USRC ''Tahoma'', was a steel-hull flush deck cutter that served in the

United States Revenue Cutter Service The United States Revenue Cutter Service was established by an Act of Congress () on 4 August 1790 as the Revenue-Marine at the recommendation of the nation's first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. The federal government bod ...

from 1909 to 1914 with the Bering Sea Patrol and was the sister ship to the USRC ''Yamacraw''.

Commissioning and trip to homeport

USRC ''Tahoma'' was launched on 10 October 1908 by

New York Shipbuilding The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a City (New Jersey), city in Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan region. The city was incorporated on February 13, 1828.Snyder, John P''The Story of ...

. She was commissioned into the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service after outfitting at Arundel Cove, Maryland on 25 March 1909. Since she was to serve with the

Bering Sea Patrol The United States Coast Guard is the Coastal defence ship, coastal defense, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, maritime law enforcement branch of the United States Armed Forces and is one of the country's eight Uniformed services of the United St ...

, she made the trip across the Atlantic Ocean and made a coaling stop at the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

. While visiting

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

she received orders from the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

to steam to Alexandrette in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

to help calm American expatriate nerves during local civil unrest. ''Tahoma'' remained off the Ottoman coast for 13 days before resuming a course for the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

. After making port calls at several locations in the Pacific Ocean, she arrived at Port Townsend, Washington, on 23 August 1909.

Bering Sea Patrol and sinking

The ''Tahoma'' participated in the Bering Sea Patrol along the Alaskan coast each summer enforcing fisheries regulations and assisting with search and rescue missions. She spent the winter months at her

home port A vessel's home port is the port at which it is based, which may not be the same as its port of registry shown on its registration documents and lettered on the stern of the ship's hull. In the cruise industry the term "home port" is also oft ...

, Port Townsend, and underwent refits. After the steamer ''Yukon'' was wrecked on Sanak Island in the eastern

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

on 11 June 1913, ''Tahoma'' came to her assistance and rescued the 45 people who had been aboard ''Yukon''. On 20 September 1914, ''Tahoma'' struck an uncharted

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

in the Aleutians and sank. All hands managed to get off the sinking ship safely in boats and were picked up by the merchant steamer ''Cordova'' and the

United States Coast and Geodetic Survey The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ( USC&GS; known as the Survey of the Coast from 1807 to 1836, and as the United States Coast Survey from 1836 until 1878) was the first scientific agency of the Federal government of the United State ...

survey ship A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the pu ...

USC&GS ''Carlile P. Patterson''.

References

* U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790–1935, Donald L. Canney, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1995,
United States Coast Guard Historian's Office: ''Tahoma'', 1909
Includes Captain Crisp's account of the wreck.
Wreck of the USRC Tahoma
''The Master, mate and pilot v 7'' (8) p 281 February 1915 * USC&GS Patterson logbook entrie
26 Sept 1914, p. 126 Sept 1914, p. 228 Sept 1914, p. 2List of Tahoma survivors carried by Patterson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tahoma Ships of the United States Revenue Cutter Service Ships of the United States Coast Guard Ships built by New York Shipbuilding Corporation 1909 ships Maritime incidents in September 1914 Ships sunk with no fatalities Shipwrecks in the Bering Sea

Commissioning and trip to homeport

Bering Sea Patrol and sinking

See also

References