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E-mail PageNot long after the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (USRCS) made its first appearance in Alaska. During the next forty-eight years, the ships and men of the USRCS firmly established U.S. sovereignty in Alaska and the Bering Sea and performed amazing acts of rescue and humanitarian aid. Before now, their contributions received little attention.
With excellent command of available resources, maritime historians Dennis Noble and Truman Strobridge have brought together widely scattered documentation and records to chronicle events in the service's colorful history. It is often a story of high drama as well as historical importance and includes a number of notable figures, among them Captain Michael A. "Hell Roaring Mike" Healy, a black revenue cutter captain who became a legendary figure on the Alaskan frontier and was memorialized in James Michener's novel Alaska. Performing multi-mission roles, the cuttermen explored vast unknown areas, provided humanitarian relief after earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, brought medical care to isolated areas, fed starving North American natives, and rescued or assisted shipwrecked sailors, whalers beset in the ice, lost explorers, and others in trouble in a hostile environment. The book also tells of a noble social experiment in which these early U.S. Coast Guardsmen participated. By importing reindeer from Siberia and teaching Alaskan natives to become herdsmen, they helped prevent future famines. The cutters even transported judicial courts to bring a veneer of civilization to a rough frontier.
The authors describe and analyze these events in colorful narrative detail. Readers will quickly come to understand why the USRCS became so admired throughout the new territory and appreciate the effect the service had on the political, economic, and social life of the North Pacific region.
Click here to visit the author's website: http://www.dennislnoble.com/
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