The Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa will be scuttled next Tuesday off the coast of Cape May, becoming the newest piece of the Delaware - Jersey Artificial Reef. The Tamaroa was launched in June of 1943 and commissioned as the USS Zuni (ATF-95), serving in the Pacific until the end of WWII.
She was decommissioned in June of 1946 and transferred to the Coast Guard. She enjoyed a long and illustrious history with the Coasties, serving in patrol, SAR and drug interdiction roles until her final decommissioning in February of 1994.
The Tamaroa was the first Coast Guard vessel on the scene in July of 1956 when the Andrea Doria collided with the Stockholm and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.
She was the centerpiece of a landmark tort case (Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Inc. v. United States) in 1968 after a drunken Coastie returning to his bunk on the drydocked Tamaroa "accidentally" opened the seacocks in the drydock, causing the ship to list, slip off its blocks and damage the dock. The case established that an employer will be held liable for the actions of an employee if those actions occur as a direct result of said employment.
The Tamaroa's real 15 Minutes of Fame, however, came as one of the supporting cast members of Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, the recounting of the events of late October and early November 1991. It was the Tamaroa, under the command of Capt. Lawrence Brudnicki, that rescued the crew of the sailing vessel Satori after an Air National Guard rescue helicopter was unable to pick up the Satori's occupants. It was the Tamaroa that, several hours later, rescued the crew of that very same helicopter after it ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. Not rescued that day, and lost to the sea, was USANG Pararescueman TSgt. Alden Smith. Smith's crewmates lost contact with him when the helicopter went into the water and his body was never recovered.
When the Tamaroa is dropped next Tuesday, 30 miles east of Cape May, she will join the destroyer USS Arthur W. Radford and the minesweeper USS Gregory Poole.
She was decommissioned in June of 1946 and transferred to the Coast Guard. She enjoyed a long and illustrious history with the Coasties, serving in patrol, SAR and drug interdiction roles until her final decommissioning in February of 1994.
The Tamaroa was the first Coast Guard vessel on the scene in July of 1956 when the Andrea Doria collided with the Stockholm and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.
She was the centerpiece of a landmark tort case (Ira S. Bushey & Sons, Inc. v. United States) in 1968 after a drunken Coastie returning to his bunk on the drydocked Tamaroa "accidentally" opened the seacocks in the drydock, causing the ship to list, slip off its blocks and damage the dock. The case established that an employer will be held liable for the actions of an employee if those actions occur as a direct result of said employment.
The Tamaroa's real 15 Minutes of Fame, however, came as one of the supporting cast members of Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm, the recounting of the events of late October and early November 1991. It was the Tamaroa, under the command of Capt. Lawrence Brudnicki, that rescued the crew of the sailing vessel Satori after an Air National Guard rescue helicopter was unable to pick up the Satori's occupants. It was the Tamaroa that, several hours later, rescued the crew of that very same helicopter after it ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. Not rescued that day, and lost to the sea, was USANG Pararescueman TSgt. Alden Smith. Smith's crewmates lost contact with him when the helicopter went into the water and his body was never recovered.
When the Tamaroa is dropped next Tuesday, 30 miles east of Cape May, she will join the destroyer USS Arthur W. Radford and the minesweeper USS Gregory Poole.
