Capt. Matthew Bliven has assumed temporary command of Mellon, and McLaughlin has been reassigned to Coast Guard 13^thDistrict Headquarters in Seattle.

Mellon, homeported in Seattle, is a 378-foot Hamilton class High-Endurance cutter commissioned in January of 1968.

After trying to sell BRAMBLE at an inflated price for over two years, in early October 2012, BRAMBLE’s owner, the Port Huron Museum, broke off all contact with a nonprofit museum group that was seeking to purchase BRAMBLE for preservation and use as a museum ship. A private buyer and entrepreneur with no background or apparent knowledge related to ship operation or ownership offered the museum twice the ship’s realistic value. Rather than transfer this important ship that it received for FREE to another nonprofit at reasonable cost to preserve and respect BRAMBLE’s history, the nonprofit PH Museum administration chose money and profit over preserving a national historic treasure to sell BRAMBLE IN SECRET to the private buyer for a reported $200,000 sale price. This is a major cause for concern for U.S. Coast Guard veterans and others who support BRAMBLE.

There has been no credible information released as to what the buyer intends to do with the ship aside from rumored “cruises around the Great Lakes.” This could require extensive and expensive modifications that will negatively impact BRAMBLE’s physical and historic integrity and could see her delisted from the National Register. There is no indication she will be used as a museum as her original donation intended. Other details indicate this sale is ill-conceived. The Museum director even concedes that even as the transaction proceeds, the buyer does not even have a mooring location for the ship. No one outside the transaction knows details of what is intended for BRAMBLE and no one knows whether the potential buyer understands and is committed to what will be necessary to preserve BRAMBLE’s integrity, so no one knows whether the Museum administration has made a wise choice in selecting this buyer.

BRAMBLE, as a national treasure, should have been transferred at a reasonable cost by the Port Huron Museum to another nonprofit with the ship’s preservation at professional standards a first priority. BRAMBLE, as a national treasure, should not belong to a single owner who has no accountability or requirement to maintain the ship’s historic designation or integrity.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/614/248/117/preserve-the-historic-uscgc-bramble/

CGC HALIBUT was investigating a panga-type vessel suspected of illicit activities after it was detected by a Coast Guard maritime patrol aircraft. When the CGC HALIBUT small boat approached, the suspect panga-type vessel maneuvered at a high rate of speed directly towards the small boat and struck it before fleeing the scene. Two Coast Guardsmen were thrown from the boat into the water, and both members were immediately recovered by the small boat. Upon recovery it was apparent that BMC Horne sustained a traumatic head injury. The other crew member had minor injuries. The CGC HALIBUT crew quickly recovered the small boat and boarding team and immediately administered first aid. CGC HALIBUT returned to port where emergency medical service units pronounced BMC Horne deceased.

Coast Guard assets later successfully interdicted the fleeing panga-type vessel, boarded it, and detained two suspects. I commend the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection units who continued the pursuit and apprehended those believed to be responsible. We are actively investigating the incident.

BMC Horne stood the watch on the front lines of Coast Guard operations throughout his nearly 14 years of active duty. He previously served at Coast Guard Stations Emerald Isle, Humboldt Bay and Charleston, and also sailed aboard the CGC DALLAS. Throughout his Coast Guard service, BMC Horne’s professionalism and commitment, like those before him, ensured that we were always ready to answer the nation’s call.

The entire service is energized to support the family and shipmates of BMC Horne. Please keep his family and the crew of CGC HALIBUT in your thoughts and prayers.

Semper Paratus.
ADM Bob Papp, Commandant

When steam boilers first came into general use in vessels, more blew up than ran, notwithstanding that they carried a pressure of not much more than thirty pounds. When, however, it is considered that these boilers were built square and used sea water, the wonder is that they all did not explode.

The result of the investigation by Secretary William H. Crawford was embodied in a report to Henry Clay in which the Secretary said: “In answering this, a resolution of the House of Representatives directed to the Secretary of the Treasury to report to the House the causes of the fatal disasters of steamboats, I have the honor to submit the [i]nclosed correspondence collected on the subject, and I am of the opinion that legislative enactment is calculated to do mischief rather than prevent disasters.” It would be another fourteen years and the major loss of the SS Pulaski and over 200 souls, many prominent members of upper-class U.S. society that Congress finally enacted the Steamboat Inspection Act of 1838 – “to provide for the better security of the lives of passengers on board steam-vessels.”

It was not until 1837 that the name Revenue Cutter Service appeared in any Acts of Congress, although the phrase “revenue cutters” does appear in a letter of November 29, 1808 from Treasury Secretary Gallatin. The first mention of Revenue Marine did not appear in law until a generations later.

