The Long Blue Line (Spring 2024)

U.S. COAST GUARD INFORMATION ACTIVE DUTY
many that thankfully did not make the cut,
such as, CGC Eager, CGC Lively, CGC
Aggressive and CGC Timely.
It is no mystery why the lead ships were
named so. The many preceding cutters
bearing the names Reliance and Diligence
were rich in heritage and service history.
The current Reliance is the fourth so-called
cutter, with the first being a steam tug
commissioned in 1861 that saw service in
the Civil War and was sold in 1865. The
second Reliance was commissioned in
1867 and patrolled the waters of Alaska
until it was decommissioned in 1876. The
third Reliance was a 125-foot cutter built
in 1927, during Prohibition, to interdict
rumrunners and later refitted as a subchaser
in World War II. The cutter was
stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the
outbreak of World War II and attacked an
enemy submarine near Johnston Atoll in
1944.
The current Diligence is sixth in a long line
of cutters of the same name, beginning
with one of the service’s original 10
revenue cutters built in 1790. Built in 1798,
the second Diligence was larger and could
carry between 10 and 14 guns. This cutter
was transferred to the U.S. Navy in 1799
to fight in the Quasi-War with France. Little
is known of the third cutter Diligence other
than it was lost in a hurricane in July of
1806 near Ocracoke Island, North Carolina.
The following year, a fourth Diligence was
built that saw action in the War of 1812 and
was in service until 1831. The name was
not used again until 1927, when the fifth
cutter Diligence was commissioned. Like
its sistership Reliance, Diligence’s main
purpose was to stem the flow of illegal rum
smuggling and it served until 1961.
In the early 1960s, America was a country
on the brink of social and political change.
The civil rights movement was in full
swing, and the Cold War threatened
global stability. The vibrant sounds of
the Beatles and Motown dominated the
airways, a fitting soundtrack to the start of a
dynamic decade. Art and design reached
It is no mystery why the lead
ships were named so. The many
preceding cutters bearing the
names Reliance and Diligence
were rich in heritage and
service history.
new heights with Googie architecture and
the radical car designs from the Detroit
automotive companies. One person
in particular, Raymond Loewy, had a
tremendous impact on industrial design the
first half of the 19th century and continued
to make his mark well into the 1960s.
His repertoire included a wide variety of
“streamlined” designs for furniture, kitchen
appliances, automobiles, and trains, as well
as the well-known Coca-Cola bottle, and
even spaceship interiors.
62 SPRING 2024
THE LONG BLUE LINE