The original Alki Point Aid to Navigation Lantern from 1877,  on display at the U.S. Coast Guard Museum, located on the Coast Guard Base at Pier 36, just south of downtown Seattle near Safeco Field.

The Lantern was lit and hung from a Post to help keep vessels safe. The Lantern’s fuel tank holds enough fuel to burn for 8 days, this meant that it only needed to be serviced once a week. The Lantern was used from 1877 until 1913 when the present Alki Point Lighthouse was put into service. This was one of 33 similar lanterns in Puget Sound. The Post Lantern was purchased in 1877 for $ 12.37.  The lantern is about 27 inches tall overall (including hanger) and 15 inches in diameter.

Sometime after the Lantern was taken out of service it disappeared, it was recovered some years later and is now in the U.S. Coast Guard Museum in Seattle.

Model of the Revenue Cutter Bear. The model was built about 1975. The Bear entered service in 1885 for the Revenue Cutter Service which was one of the forerunners of the modern US Coast Guard. The Bear patrolled the Alaska and Arctic waters from 1886 through 1927. Much of the time the Bear was the law along the coast of Alaska. The Bear participated in many legendary rescues, including the Overland Relief Expedition, a daring rescue in the fall of 1897 – 98 when three members of the Bear’s crew, assisted by Native Alaskan’s, traveled overland 1,500 miles while purchasing and herding 448 reindeer to save 273 whalers on eight ships that had became trapped in the ice near Point Barrow and were facing starvation.

The legendary Captain “Hell Roaring” Mike Healy (CG Bio & reference links – Second Bio) assumed command of the Cutter Bear in 1886. Healy was born in the South in 1839, the son of an African American Slave mother and Irish father. Captain Mike Healy was the first African American to command a US government ship. His racial heritage was not openly known at the time. The story of how his father facilitated the escape of Mike and his siblings to the North as well as having them inherit his estate when slaves could not inherit, is worthy of a John Grisham or James Bond novel, this was at a time when one drop of slave blood labeled a person a slave. Mike ran away to sea when he was 15 and worked his way up “the hawse pipe” to command a Revenue Service Cutter.

The US Coast Guard Icebreaker Healy is named in honor of Captain Mike Healy.

The U.S. Lifesaving Service (1878 – 1915) established a series of Lifesaving Stations along the coast. The stations served to both save lives of the crew of vessels that were shipwrecked as well as to warn ships off dangerous shores. The people that patrolled the beaches had the title “Surfman.” Midway between the stations was a hut of some sort where a Surfman could get out of the weather and exchange a Surfman Check with a Surfman from the next Lifesaving Station. The exchange of the Checks was proof that each Surfman had patrolled their assigned area. The Surfman returned to their respective stations with the exchanged Checks from the other station to prove they had met up with the patrol from the other Lifesaving Station. At the end of the shift the Checks were returned to the original station and the process of exchanging the Surfman Checks started over.

The Seattle Coast Guard Museum

The U.S. Coast Guard Museum in Seattle opened on August 4, 1976, Coast Guard Day. The museum has over 15,000 photographs dating back to the mid 1800’s. There are several large scale finely crafted models of Revenue Cutter Service, Coast Guard Cutters and Icebreakers. The museum has over 3,000 books and periodicals covering the Coast Guard and Northwest History and over 2,500 historical documents including vessel plans and clippings. The museum has been credited as a source in 31 books.

The Seattle Coast Guard Museum also provides help to the general public and Coast Guard personnel on a wide range of subjects, from how many cooks on the maiden voyage of the USS Constitution? (two), research on Coast Guard Lore and customs, drawings and photographs of people, vessels, Coast Guard stations, and information on past Coast Guard members.

The Director, Captain Gene Davis, USCG Retired, joined the Museum in 1978 after a 30 year career in the Coast Guard. He is assisted by Darrell Vanness Jr. of the USCG Auxiliary, Larry Dubia and Dan Tish.

The Museum is located on the Coast Guard Base at Pier 36, just south of downtown Seattle near Safeco Field. Base access is restricted but the public can visit the Museum, if you don’t have base access you will need to contact the Museum and make arrangements for an escort from the gate to the Museum and you will need to be escorted at all times, groups and school classes are welcome. See below for days & hours of operation and contact information.  If you are in the area, show up at the Main Gate Base Entrance during the hours of operation (a bit south of the museum) and ask the one of the guards to call the museum for an escort to come meet you at the gate (as of this writing they are open 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, please allow time for the tour if it is getting late in the day as while the museum is small the people in it are very knowledgeable and love to share their knowledge)

Coast Guard Museum Northwest – contact information and hours of operation.

Coast Guard Museum Northwest Homepage

Donating items to the Museum

The Coast Guard Museum is always on the lookout for items from the past to add to their collection, everyday items are always of interest, personal pictures, letters, diaries, post cards, ration cards, pay records, boat specific clothing items, jersey’s and related, these items are often found in a box that has been long forgotten after a loved one as passed away, what better way to honor the memory of a loved one than to pass their memories on to be preserved for others.  Almost every week a box of memories just shows up at the museum to live on for future generations.