The two terms are not synonymous. The Revenue Cutter Service included the boats, officers and crews. Their job was out at sea. The Revenue Marine was the land based, administrative arm of the Treasury Department created to provide shore support for the Revenue Cutter Service. The Revenue Cutter Service was “operations”. The Revenue Marine was “headquarters

To the Editor of the New-York Times:

There is considerable hue-and-cry in the papers about there not being any available vessels of light draft, which the President could order to Charleston should he desire to do so. This is unnecessary, as there are no less than eight Revenue cutters, as you will see by the following list, scattered along the coast from Norfolk, Va., to Eastport, Me. These vessels range from 150 to 600 tons, none of them drawing over ten feet, and if manned and equipped as the Revenue act of 1799 allows, would be able to render good service when called upon. The law referred to gives each of these vessels “seventy men, including non-commissioned officers and marines,” but at present none of them, except the Harriet Lane, which has her war complement on board, has more than fifteen or twenty seamen attached. There would be no difficulty in getting full crews for the whole of them, if Government desired it, as there are at present plenty of seamen unemployed. If these cutters were fully armed and manned, the Government would have at its command eigth handy vessels, of light draft, carrying about twenty-five guns and five hundred and sixty men. This is a force of no ordinary account in these squally times, and there is no reason why the vessels should not be ordered to the Brooklyn Navy-yard to fit out at once. All the additional armament needed could there be obtained, while any repairs could, also be hastily done at the same place. Even if they should not be needed immediately, there would be no harm done to have them armed and manned as the law says they shall be.

In 1832, Gen. JACKSON sent a fleet of eight or nine Revenue cutters to Charleston, and employed them against the Nullifiers with good effect Why should they not be used now, as they were then? Had the cutter Wm. Aiken; at Charleston, been armed and manned as the law says the Lieutenants could have made resistance against her traitorous Captain and the rebels who assisted him, placed her under the protection of Major ANDERSON’s guns at Fort Sumter, and saved the United States the disgrace of having had its “armed cruisers” captured by the revolutionists. The seizure, as the papers say, of the Revenue cutter J.C. Dobbin, by a few gentlemen of Savannah, is further reason why all the vessels in the Revenue Cutter Service ought to be armed and manned as the law directs. In a fewdays, it is reasonable to suppose, the United States will be still further humiliated by the seizure of the Revenue cutters at Key West, Mobile, New-Orleans and Galveston, for they are armed and manned the same as the others. It is a bad economy, to reduce the armament and crews of Government vessels to seventeen men, including officers, when the law permits them to have seventy — thereby rendering them defenceless against the attack of a “few gentlemen.” No delay should be permitted in putting the Revenue cutters in condition for service, so that the officers would have time to exercise the men at the guns, before being called upon for active duty.

The following is a list of the eight revenue cutters referred to above; they are all schooner-rigged, except the Harriet Lane, which is a steamer:

Duane, Capt. EVANS, stationed at Norfolk, Va. — is a new vessel.

Philip Allen, Capt. SANDS, stationed at Baltimore, Md., — is almost a new vessel.

Forward, Capt. NONES, stationed at Wilmington, Del., — carries two guns. The Forward, under her gallant Captain, saw active service during the Mexican war — having participated at the bombardment of Tobasco.

Harriet Lane, Capt. FAUNCE, stationed at New-York — is a new ship, propelled by steam, carries four twenty-four-pound Dahlgreen guns in the waist, with a long thirty-two-pound pivot gun forward, in addition to a small howitzer on the forecastle. This cutter, under her present Captain, was one of the most efficient vessels of the late Paraguay expedition.

James Campbell, Capt. CLARKE, stationed at New-London, Conn., — nearly new. carries one thirty-two-pound pivot-gun, and is pierced for four waist-guns.

Morris, Capt. WHITCOMB, stationed at Boston,– carries two twelve-pound guns; is an old vessel. Upon the call of humanity, a few years since, the Morris sailed in search of the ill-fated San Francisco, but after reaching Bermuda and not hearing anything of the object of his search, Capt. WHITOOMB returned.

Caleb Cushing, Capt WALDEN, stationed at Portland, Me., — hull in good condition; carries only one twelve pound gun, but is pierced for four waist-guns and could carry a thirty-two-pound pivot-gun. Capt WALDEN did good service during the Mexican war, in command of the old Morris, cruising in the Gulf.

Jackson, Lieutenant-Commanding HYDE, stationed at Eastport, Me., — carries two twelve-pound guns; has a good hull, and glories in a good name.