A research vessel that specializes in hydrographic surveys has been dispatched to assist in the investigation into the recent sinking of the Gloucester-based commercial fishing vessel Lily Jean with all seven hands lost.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has dispatched its 208-foot survey vessel Thomas Jefferson to take part in support of the ongoing investigation.
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Grief washed over Gloucester on Saturday morning, rippling out over Cape Ann and through the Northeast fishing community, as the Coast Guard suspended its search for six people missing after the fishing vessel Lily Jean went down Friday.
Grief washed over Gloucester on Saturday morning, rippling out over Cape Ann and through the Northeast fishing community, as the Coast Guard suspended its search for six people missing after the fishing vessel Lily Jean went down Friday.
Grief washed over Gloucester on Saturday morning as the Coast Guard suspended its search for six people missing after the fishing vessel Lily Jean went down Friday morning.
A seventh crew member was found dead Friday morning.
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The U.S. Coast Guard said late Friday it has called off a dayslong search for several people in the Eastern Pacific who jumped overboard when their alleged drug-trafficking boats were targeted by the U.S. military.
The military says it struck a group of three boats on Tuesday — part of a monthslong campaign of airstrikes that the Trump administration says are targeting Latin American drug cartels at sea. But after the first boat was struck, killing three, as many as eight people aboard the other two boats abandoned their vessels, U.S. officials told CBS News earlier this week.
The Coast Guard said in a statement that the people were reported missing about 400 nautical miles off the Mexico-Guatemala border. The search lasted about 65 hours and covered an area of ocean that spanned more than 1,090 nautical miles, but multiple search boats did not spot any “survivors or debris,” according to the Coast Guard.
“At this stage of the response, the likelihood of a successful outcome, based on elapsed time, environmental conditions, and available resources for a person in the water is very low,” Coast Guard Capt. Patrick Dill said in the statement.
The search was carried out by a Coast Guard plane that took off from California, a vessel in the area that belonged to the Coast Guard’s emergency assistance system and three other nearby vessels that were asked to help. The Coast Guard said in its statement that “available assets were extremely limited due to distance and range constraints.”
A Coast Guard spokesperson told CBS News earlier Friday that 40-knot winds and nine-foot seas were reported in the area.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro — who has clashed with the Trump administration in recent months — wrote on X Friday that the people appeared to survive the strikes. He said the Colombian Navy was willing to assist.
The U.S. military has conducted at least 35 boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific between Sept. 2 and Dec. 31, killing at least 115 people.
The military has reported survivors in a handful of boat strikes — and has faced heavy scrutiny for its handling of those cases. Two survivors from a mid-October strike were detained by the U.S. Navy and then repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador. One survivor from a late October operation is presumed dead after the Mexican Navy called off a search for the person.
And in the Trump administration’s first set of boat strikes on Sept. 2, two people survived the initial attack but were killed in a follow-on strike. Congressional Democrats who viewed a video of the operation criticized the second strike, alleging the military killed shipwrecked people who no longer posed a threat, but GOP lawmakers have called the strike justifiable, arguing the survivors appeared to still be in the fight.
The boat strikes are part of a broader military buildup in the region, amid a growing U.S. pressure campaign against the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has accused Maduro’s government of working with drug cartels, which it denies.
The operations have drawn criticism from lawmakers who argue the president is operating without permission from Congress. The Trump administration has defended the strikes as necessary to combat drug trafficking, calling the targets “unlawful combatants.”
A shelter-in-place order was lifted Thanksgiving night after an investigation into a reported shooting near the U.S. Coast Guard housing complex in Novato, authorities said.
The incident began earlier in the evening when a contracted Coast Guard security officer reported an altercation with an unknown suspect in the Coast Guard housing area off South Oakwood Drive.
Coast Guard officials said the security officer was not injured, and the shooting occurred in the vicinity of the housing complex.
