U.S. Lighthouses and the Coast Guard

Nov 13 2016, 12:01 am

  On weekends I’ve been blogging about Lighthouses.     With this being the Veteran’s Holiday weekend thought I’s share a little about lighthouses and the 

U.S. Coast Guard.   

  In 1789, the United States Lighthouse Establishment was created and operated under the Department of the Treasury. There were 24 lighthouses in this country in 1800 and 850 by end of that century. The responsibility for lighthouses bounced from one agency to another until 1939 when the US Lighthouse Board merged with the United States Coast Guard. Reading about all this bouncing I couldn’t tell if these agencies wanted the responsibility or didn’t want any part of it. At any rate, these life-saving Light Stations finally had a stable organization to care and maintain them. The U. S. Coast Guard not only maintained the lights but contributed to the creation of highly a sophisticated and technologically advanced system of aids to navigation. And Coastguardsmen manned the lights.

  The Coast Guard Mission

 For over two centuries the U.S. Coast Guard has safeguarded our Nation’s maritime interests in the heartland, in the ports, at sea, and around the globe. We protect the maritime economy and the environment, we defend our maritime borders, and we save those in peril. This history has forged our character and purpose as America’s Maritime Guardian.

Today’s U.S. Coast Guard, with nearly 42,000 men and women on active duty, is a unique force that carries out an array of civil and military responsibilities touching almost every facet of the U.S. maritime environment.

The Coast Guard’s motto is Semper Paratus,

meaning Always Ready for all hazards and all threats.

Thank you to all who have and are serving in the US Coast Guard for being

the Guardians of our coast.

  You can read a brief history of the Coast Guard on the USCG Historian’s website.

  To read more about the historic Light Stations houses go to this Coast Guard page.