescue sailors on eight whaling ships trapped in the ice. Lieutenants Jarvis and Bertholf and Surgeon Call drove a herd of reindeer to the stranded ships. This event competed for national media attention with the Spanish-American War.

The Bear and her captain, Mike Healy, were, in parts of Alaska, the only representatives of the U.S. government at the time.

Answer: Taney

The Taney was ready to return fire within four minutes on December 7, 1941. She was decomissioned on December 7, 1986 after fifty years of active service in the Coast Guard. She is now a part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum.

Answer: Icebreaking

The two 399' polar icebreakers, Polar Sea and Polar Star, the 420' polar icebreaker Healy, and the 290' Great Lakes icebreaker Mackinaw have red hulls. Law enforcement and maritime defense may be the missions of all cutters, red hulls are built specifically for icebreaking.

Answer: Northland

On September 12, 1941, the Northland captured the Norwegian trawler Boskoe. She was originally built for Artic operations and replaced the Bear in the Bering Sea.

Answer: Mesquite

The Mesquite was comissioned in August, 1943. From what I heard from a Coast Guard officer, the Officer of the Deck (OOD) during the accident was a newly minted ensign from the Coast Guard Academy. It was late fall, and the Mesquite had just picked up the buoy that was marking the reef for the winter. The OOD charted a course across the reef and promptly ran aground.

Answer: Eagle

She was taken as a war prize from the Germans after World War II and comissioned into the Coast Guard on May 15, 1946. She has been training future Coast Guard officers ever since. Horst Wessel was the writer of the Nazi Party notorious marching song named after him.

Answer: Dobbin

The Revenue Marine School of Instruction was started on the Dobbin in 1876, which operated off New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Acedemy's present location in New London, Connecticut was established in 1932.