The Yamacraw, a steel-hulled “First Class Cruising Cutter,” was built by the New York Shipbuilding Company of Camden, New Jersey. She was launched on 24 October 1908 and was christened by a Miss Tildeman of Savannah, Georgia. The new cutter entered commissioned service on 17 May 1909. Her homeport was Savannah. During the next few years, she destroyed derelicts and other hazards to navigation, patrolled regattas and other nautical races, enforced customs laws, carried out special duties as required, sailed on winter cruises each year, and participated in search and rescue operations when needed. After the start of World War I, she was ordered to enforce neutrality laws.
Tragedy struck Yamacraw on the night of 3 March 1917. An original report published in the 1917 Annual Report of the United States Coast Guard (Washington: GPO, 1917, pp. 28-31) described what happened.
“In a hazardous service, such as the Coast Guard, where men must risk their lives to save others who are in perilous positions, it is expected that occasions will arise where the rescuers themselves are lost in their brave attempts to save the unfortunate. But few years have elapsed wherein one or more of the members of the Coast Guard have not been sacrificed in the interests of humanity. It remained for the year just past, however, to develop what was, in all probability, the most disastrous incident of this kind ever recorded in the annals of the Coast Guard, or of either of its forbears, the Revenue-Cutter Service and Life-Saving Service. Ten men of the crew of the cutter Yamacraw lost their lives on March 4, 1917, in an attempt to rescue the crew of the stranded steamer Louisiana. The conditions leading up to this catastrophe, and the circumstances attendant thereto, are best told in the following copy of Special Order No. 16, issued by the Secretary of the Treasury on April 2, 1917:
The American steamship Louisiana, bound from Tampico, Mexico, for Claymont, Del., with a crew of 28, including master, and a cargo of crude oil, was stranded during thick weather in approximately 3 fathoms of water, 1 1/2 miles offshore and about 2 miles east-northeast from Coast Guard Station No. 146 near Ocean City, Marylandd, at 6.43 a.m., March 4, 1917. The vessel was discovered by the patrol from that station when the fog lifted at about 8.20 a. m.
The keeper of the station immediately notified the district superintendent by telephone and called for the assistance of the crew of the next northerly station, No. 145. The keeper and three surfmen of the latter station immediately responded, and the surfboat of station No. 146 was launched through a high surf at 10 o’clock a.m.; the steamer was visited and assistance offered. The master declined any and all assistance, save that he desired to send a telegram to the owners, which telegram he threw overboard in a bottle, to be picked up by the surfboat’s crew. The master considered that only a cutter or wrecking tug could be of assistance to him.
About 3 o’clock in the afternoon of the same day the Louisiana set the distress signal NC (assistance wanted). The surfboat was again launched in a still higher surf, and the steamer again visited, this time with considerable difficulty. It was found that the master only wanted to have the station again call for a wrecking tug or a cutter, and he positively declined to consider the landing of his crew. In returning to the shore about 6 o’clock, a sea boarded the power surfboat and carried overboard surfman No. 1, station No. 146, causing him some slight injury. There was at this time a moderate swell from the southeast and a strong east-northeast breeze, causing a rough sea and an occasional break on the shoal in the vicinity of the Louisiana, but less sea and no break in the deeper water. The swell caused heavy seas to break over the Louisiana from aft forward, this condition growing worse later in the day, and there was a strong suction under her bow following each sea.
After dark the Louisiana began showing flare-up lights and sending out urgent distress signals to the Coast Guard cutter Yamacraw. The Yamacraw had left Norfolk, Va., about 7 p.m., March 3, to go to the assistance of the British steamer Strathearn, reported ashore at Metomkin Inlet, Va., and because of the advantage to be gained by reaching the stranded vessel about an hour before the early morning high water of the following day the commanding officer of the Yamacraw decided not to await the return of the men who were ashore on liberty. She therefore left port with about 60 per cent of her enlisted force. While searching for the Strathearn, the Yamacraw received the SOS call from the Louisiana, giving an erroneous report of her position, which caused the cutter to lose valuable time during daylight in locating the Louisiana. The calls from the Louisiana were urgent and for immediate assistance.
The Yamacraw reached the scene about 8.10 p.m. on March 4, and anchored near the Louisiana. At the time the Yamacraw anchored the weather was somewhat thick and drizzling, with moderate northeast wind blowing fresh at times with heavy rain squalls. The sea was moderate, with an occasional long swell, sometimes a little confused. The visibility was poor, but the lights of Ocean City could be seen. The moon was obscured by clouds, mist, and rain, but afforded a slight degree of light. Conditions on and near the Louisiana could be discerned but poorly by means of the Yamacraw’s searchlight. The sea was not too rough for rescue work by boats. The Yamacraw rode nearly head to the wind and sea, so that the two vessels had each other about two points on the port bow. Consultation was had between the commanding officer of the Yamacraw and other officers aboard, and the conclusion was reached that the weather and sea conditions were not unfavorable to assistance work, and in view of the urgency of the calls received from the Louisiana and the indications that the wind and sea both would increase before morning, making rescue work more dangerous if delayed, it was decided to remove her crew at once.
