Security Levels

Marine Safety, Security, Science &
Environmental Protection

Including Famous Shipwrecks & Other Major Marine Disasters

A photo of the Argo Merchant shipwreck
The wreck of the Liberian tanker Argo Merchant off Nantucket, 1976

"From Steamboat Inspection Service to U.S. Coast Guard: Marine Safety in the United States from 1838-1946," by PACS Barbara Voulgaris.

Marine Inspection, December 7, 1941 - July 18, 1944 (Volume 13 of the Coast Guard at War Official History Series)

Sunken Tanker Project Report, 1968: The Coast Guard surveyed a number of tankers that had been sunk during World War II to assess their possible environmental impact.

Captain Quentin Walsh's Oral History: Captain Walsh discusses his experiences as a whaling inspector on board the American-flagged Norwegian whaling factory ship Ulysses, from 26 May 1937 to 11 April 1938. The Ulysses cruised for 30,000 miles and killed over 3,600 whales. In the middle of his tour, Walsh was asked to enforce new whaling regulations under the 1937 International Agreement for the Regulation of Whaling. Click here to access his official report.

A history of the Coast Guard's Ocean-Weather Station Program by Captain R. P. Dinsmore, USCG (Ret.).

"The U.S. Coast Guard's Office of R&D: Its Initial Half-Life (1968-1979)": A Memoir by Dr. Charles C. Bates, Science Advisor to the Commandant, 1968-1979.

Seaman 2/c John Cullen's oral history: Cullen was the Coast Guardsman on beach patrol on Long Island when he came across a team of Nazi saboteurs who had just landed from a U-boat.

"The El Estero Fire and How the US Coast Guard Helped Save New York Harbor"; an article on the 1943 disaster in New York harbor that could have destroyed much of the city, by William H. Thiesen as published in Sea History 126 (Spring 2009), pp. 16-19.