USCG Cutter 37

Commissioned on October 24, 1936, Cutter 37 was first home ported in Honolulu, Hawaii, where, until the outbreak of World War II, she interdicted opium smugglers and carried out search and rescue duties from the Hawaiian Islands through the central Pacific Ocean. During her pre-war years, Cutter 37 also made regular voyages to the equatorial Line Islands, roughly 1500 miles southwest of Oahu, to re-supply and support to American colonists there.

In 1940 and 1941, Cutter 37 received successive armament upgrades in anticipation of war. The upgrades included an additional 5”/51 caliber gun on the fantail where her float plane once stood, three 3”/50 caliber dual purpose guns (capable of shooting at both surface and airborne targets), additional .50 caliber machine guns, depth charge racks and throwers, and sonar for locating submarines.

On the eve of Pearl Harbor, Cutter 37 was officially assigned to the U.S. Navy's Destroyer Division 80 even though she retained her Coast Guard crew. When the Japanese aircraft fleet attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, Cutter 37 was tied up at Pier 6, Honolulu, where she was able to repeatedly engage Japanese planes which over flew the city. When the attack subsided, she immediately commenced in anti-submarine patrol duties off-shore at Pearl Harbor.

After World War II, Cutter 37 was reconfigured for peacetime duties and through 1946 to 1972, she was home ported in Alameda, California. Known as “The Queen of the Pacific,” Cutter 37 carried out virtually every peacetime Coast Guard duty. This includes decades of Ocean Weather Patrol throughout the Pacific, fisheries patrols in the Bearing Sea and countless search and rescue missions.

During the Korean War, Cutter 37 received additional anti-submarine weapons and frequently carried out plane-guard duties off Midway Island and Adak, Alaska. In April 1960, Cutter 37 additionally had the honor to host French President Charles DeGaulle on a VIP tour of San Francisco harbor.

By the late 1960's, Cutter 37 become the last United States vessel still in commission that had seen action during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. From that time on, she was often referred to as “The Last Survivor of Pearl Harbor.”

During the Vietnam War in 1969-1970, USCG Cutter 37 participated in “Operation Market Time” in the South China Sea. As a unit of Coast Guard Squadron III, Cutter 37 interdicted illegal arms and supplies along the coast of South Vietnam, fired over 3,400 rounds of 5”/38 ammunition in support of American and South Vietnamese troops, and provided medical assistance to more than 5,000 Vietnamese civilians.

In February 1972, Cutter 37 was reassigned from the 12th Coast Guard District in San Francisco to the 5th Coast Guard District in Virginia. From 1973 to 1977, Cutter 37 carried out the Ocean Weather Patrol at Weather Station Hotel, which is roughly 200 miles off the coast of New Jersey. She also participated in “hurricane hunting” after receiving a special Doppler weather radar installation atop her pilot house. In September 1977, Cutter 37 had the distinction of completing the Coast Guard's last ocean weather patrol when she closed out of the Ocean Weather Station Hotel.

From 1977 until 1986, Cutter 37 carried out search and rescue duties, fisheries patrols in the North Atlantic, drug interdiction patrols in the Caribbean, and summer training cruises for the Coast Guard Academy. During this period, she made 11 major seizures of illegal drugs. Most notably, Cutter 37 was involved in an illegal drug bust in 1985, which netted 160 tons of marijuana – the largest in U.S. history.

After more than 50 years of continuous service, Cutter 37 was decommissioned on December 7, 1986 at Portsmouth, Virginia, and donated to the City of Baltimore to serve as a memorial and museum.