There was no question in the minds of the officers or the crew of the Yamacraw as to the feasibility of the work at this time. Therefore, at about 8.20 p.m. a surfboat was sent from the Yamacraw to the Louisiana, containing the following men: Gunner Ross Harris, in charge, at the steering oar; Master at Arms R. J. Grady; Quartermaster M. L. Kambarn; Seaman G. V. Jarvis; Ordinary Seaman M. L. Austin; Ordinary Seaman D. Fulcher; Ordinary Seaman R. L. Garrish: Ordinary Seaman R. E. Simmons; and Ordinary Seaman T. L. Midgett. Gunner Harris was an expert boatman and had the entire confidence of the officers and crew, and the other men named were efficient boatmen. The surfboat was lowered from the Yamacraw without difficulty or accident and safely made the passage to the Louisiana. The commanding officer of the Yamacraw had requested by signal that the Louisiana use oil freely to form a slick for the surfboat, and this signal was acknowledged. A Franklin life buoy, with a running line attached, had been placed on the port quarter of the Yamacraw to be streamed in case the surfboat should have difficulty in reaching the vessel upon her return from the Louisiana.
Gunner Harris made his boat fast with the painter under the port bow of the Louisiana, and had taken off one of that vessel’s crew, when an unusually heavy sea, whose approach could not be seen in the darkness, struck the starboard quarter of the vessel, swept ever her decks, and engulfed the Yamacraw’s boat, which was caught in the backlash and hurled against the Louisiana’s bow, throwing all the men into the water. Lighted life buoys were immediately dropped from the Louisiana, and the Yamacraw was promptly notified of the accident by occulting light signals. On account of the lack of trained oarsmen remaining on board the Yamacraw, it was not deemed safe at that time to lower another boat for the purpose of rescuing the men in the water. The vessel, however, was gotten under way with the least practicable delay and navigated in toward the men. She was stopped near a lighted buoy, to which Master-at-Arms Grady could be seen clinging. Grady left the buoy and attempted to swim to the Yamacraw. When it was evident that the attempt was beyond his strength, Steerage Cook J. J. Kennedy went overboard in a bowline, swam to Grady, and with much difficulty brought him alongside the vessel. Kennedy was obliged to loose his hold on Grady, who was then carried under the cutter as she rolled to starboard. When the ship rolled back to port, he floated out alongside just forward of the gangway. Second Lieut. W. J. Keester, who had gone down on the sea steps in the bight of a rope, grabbed Grady under the arms and raised him high enough to pass his hand to someone up the gangway. He then slipped his hand down Grady’s side and seized him about the waist, when a sudden
lurch of the vessel to port wrenched Grady from his grasp, and the latter fell back into the water. The dinghy, with Boys First Class William R. Hogarth and J. A. Dugger, was lowered to the water and hanging in the falls. The boys attempted to save Grady as he was torn from the grasp of Lieut. Keester, but were unsuccessful. Hogarth and Dugger then unhooked the dinghy and let it ride to the painter. The painter parted, and they took to the oars and pulled to a lighted buoy, to which Ordinary Seaman R. E. Simmons was clinging. Being unable to get Simmons into the dinghy, they lashed him alongside and endeavored to row back to the Yamacraw, but the strong current which was now running carried the dinghy against the stakes of a fish pound, capsizing it and throwing the occupants into the water.
In the meantime Boatswain Hermann Fiedler, Electrician Third Class Belton Miller, Boy First Class George L. Wynn, and Boy Second Class J. McWilliams had jumped into the whaleboat, which was lowered, and started in search of the men in the water. They found no one. The alongshore current was so strong that they could not pull back to the ship or to the Franklin buoy, which had been streamed. They were ordered by signal to anchor until the Yamacraw could be dropped down to them. They obeyed the order, but were in the edge of the breakers and, fearing the boat would be swamped, cast off the anchor line and pulled through the surf for the shore. Their boat was upset, but all safely reached land. In response to messages sent by occulting light signals from the Yamacraw to Coast Guard Station No. 146, a patrol of the beach, both north and south, and a vigilant lookout, were immediately instituted by the members of that and adjacent stations. It is established by competent testimony that it was not possible on account of the high and dangerous surf for the Coast Guard crews ashore to launch a boat to go to the assistance of the men in the water.
The Yamacraw, having anchored after the dinghy and whaleboat left, again got under way and was maneuvered to a position near where the whaleboat was last seen, but by that time the boat had pulled through the breakers on the beach, although this fact was not known on board. After remaining in the vicinity of the breakers until hope had been abandoned of saving any of the endangered men, the Yamacraw moved offshore and anchored until daylight. No further attempt was made to render assistance to the Louisiana, as there remained on board the Yamacraw too few men to be able to accomplish anything in that direction. During the night the weather unexpectedly improved, and at daylight the Yamacraw proceeded to the southward in search of boats and bodies. None was found and the vessel returned to her headquarters at Norfolk.
| Name | Rating | Duty Station | Date |
| Fulcher, D. | OS | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Jarvis, G.V. | S1 | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Dugger, J.A. | Boy 1st Class | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Austin, M. L. | OS | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Kambarn, M. L. | QM | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Simmons, R. E. | OS | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Grady, R. J. | MAA | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Garrish, R. L. | OS | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Harris, R. | GM | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |
| Midgett, T. L. | OS | USCGC Yamacraw | 3/3/1917 |