Novato Police, Novato Fire, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, San Rafael Police and the Coast Guard Investigative Service all responded. Residents in several nearby neighborhoods, including Bolling Circle, Smart Station Hamilton, Hathaway Drive and the Marin Valley Mobile Home Park, were instructed to shelter in place as officers searched the area.
By 10:25 p.m., Novato police said officers had concluded activity and lifted the shelter-in-place order. Authorities said there is no immediate threat to the public but urged residents to report anything suspicious by calling 415-897-1122.
Both the Novato police and the Coast Guard are continuing to investigate.
Coast Guard announces largest cocaine seizure in agency history – CBS News
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The Coast Guard said it conducted its largest cocaine seizure in history worth an estimated $362 million. Take an inside look as officials offload the nearly 50,000 pounds of drugs.
The U.S. Coast Guard is scrambling to clarify proposed internal policy changes that appeared to loosen how the service branch handles the conduct within its ranks involving hate symbols including nooses, swastikas, and other extremist symbols — touching off a political firestorm inside the nation’s smallest military branch after the Space Force.
The controversy centers on a little-noticed personnel directive signed on Nov. 13 by Rear Admiral Charles Fosse, the assistant commandant for personnel, following a report by the Washington Post. The document, titled “Harassing Behavior Prevention, Response and Accountability,” contained a provision that proposed replacing longstanding language that explicitly identified swastikas, nooses, Confederate iconography and other symbols of racial or religious hatred as “incidents of hatred and prejudice.”
Instead, the Coast Guard’s new policy recast those same images as “potentially divisive,” a subtle but consequential shift that alarmed lawmakers and civil rights groups when it was first reported this week.
What did the original policy actually change?
The internal guidance that ignited the controversy introduced a few changes. The Coast Guard eliminated the term “hate incident.” Instead, conduct previously handled under that category was referred to as harassment — and only when a specific victim could be identified.
The guidance also raised the threshold for disciplinary action by specifying that public displays of extremist symbols would constitute misconduct only if they could be shown to harm “good order and discipline, unit cohesion, command climate, morale or mission effectiveness.”
Further, the policy also allowed symbols “widely identified with oppression or hatred” to be displayed in private or non-public settings, including military housing. The policy removed gender identity from the list of protected characteristics altogether, aligning the Coast Guard with Mr. Trump’s January executive order barring transgender service.
It also required that harassment be “severe or pervasive” and judged by a “reasonable person.” And it went out of its way to note that hazing — even when it involves physical force — can serve “a proper military or other governmental purpose,” a framing that echoes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s push to cultivate a tougher “warrior ethos.”
What was the response?
For years, Coast Guard policy has drawn a bright line on extremist symbols, stating unequivocally that items like nooses and swastikas “have no place in the Coast Guard.” The discovery that the service intended to downgrade them to “potentially divisive” immediately raised alarms on Capitol Hill.
Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois said she met with the Coast Guard’s acting commandant, Adm. Kevin Lunday, to express her concerns and was reassured that the policy would be clarified.
“He came by the office and assured us that there is an across-the-board prohibition on hate symbols, including swastikas and nooses,” Underwood remarked in a video statement.
Democratic Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington said in a statement, Thursday, that “lynching is a federal hate crime. The world defeated the Nazis in 1945. The debate on these symbols is over.” He added, “Coast Guard: be better.”
By removing the “hate incident” designation, the Coast Guard appeared to create a narrower pathway for removing racist or extremist imagery from operational facilities, barracks and other training environments. Its new timeline for reporting — requiring victims to come forward within 45 days — also raised eyebrows over concerns it might deter reporting and make enforcement harder.
In January, President Trump abruptly removed Adm. Linda Fagan as commandant just a day after taking office, placing Coast Guard leadership under scrutiny.
What is the Coast Guard saying now?
In response to the uproar, Lunday issued a forceful statement just hours after the policy became public, asserting that “any display, use or promotion of symbols like nooses and swastikas will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.”
