Coast Guard Station Point Adams

Last updated October 01, 2019

Coast Guard Station Point Adams was a United States Coast Guard base at the mouth of the Columbia River.^[1]^[2] It was founded in 1888, by the United States Lifesaving Service, one of the service that were amalgamated into the Coast Guard.

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the coastal defense, search & rescue, and maritime law enforcement branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's seven uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the U.S. military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set. It operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during peacetime, and can be transferred to the U.S. Department of the Navy by the U.S. President at any time, or by the U.S. Congress during times of war. This has happened twice: in 1917, during World War I, and in 1941, during World War II.

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the US state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven US states and a Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by volume, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any North American river entering the Pacific.

Equipment

The station's first boathouse held two surfboats, where most other station's boathouse held just a single boat. The boats were mounted on a wagon, which its crew would pull to the best place to launch. Wagons were pushed into the surf for launching.

In the 1930s the base was the home of the Coast Guard's first USCGC Triumph, a 52 feet (16 m) motor lifeboat. This wooden-hulled vessel, and a single sister ship, were bigger than all other motor lifeboats.

The USCGC Triumph was a motor lifeboat operated by the United States Coast Guard. The Triumph, and her sister, the USCGC Invicible, were the only vessels in their class. They were built in 1935, when the Coast Guard's other motor lifeboats were 36 foot motor lifeboat -- vessels with a shorter range, that did not need facilities for sleeping or the preparation of meals. She could carry sixty rescued people.

Operational history

On January 7, 1913, the USLS Dreadnaught, under the command of Stationkeeper, Oscar S. Wicklund, and the USLS Tenacious, braved 40 feet (12 m) breakers to cross the Columbia Bar to try to rescue survivors from the tanker Rosecrans.^[3] The rescued just two survivors, out of a crew of 36. The sea was so heavy both lifeboats capsized, and their waterlogged engines were rendered inoperable, forcing the crew to fall back on oars. Wicklund and Alfred Rimer, the Tenacious's skipper, opted to row to the Columbia River Lightship. Their crew and survivors took refuge there, where the lifeboats were later swept away.

The USLS Dreadnaught was a motor lifeboat of the United States Lifeboat Service, remembered for its role in the notable rescue of crewmen of the Rosecrans, a tanker that was wrecked when it ran aground the sandbar formed when the silt-laden outflow of the Columbia River met the Pacific Ocean.

Retirement

The Coast Guard closed the base, and transferred it to a local community college, in the 1960s.^[1] It was subsequently transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has employed it as a fishery research centre.^[4] Its location at the mouth of the largest river on the US West Coast makes it an ideal site for fishery research.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce that focuses on the conditions of the oceans, major waterways, and the atmosphere.

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The Canadian Coast Guard is the coast guard of Canada. Formed in 1962, the coast guard is tasked with marine search and rescue, communication, navigation and transportation issues in Canadian waters, such as navigation aids and icebreaking, marine pollution response and providing support for other Canadian government initiatives. The coast guard operates 119 vessels of varying sizes and 22 helicopters, along with a variety of smaller craft. The Canadian Coast Guard is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, and is a special operating agency within Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Tillamook Bay is a small inlet of the Pacific Ocean, approximately 6 mi (10 km) long and 2 mi (3 km) wide, on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located just north of Cape Meares in western Tillamook County approximately 75 mi (120 km) west of Portland.

The Columbia Bar, also frequently called the Columbia River Bar, is a system of bars and shoals at the mouth of the Columbia River spanning the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. The bar is about 3 miles (5 km) wide and 6 miles (10 km) long.

Tamar-class lifeboats are all-weather lifeboats (ALBs) operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) around the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. They have replaced the majority of the older Tyne-class ALBs. The prototype was built in 2000 and 27 production boats were introduced between 2006 and 2013.

CCGS John P. Tully is an offshore oceanographic science vessel in the Canadian Coast Guard operating out of Pacific Region at CGS Base Patricia Bay in Sidney, British Columbia. Prior to 1995, the ship was assigned to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The vessel entered service in June 1985 with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the West Coast of Canada. In 1995, the fleets of Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard were merged under Canadian Coast Guard command and John P. Tully became a Coast Guard vessel.

Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. She was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) south of the Columbia River channel. Wreckage is still visible, making it a popular tourist attraction as one of the most accessible shipwrecks of the Graveyard of the Pacific.

Klipsan Beach Life Saving Station United States historic place

Klipsan Beach was the site of a station of the United States Life-Saving Service. The station buildings still remain, although they are privately owned. The station is on the National Register of Historic Places. The station's name was originally Ilwaco Beach, and only later became known as Klipsan Station. The station was one of several assigned to protect the area known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.

Point Reyes Lifeboat Station, also known as Point Reyes Lifeboat Rescue Station, is a historic coastal rescue station, located on the Drake's Bay side of Point Reyes in northern California, United States. Built in 1927 by the United States Lifesaving Service, it is one of the best-preserved rescue stations of that period on the Pacific coast, retaining elements often lost, including the boat launching infrastructure. It is now a historic property managed by the National Park Service as part of Point Reyes National Seashore. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985, and it was further declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

CCGS Sambro is a Canadian Coast Guard motor lifeboat homeported in Sambro, Nova Scotia.

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Not to be confused with the troop ship U.S.A.T. Rosecrans

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USFS Brant was an American fishery patrol vessel that operated in the waters of the Territory of Alaska and off Washington, California, and Mexico. She was part of the United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) fleet from 1926 to 1940. She then served as US FWS Brant in the fleet of the Fish and Wildlife Service from 1940 to 1953. She then operated commercially until she sank in 1960.

References

1 2 3 "Station Point Adams, Oregon" (PDF). United States Coast Guard . Retrieved 2017-12-14.
↑ "Point Adam Stations" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-12-14.
↑ Douglas Kroll (2014-09-15). A Coast Guardsman's History of the U.S. Coast Guard. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781612518763 . Retrieved 2017-12-16.
↑ "Point Adams Research Station". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Retrieved 2017-12-15. The Point Adams Research Station is located in the small town of Hammond, Oregon where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

External links

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[UscgPointAdams-1] 1 2 3 "Station Point Adams, Oregon" (PDF). United States Coast Guard . Retrieved 2017-12-14.

[HpNwPointAdamsStation-2] "Point Adam Stations" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-12-14.

[GoastguardsmensHistory-3] Douglas Kroll (2014-09-15). A Coast Guardsman's History of the U.S. Coast Guard. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781612518763 . Retrieved 2017-12-16.

[NoaaPointAdams-4] "Point Adams Research Station". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Retrieved 2017-12-15. The Point Adams Research Station is located in the small town of Hammond, Oregon where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.