The Coast Guard Cutter Tampa was lost on the night of September 26, 1918, sunk, probably by a submarine, before any of her companions in the convoy could see what had happened. Inset: Captain Charles Satterlee, commanding the Tampa.
THEY SAVED SURVIVORS OF TORPEDOED VESSELS
At the risk of their own destruction, the crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Seneca repeatedly rescued survivors of torpedoed vessels, although it was an established rule that when a vessel was torpedoed other vessels in the vicinity should not go to her aid because of the almost certain destruction which would await the rescuers. Inset: Captain William J. Wheeler, commanding the Seneca.
GALLANT OFFICERS OF THE COAST GUARD
Left to right: Commodore E. P. Bertholf, commandant of the Coast Guard from 1911 to July, 1919; Lieutenant F. W. Brown, navigating officer of the Seneca, who volunteered to work the torpedoed Wellington to port; Boatswain John A. Midgett, of Coast Guard Station No. 179, who led the rescue of survivors of the torpedoed Mirlo under extraordinary danger from fire.
On June 29, 1918, the Seneca was acting as ocean escort to a convoy, when at 6:45 a. m., the British steamer Queen was torpedoed and sank in five minutes. As in the case of the Cowslip, Captain Wheeler boldly approached the Queen. Dropping depth charges and firing his guns to keep the submarine down, he picked up the survivors.
It was work like this, calling for daring and quick decision, that distinguished the vessels of the Coast Guard, which, operating in the Navy, performed such signal service for the Allies and the commerce of the world.
On this side of the Atlantic, the main contribution by the Coast Guard was as part of the patrol service under Admiral Anderson in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, protecting the oil supply that went in large volume from Texas and Mexico to British and other Allied naval ships and for the necessary uses by the Allied armies in France.