Later that night, the service released an additional memo declaring that “divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited” at Coast Guard workplaces — an even firmer posture. The Coast Guard insisted the new memo was not a reversal but rather a clarification meant to counter “misinformation” and reaffirm the service’s longstanding stance against extremist imagery.
Still, leadership has not explained why earlier guidance explicitly permitted private displays or eliminated the “hate incident” language altogether.
How do harassment cases work under the new framework?
Even with the late clarifications, the underlying mechanics of the directive remain changed in significant ways. Because the term “hate incident” has been retired, displays of extremist symbols are not automatically categorized as harassment, and commanders will have to determine whether a specific victim exists and whether the conduct meets the now higher bar of being “severe or pervasive.”
Investigations and punishment will use a “preponderance of the evidence” standard — higher than before — and leaders evaluating an incident must consider how a hypothetical “reasonable person” would interpret any alleged misconduct.
The directive does reinforce that any public displays of the Confederate battle flag remain prohibited, except in rare instances of historical or artistic contexts. And although victims have 45 days to file a harassment report, commanders must notify their chain of command within 48 hours if an incident sparks potential interest from the media or Congress.
The Coast Guard occupies a unique middle ground — subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice but operating under the Department of Homeland Security rather than the Defense Department. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been outspoken in his intent to roll back what he views as “woke” personnel policies, including diversity initiatives and certain extremism-prevention measures.
The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday offloaded a nearly 50,000-pound haul of cocaine worth more than $360 million, bringing it onshore at Port Everglades in southern Florida..
“It’s the most cocaine ever seized by a single cutter in one deployment. So business is good,” Adm. Nathan Moore, the commander of Coast Guard Atlantic Area, said in his first network interview.
But despite recent U.S. air and missile strikes on what the Trump administration says is cartel smuggling infrastructure, the Coast Guard has not seen “any noticeable difference” in the flow of cocaine, Moore said.
“I would just tell you that the drugs you see here on [Cutter] Stone — most have been seized in September, October and even early in the month of November. So business is good for us and we are continuing to enjoy success” in intercepting drug vessels.
According to Moore, there have been no major changes in traffickers’ routes or pace, or in drug purity. The U.S. military has conducted at least 21 strikes targeting alleged drug-ferrying boats off South America since September as part of a wider anti-drug offensive.
But Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole says the strikes are having a measurable impact.
“You’re starting to see the rise in the price of cocaine,” Cole told CBS News in an exclusive interview.
“Cocaine is getting more expensive. And I think what it is — not only more expensive in the U.S., but we’re seeing it become more expensive at first stops. So more expensive in Puerto Rico, more expensive in the Dominican, more expensive once it lands in Guatemala and Honduras and Central America.”
Cole said the DEA has seen an increase in the price of cocaine of 30% to 45% per kilogram.
“It’s now more expensive to recruit boat captains, it’s more expensive to purchase engines, it’s more expensive to build larger boats for transportation,” he added. “And this is all due to immense pressure.”
There has also been a recent surge in Coast Guard drug seizures, which Moore attributes to upgraded cutters like the Stone, as well as tighter integration with U.S. intelligence agencies and new autonomous surveillance tools.
The strikes have come amid a broader buildup of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean as the Trump administration continues to put pressure on Venezuela and its president, Nicolás Maduro, whom the administration has repeatedly accused of being the head of a drug trafficking operation. President Trump on Monday said he would not rule out sending American troops to Venezuela.
“I don’t rule out anything,” Mr. Trump said. “We just have to take care of Venezuela.”
Moore, who was recently nominated to become deputy commandant for operations of the U.S. Coast Guard, said traffickers are adapting, but not slowing down.
“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Moore said. “We have success in one area, they shift tactics…and then we shift to counter that.”
Mr. Trump recently called maritime interceptions “totally ineffective,” but Moore Cole pushed back on that skepticism.
Moore said the Coast Guard remains “a tool in the nation’s tool bag” that delivers disproportionate impact when deployed against large, long-range cocaine shipments.