Send to:

Coast Guard Museum
(attn:  Capt. Davis)
1519 Alaskan Way South
Seattle WA 98134-1102

U.S. Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard has been through many changes since it’s beginning on August 4, 1790 when President George Washington signed the Tariff Act that authorized the construction of 10 Cutters to patrol the coast to prevent smuggling and enforce Federal trade and tariff laws. The Revenue Cutters evolved and grew as the United States grew and the needs of a growing nation changed. The Coast Guard is one of the oldest organizations in the U.S. Government, tracing it’s roots back to 1790. Over the years the Coast Guard’s mission has expanded to include the security of our ports, anti-terrorism, Aids to Navigation including Lighthouses, Environmental Protection, Search and Rescue, Merchant Marine Licensing, vessel inspection and safety, Boating Safety Education and “other duties as assigned by the President, Congress and the Commandant”.

After Hurricane Katrina the Coast Guard rescued over 33,500 people from rooftops and other flooded areas, many of the Coast Guard personnel performed the rescue operations with no place to go home to as their homes had been destroyed by Katrina. The Coast Guard has served in every one of our nations conflicts, including delivering troops to the beach on D-Day and returning injured troops on Medical Ships to the U.S.

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary was established as a volunteer civilian service within the Coast Guard in 1939 originally to help provide coastal security. Today the Auxiliary works with the Coast Guard in many non Law Enforcement missions from Search and Rescue, Port Security, inspecting Private Aids to Navigation to Boating Safety with it’s Public Education Program.

Office of the U.S. Coast Guard Historian

I want to extend a special thanks to Gene and the Museum  staff for their patience and help with this article and for letting me take pictures in the Museum for this article.

The original Alki Point Light. This Post Lantern was used at Alki Point in West Seattle from 1877 thru 1913 when the present lighthouse was first lighted. The lantern would run for 8 days and was serviced once a week. The lantern is about 27 inches tall overall (including hanger) and 15 inches in diameter.

Model of the Cutter Bear. The Bear was obtained by the U.S. Revenue Service (forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard) in 1885 and patrolled in Alaska and the Arctic from 1886 through1927

Large Aid to Navigation Light. Used on Large Buoys and fixed aids. About 41 inches tall.

Acetylene powered Aid to Navigation light from New York Harbor. This is the last gas operated light used in New York Harbor. About 23 inches high.

A Red-White-White-Red rotating Aid to Navigation light from Puget Sound.

Kerosene Flare Pot from the Umpqua River Station. The Flare Pots were carried in the Beach Cart (cart that was used to transport rescue supplies). The Flare Pots were lighted and mounted on a staff, providing a white light to show survivors where it was safe to land.

Keepers Speaking Trumpet, used before the days of electric bull horns to communicate farther than a person could shout.

Surfman “Check” A Surfman was a person that patrolled the beach between Lifesaving Stations. The Check was used to make sure the Surfman patrolled their entire area, the Checks were exchanged with a Surfman from the next Lifesaving Station at a point about half way between the stations.

Used by the U.S. Lifesaving Service (merged with the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915) and the U.S. Coast Guard to send rescue lines from the shore to ships aground in distress that needed the crew rescued. The Lyle Gun used a 17 lb. Projectile that could send a messenger line up to 700 yards. It was replaced in the 1950’s with rockets or helicopters. However there are still rescue line throwers that use a rifle, shotgun or rocket to send a rescue line to a ship in distress. The Lyle Gun and Carriage weighed 185 lbs.

Powder Flask for a Lyle Gun. The flask dispensed one ounce of Black Powder with each measure. The Lyle Gun used 1 to 8 ounces of powder for each shot.

A Forth Order Fresnel Lens and light mechanism that was removed from service in 1975 from the New Dungeness Light.

A Forth Order Fresnel Lens and light mechanism that was removed from service in 1975 from the New Dungeness Light.

The North Wall of the Museum has exhibits from World War II, Uniforms from the 1930’s to the present, the U.S. Lifesaving Service, Aviation Operations, Douglas Munro, the only Coast Guardsman to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and many other items.

Various items from World War II.

Objects collected over many Polar and Bering Sea Operations. The Coast Guard Icebreakers Healy, Polar Star and Polar Sea are home ported in Seattle.

Bell from the Roosevelt. The Roosevelt was Robert E. Peary’s ship when he was first to visit the North Pole on April 7, 1909. The Roosevelt took the Peary expedition to the edge of the ice about 410 miles from the North Pole. The Roosevelt led the parade of ships on July 4, 1917 through the Chittenden Locks (also known locally as the Ballard Locks) in Ballard.

A Sinuous Course Clock used during WWII. The clocks were attached to the Gyro Compass and had a cam that drove a pointer to help the helmsman steer so that ships traveling in convoys would turn at the same time and in the same direction.

A Smoking Lamp, used on a sailing ship before matches and lighters. Smoking was only allowed on the Quarterdeck and permitted only when the lamp had been lit.

Taffrail Logs were used to indicate the speed of a vessel. The propeller was attached to a line and then trailed behind a vessel. The turning of the propeller drove a gear train and pointer in the readout head. An hour glass was used to measure the time and the speed was then calculated using the distance traveled as indicated on the dial.

– c/m –