Cape Jellison Sea Stories
Tales from nearly 5 decades of Coast Guard patrolling and youth training.
Please click here to submit your sea story.
Name: Walter
Rating: Electricians Mate
Years Served: 1968-1969
Cape Jellison's small boat shot a line to a boat stranded on a Mexican beach.. I think this is the boat that when told to tie the line to something secure, ran the line though the hatch in the bow and wrapped the end around the toilet. When the Jellison started to tow the boat from the beach, the nylon line stretched like an elastic band. As the line became tighter and stretched more and more, the toilet ripped loose, tore through the deck and shot into the air. The people later sued because the Coast Guard damaged their boat. (Don't think they won)
Name: Mike Verrengia
Rating: EM3
Years Served: 1/71-11/71
The BM1 and I took the Boston Whaler to bring a tow line to a small boat inside the surfline. This was right in front of the Del Coronado Hotel. A father and two small children were on board. As "Boats" brought the whaler in, I threw the heaving line to the boat. Just as he was bringing the whaler about to head back out through the surf, we were lifted right up the front of a 5-6' wave! As the whaler went upside down, I had to dive off and go to the bottom (7-8') so I wouldn't get hit or trapped. When I surfaced, "Boats" was nowhere to be found and the whaler was overturned. He finally surfaced, spitting a bunch of seawater! The equipment on the whaler was lost, and we made the local news.
Name: Michael Greninger
Rating: MK1
Years Served: 3/76-3/78
We often went to Prince William Sound, Alaska, to find areas that were not covered by radio. New towers were being put up in order to improve the coverage. On these trips we investigated every nook and cranny possible. At times we would do boardings and the people were always friendly, even with an impending fine, and often gave us some crab or fish. The Coast Guard was a "loved" organization in Alaska. The 17th District got a new Admiral around the beginning of 1977 that felt vessels were meant to be underway and wanted a lot more boardings done. The C.G. got more into illegal drug enforcement at that time, and rumor had it that a coastie got killed in Flordia by smugglers. We were ordered to carry side arms, have a manned and armed smallboat and the 50 cal. on the bow in ready mode when we did boardings. Peoples' attitudes suddenly changed. We were not liked or respected as we once were. On top of this, the other two 95 footers from Southeast Alaska made numerous trips to Prince William Sound and conducted boardings also. People were upset and often complained of being boarded numerous times and couldn't understand the reason for the firearms. The Jellison crew backed off on our boardings if the boarded boat could produce a past boarding slip without a violation. At summer's end our boardings decreased. I was transferred before the next summer and did not get to see the results of our previous summer's activities.
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