“We’ll continue to keep immense pressure on every trafficking route,” said Cole, adding, “We’re going to apply every single tool to stop the narcotics from coming into the United States and killing American citizens. And I think the strategy of an all-hands approach — the military, intel — it’s making a difference.”
Cole also dismissed concerns that the strikes on alleged drug boats were weakening the U.S.’s relationship with some of its allies, including France, Mexico and Colombia, which threatened to cut off some intelligence sharing with the U.S. over the strikes.
“There’s no shortage of intel sharing back and forth between countries, and neither country wants to see these problems that we’re now seeing unfold in Mexico — with the fentanyl trade with China, with the precursor chemicals. None of these countries want those problems there,” he said.
Moore acknowledged that some drug-trafficking boats do not get caught, but said that the Coast Guard strategy — pushing operations far offshore — keeps much of the flow from ever reaching U.S. shores.
Looking ahead, Moore said he expects next year to be even busier in terms of drug seizures.
“We don’t see any indication that the business will slow down,” Moore told CBS News. “I think 2026 looks even better than 2025.”
Asked what he would say to Americans who feel like the boat strikes are ineffective at reducing the amount of drugs entering the U.S., Cole pointed to what he said was a 30% increase in drug seizures.
In fiscal year 2025, the Coast Guard intercepted 231,000 kilograms of cocaine, the highest haul on record and more than triple the yearly average. Moore told CBS News he expects that number to grow in the future.
“The American citizens are sick and tired of Americans dying at the hands of the cartels,” said Cole. “We are laser-focused on protecting our citizens and defending our national security.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Wednesday he has directed city officials and departments to coordinate the city’s response to any federal law enforcement action in the city.
Lurie’s directive includes the activation of an Incident Coordination Call by the city’s Department of Emergency Management to coordinate response and information sharing among city departments. In addition, the order directs the City Attorney’s Office to monitor developments and pursue legal action against the Trump administration when necessary, and to include the San Francisco Unified School District in interdepartmental coordination to support immigrant students and families.
“We have longstanding sanctuary policies in our city that prohibit local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration enforcement,” said Lurie. “Those policies help build trust between police and communities, and they help keep people comfortable reporting crimes … We can’t prevent federal officials from enforcing immigration laws, but we’re going to keep our local law enforcement focused on ensuring your safety.”
There was no immediate word on what type of operations the CBP agents would be carrying out. CBS News Bay Area has reached out to CBP for more information on the mission. Two U.S. officials told CBS News that Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino is expected to be involved in the operation. He’s currently leading Border Patrol arrests in Chicago, and oversaw the agency’s controversial raids in Southern California this summer.
CBP is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the Department of Homeland Security and is the country’s primary border control organization.
The Alameda Police Department released a statement on Wednesday saying it was not a part of the operation, and that the department does not enforce federal immigration laws or related civil warrants. Alameda police also urged people to avoid interaction with federal law enforcement and referred residents to the city’s website for resources and information on immigrants’ rights.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee issued a statement Wednesday, saying the city was actively monitoring the situation.
“Oakland remains a proud sanctuary city committed to standing with our immigrant families, ” said Lee. “We will notify our community with as much information as possible about any federal deployment. Real public safety comes from Oakland-based solutions, not federal military occupation.”
The developments come on the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would deploy the state National Guard to help staff food banks amid the ongoing government shutdown. Newsom said the National Guard would not be acting as law enforcement during the mission, mirroring his deployment of the Guard in the early days of the COVID pandemic, also in support of food banks.
Trump has argued that troop deployments to U.S. cities are necessary because of what he characterizes as high levels of crime and unrest, as well as shielding federal agents from attacks during immigration enforcement operations. California, Illinois and Oregon have sued the Trump administration over the deployments, arguing they are politically motivated and violate state sovereignty, that there is no insurrection to justify them, and they violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using the U.S. military to enforce domestic laws except where expressly authorized by Congress.
