Coast Guard Station Point Adams was a
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...
base at the mouth of the
Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...
.
[ It was founded in 1888, by the ]United States Lifesaving Service
The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian eff ...
, one of the service that were amalgamated into the Coast Guard.
The original boathouse, barracks, and outbuildings, were built to the Fort Point-type design.[ During the depression new buildings were built to a design named after then ]President
President most commonly refers to:
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*'' Præsident ...
Franklin Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
.
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 motor lifeboat
A rescue lifeboat is a boat rescue craft which is used to attend a vessel in distress, or its survivors, to rescue crew and passengers. It can be hand pulled, sail powered or powered by an engine. Lifeboats may be rigid, inflatable or rigid-inf ...
. This wooden-hulled vessel, and a single sister ship, were bigger than all other motor lifeboats.
Operational history
On January 7, 1913, the USLS ''Dreadnaught'', under the command of Stationkeeper, Oscar S. Wicklund, and the USLS ''Tenacious'', braved breakers to cross the Columbia Bar to try to rescue survivors from the tanker ''Rosecrans''.[ 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.
]
Retirement
The Coast Guard closed the base, and transferred it to a local community college, in the 1960s.[
It was subsequently transferred to the ]National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
, which has employed it as a fishery research centre.[ Its location at the mouth of the largest river on the US West Coast makes it an ideal site for fishery research.
]
References
External links
*{{Commonscat-inline, Coast Guard Station Point Adams
United States Coast Guard stations