I recently had a friend check on his computer to see if a website on the Tamaroa was available. I was surprised and excited to hear about the Tamaroa Maritime Foundation.

I think its great the Tamaroa is being restored and will be available for tours. I joined the Coast Guard shortly after graduating from High school in 1956 after boot camp. At Cape May and a few months later at St. George Base at Staten Island. I was assigned to the Tamaroa in the summer of 1957 till the fall of 1959, when I was assigned to Base Manhattan on Port Security in New York City parade duty until my enlistment expired in September of 1960.

Being on the Tam 2 and ½ years was certainly an interesting and eventful period in my life. Due to the storms in the Atlantic, some of the rescue attempts were successful and some were not but we always gave 100% effort for results.

One of my duties as a gunners mate was to shoot the rescue line attached to our towing cable over the distressed vessel which was not an easy task in rough seas. The other two Gunners Mates and I were of course responsible for the 3"50' gun on the Tam along with helm and lookout duty.

After seeing the Perfect Storm movie, the memories of the Tam and its crew's exploits came back strong with a renewed interest for me.

Several interesting and exciting events occurred in the 2 ½ years I was on the Tamaroa. The number one story which comes to mind was the Texas Tower incident in 1958 or 1959. I believe these towers were used as early warning stations along the east coast during the cold war period. They were like huge oil rigs on pillars down in the ocean and were manned by U. S. Navy Servicemen. I believe they had approximately 250 men on them originally but later on when we were on patrol carried approximately 75 men.

One day while on patrol, we anchored by the one off the New Jersey coast. Our crew visited their base and they visited the Tamaroa. A short time after returning from patrol we were ordered back out to seas to stand by the Texas Tower in case of problems from a hurricane coming up the east coast. I don't recall the name of the storm but it was bad with very high waves and occurred at night. By the time we arrived in the morning after the storm passed the Texas Tower and all of its crew had sunk and perished. We were lucky the Tam came through the storm without damage. It was a sad and shocking event for our crew for a long time after that tragedy occurred.

The second event I recall happened in late 1958 or early 1959. It was the New Jersey to Manhattan commuter train accident. We were in port at St. George base in Staten Island when we got a rescue call to go up the river between New Jersey and Manhattan. Apparently what happened, a train engineer had a heart attack or passed out and did not stop a train when the drawbridge was up for a ship and the train went up and over the top with the cars dangling down into the Hudson river loaded with morning commuters. Some rescuers were attempting to weld cables between each car to help support the weight until all were rescued. However several of the cars broke loose and went under with the passengers still inside. I never heard the number of victims with the accident, but many drowned apparently.

Other events I witnessed included a large refinery fire in the Bayonne, New Jersey area which we went to incase we were needed in some way.

On one of our night patrols off New Jersey, I and several of my shipmates on lookout and helm duty, spotted what appeared to be a flying saucer craft fly from one end of the horizon to the other over the ship. We could see lights on it but heard no sound. We never heard an explanation of the incident after that.

There were of course many search and rescue missions in my 2 ½ years of duty on the Tamaroa including fishing boats, pleasure boats, barges and aircraft. We also had to tow a dead whale which had floated into the New York shipping lanes because of the hazard.

I hope I have been of some help in building your history of the Tamaroa in the late 50's period. It was certainly interesting and eventful.