The Coast Guard rescued a man from the water off the coast of Falmouth, Massachusetts Monday afternoon. Video from Falmouth police showed the moment the victim was hoisted from the ocean into a Coast Guard helicopter.
At about 3:30 p.m., a Steamship Authority ferry reported seeing a person in the water near Juniper Point-Woods Hole and attempted to assist them by throwing life rings into the water.
Sea conditions and visibility were poor at the time due to a nor’easter that brought windswept rain to the Massachusetts coastline.
A person was rescued by a Coast Guard crew off the coast of Falmouth on Cape Cod.
Falmouth Police
The Coast Guard, Falmouth Fire, and Environmental Police were sent to the area to begin a search.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew located the man in the area off Nobska Point at about 4:25 p.m. A Coast Guard rescue swimmer was deployed, and the man was hoisted into the helicopter.
The helicopter took the man to Joint Base Cape Cod. He was then transported by EMS to Falmouth Hospital for exposure, but he was not seriously hurt.
Ferry passengers jump into action
The ferry from Vineyard Haven was on its way to Woods Hole when people spotted the man being tossed in the water. Roy Mundy was one of the passengers on the ferry who didn’t hesitate to help.
“Out of nowhere one person stood up and said, ‘man overboard’ and it was really intense because every single person on the boat shot up immediately,” Mundy said.
Police are still investigating how the man got in the water.
“It was horrendous out there so I’m so happy that they found him, we all wanted him to be found but you have to be honest, it looked bleak it was so dangerous out there,” Mundy said.
Good Samaritans and crewmembers went out on the windy deck, throwing life rings to the man, and trying to keep their eyes on him.
“It was very shocking,” Mundy said. “I saw a father out there who was trying to spot him while their son was by the door crying trying to get the father back in because he was scared he was going to fall over, it was very intense.”
The Coast Guard offloaded a record-breaking haul with an estimated worth of nearly $500 million. Over the course of two months, officials say they seized more than 61,000 pounds of cocaine. Nicole Sganga has details.
The spot where the Columbia River spills into the Pacific Ocean at the border between Oregon and Washington state is where Lewis and Clark ended their journey of discovery in 1805, with Clark writing in his journal “ocean in view! oh joy!”
But it’s not all joy; in fact, it’s one of the most dangerous inlets in America. A high-pressure torrent of water pours out of the huge river’s mouth and runs right into waves that have been moving across the Pacific for thousands of miles.
It’s precisely because of this powerful aquatic collision that elite members of the United States Coast Guard come to this place once each year, determined to earn the coveted certification as surfmen.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: On the bow.
Bill Whitaker: Here comes a big one.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: Watch your head. Come to starboard.
On a wet February afternoon, we’re on board a 47 foot U.S. Coast Guard motor lifeboat with Chief Eric Ceallaigh at the helm, driving through breaking surf barely a hundred yards off the beach.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: I have another swell right up here.
Bill Whitaker: And another one right behind that.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: Exactly.
At the time, Ceallaigh was chief instructor at the Coast Guard’s national Motor Lifeboat School. This was the first day of “class,” and the three students on his boat were studying his every turn of the wheel, and calling out approaching swells.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh and Bill Whitaker
60 Minutes
Trenton Campbell: You got a saddle, starboard bow.
Dillon: Here we go, here we go, Oh!
Six more trainees were on two other boats with other instructors. Ceallaigh says everyone is here because this place, at the mouth of the Columbia River, consistently has some of the worst weather and highest seas in America.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: We expose them to a tremendous amount of surf conditions over 4 weeks. More so than they’d get over years outin their own unit.
Commander Tim Crochet: Morning shipmates. How are we?
First thing that morning, Tim Crochet, commanding officer of the Lifeboat School, had welcomed this year’s class of nine students.
Commander Tim Crochet: And I promise you the instructors behind me are going to give you world class instruction, and they’re gonna help you become a better motor lifeboat operator, and we’re going to get you closer and closer to certifying as a surfman.
“Certifying as surfmen.” That’s the goal of each of these students, and the dream of thousands of other members of the Coast Guard.
Bill Whitaker: Being a Surfman is sometimes compared to being a Navy SEAL or in the Army Special Forces. But in truth, this is a more exclusive club, isn’t it?
Commander Tim Crochet: Currently we have about 130 active duty Surfmen right now–
Bill Whitaker: Out of how many members of the Coast Guard?
Commander Tim Crochet: I think the Coast Guard’s right around 40,000 people.
Bill Whitaker: 40,000 people and 100 Surfmen. So that is a pretty exclusive club.
Commander Tim Crochet: It is. There’s a small number of us.
Certifying as a surfman means the Coast Guard trusts you to drive a lifeboat on the most challenging rescue missions: in 20-foot breaking waves and 50 knot winds. At the entrance to the school is a display of every surfman medallion – called a “check” – ever earned.
Bill Whitaker: So how far back does this go?
Commander Tim Crochet: It goes back to 1872.
That’s when the U.S. Lifesaving Service began saving mariners in distress. It became the Coast Guard in 1915…and now operates 20 “surf stations” where rescues may have to be made in breaking waves. On average, the Coast Guard makes more than 5,000 rescues a year.
Bill Whitaker: Where is yours?
Commander Tim Crochet: Mine is right back here. It’s check number 407.
Chief instructor Eric Ceallaigh – whose boat we were on – wears his surfman number.
Bill Whitaker: I understand you have a tattoo.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: I do. I do. I– I have my surfman number. I’m Surfman 545.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: This is something that’s very very important to me.
At the opening session of the Motor Lifeboat School, Chief Ceallaigh read the Coast Guard’s “Surfman’s Creed” aloud…
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: I will never unnecessarily jeopardize myself, my boat, or my crew, but will do so freely to rescue those in peril.
…and he told the students they’d each need to have the creed memorized before the four-week course was over.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: It takes a lot to get there. It takes– a person– a special type person, willing to put themselves into those situations to where you’re lookin’ up at a 20-foot breakin’ sea, and you’re like, “I want to do this. I want to keep trainin’ in this.” (laugh)
This year’s class was all male, but there are nearly a dozen female surfmen. Most candidates come here first for a basic course, then heavy weather, and finally this surf class. Derek Samuelson, Trenton Campbell, and Joshua Slaughter are the three trainees on Eric Ceallaigh’s boat.
Derek Samuelson, Trenton Campbell, and Joshua Slaughter are the three trainees on Eric Ceallaigh’s boat.
60 Minutes
Derek Samuelson: Most of us are gonna be pushin’ pretty close to four years when we get certified. That’s almost a college degree worth of training in driving these boats.
Joshua Slaughter: It’s somethin’ not a lotta people get to do.
Bill Whitaker: Not that they get to do it, but that they achieve it.
Joshua Slaughter: That they achieve it, yes.
Trenton Campbell: We come here, our only job is to learn and drive in the surf. So it’s– it’s a great opportunity.
Jeff Smith: This is a representation of the mouth of the Columbia.
Jeff Smith is the curator of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which has a giant map illustrating how the mouth of the Columbia River has earned the title “graveyard of the Pacific.”
Jeff Smith: All these little boats that you see are representative of the shipwrecks that have occurred.
Bill Whitaker: All of these. Over what period of time?
Jeff Smith: Yeah. We have 50 of them numbered, but there’s many many more.
Thousands more, over several centuries, with at least 700 lives lost. The skeletons of wrecked ships still litter some area beaches.
Bill Whitaker: So despite how treacherous this waterway is, it’s a vital economic waterway, as well.
Jeff Smith: It certainly is. Of all the grain exported from the United States, just over 40% goes out the Columbia River.
Every commercial ship coming into the river must have a local pilot come on board to guide it. This video shows how perilous it can be just to get that pilot onto one of those ships. Imagine the dangers faced by Coast guardsmen trying to rescue a ship or sailboat or fishing boat that’s in trouble.
Jeff Smith: I’m always a little bit, I don’t know if starstruck is the word or awestruck, when I’m in the presence of the men and women of our Coast Guard. Cause the job they do is just amazing. It’s incredible. They’re an incredible group of people.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: It’s such a cool mission that we get to do, like we get to go drive these awesome boats out and have the opportunity to save people on their darkest day.
60 Minutes
As he drove into ever-stormier seas on that first day of school, it was clear Eric Ceallaigh would rather be at the helm of his lifeboat than just about anywhere else.
Bill Whitaker: So you love this, huh?
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: I absolutely love this.
But Ceallaigh was also deadly serious about teaching his students how to read every swell.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: Watch that. Run from that. Running running running. You got that beat. Got a window right here, nice little near side shoulder. Easing off, let that come to me, I’m gonna get right on the back. Pull. Follow that key point. This is gonna get super dynamic down here, cause they’re shooting in every direction.
When he couldn’t outrun a wave, Ceallaigh executed what may be the most important maneuver a lifeboat driver must master.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: Nowhere to go. Squaring up.
Squaring up is pointing the bow of the boat directly into and through a breaking wave…sometimes a really big breaking wave.
Bill Whitaker: We hit a couple of those yesterday where we got the spray–
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: Absolutely–
Bill Whitaker: –and we went up, and it– you know, the– the bow was up and you saw blue sky, (laugh) and then all of a sudden you– you’re down in a– in a hole. What’s the worst thing you could do in a situation like that?
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: The worst thing you could do is not be square to that breaking wave. You could have a knock down, which is when the boat goes underneath the water, but re-rights in the same direction. Or even worse, a 360° rollover.
Bill Whitaker: Uh-huh (affirm). Have you ever experienced that yourself?
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: I haven’t experienced the full 360° rollover. I have experienced a– a knockdown or two. And that’s what they designed this boat for.
That design is seen in this demonstration video, but out in the surf, Eric Seallaigh was showing his students how to avoid ever having to test it on a real mission.
Bill Whitaker: How long before you let the students take control of the boat?
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: So starting tomorrow we’ll do another demonstration of wherever we’re gonna train, and then students are on it for the remainder of the course. Hold on.
Bill Whitaker: Whoa.
Surfmen training
60 Minutes
Every day for the next four weeks, the students took the helm, with Eric Ceallaigh signaling approval when they did something right, and correcting them when they didn’t.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: You probably should have squared up to that one. But — on the bow, guys. (splash)
Students drove in every kind of condition, and ran simulated missions like pulling someone – in this case, a dummy – out of the water.
Trenton Campbell: Nice reach, Josh! Get him on board. Alright, stand by to clear the recess!
Sometimes a real rescue mission can supplant the simulations, as when the boats were making one last training run on graduation day 2023.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: Sure enough, we heard a mayday– for distress go out over channel 1-6, the radio frequency.
Mayday call: “I think I might be taking on water. Hurry up.”
By the time the three training boats spotted a white boat called the Sandpiper, with one man on board, conditions had gone from mild to mad.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: At this point, we’re facing 25, 30-foot, 35-foot breaking seas. Fifty knots of winds. It’s raining, hailing. And– very, very dynamic.
Far too dynamic to have any chance of towing the vessel to safety. It was also graduation day for the Coast Guard’s advanced rescue helicopter school, and they dropped a rescue swimmer named John Walton into the water. You can see him paddling furiously.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: It was his first rescue. And they deployed him. And he was able to retrieve that individual off the Sandpiper right as that 30-foot-plus foot break rolled that boat multiple times.
It’s hard to imagine how either the rescued or the rescuer survived that, but they both did.
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: But really, seeing how the Coast Guard worked together and have one of the– the coolest rescues I’ve had in my entire career–
Bill Whitaker: On graduation day–
Chief Eric Ceallaigh: On graduation day for these future– surfmen.
Graduation day for this year’s class was far more placid. All nine students completed the course, and all nine had memorized the surfman’s creed.
Dorian Casey: I will, to the best of my ability, pursue each mission with the commitment, compassion, and courage inherent in the title surfman.
They didn’t all certify as surfmen that day; most had to wait to return to their home units for their commanding officers to give them the nod. But two of the nine got a surprise.
Commander Tim Crochet: BM2 Casey, BM2 Campbell, front and center please.
Dorian Casey and Trenton Campbell had their commanding officers in attendance, ready to bestow the honor then and there.
It seemed every certified surfman on the West Coast had come, and they handed the coveted medallions – those “checks” – to one another…
Surfmen: Surfman 494, Station Quillayute River. 485, Station Morro Bay. 484, Station Humboldt Bay, 450, Station Quillayute River, 407 Station Chetco River.
…and then to the two newest surfmen. Trenton Campbell accepted hugs from his trainers and fellow classmates. And then headed back to his base, Station Quillayute River on the coast of Washington, ready to do what he joined the Coast Guard to do.
Trenton Campbell: The reason why we all want to be here is that dream to save a life. I think there’s no better feeling than that. We’re training for the opportunity to save a human life. It’s all the motivation you need.
Produced by Rome Hartman. Associate producer, Sara Kuzmarov. Broadcast associate, Mariah B. Campbell. Edited by Aisha Crespo.
Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News.
A boat captain rode out Hurricane Milton overnight in the Gulf of Mexico before he was found clinging to a cooler about 30 miles offshore and rescued by helicopter. (Video provided by the U.S. Coast Guard)
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SAN FRANCISCO — Rescue swimmers and rescue jet skis conducted an active surf rescue of five people on a boat at Ocean Beach in San Francisco Sunday afternoon.
The five people were in the vicinity of Great Highway and Quintara Street, the San Francisco Fire Department said on social media shortly before 3 p.m..
The U.S. Coast Guard and the San Francisco Police Department’s marine unit also responded, according to the fire department.
Active surf rescue of 5 victims on a boat at Ocean Beach at Great Highway and Quintara SFFD’s rescue swimmers and Rescue jet ski’s. SFPD Marine Unit, and US Coast Guard is on scene. #SFFDpic.twitter.com/jqEeMNBNTI
The carbon fiber hull of the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic had imperfections dating to the manufacturing process and behaved differently after a loud bang was heard on one of the dives the year before the tragedy, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday. Meanwhile, another engineer testified that the sub’s window was “consistent with something on the path of failure.”
Engineer Don Kramer told a Coast Guard panel there were wrinkles, porosity and voids in the carbon fiber used for the pressure hull of OceanGate’s Titan submersible. Two different types of sensors on Titan recorded the “loud acoustic event” that earlier witnesses testified about hearing on a dive on July 15, 2022, he said.
Hull pieces recovered after the tragedy showed substantial delamination of the layers of carbon fiber, which were bonded to create the hull of the experimental submersible, he said.
OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded in June 2023.
Kramer’s statements were followed by testimony from William Kohnen, a longtime submersibles expert and key member of the Marine Technology Society. Kohnen emerged as a critic of OceanGate in the aftermath of the implosion and has described the disaster as preventable.
On Wednesday, Kohnen pushed back at the idea the Titan could not have been thoroughly tested before use because of its experimental nature. He also said OceanGate’s operations raised concerns among many people in the industry.
Kohnen said “I don’t think many people ever told Stockton no.” He described Rush as not receptive to outside scrutiny.
“This is not something where we don’t want you to do it. We want you to do it right,” Kohnen said.
The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the submersible’s carbon fiber construction, which was unusual. Other testimony focused on the troubled nature of the company.
Another Wednesday witness, Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering Services of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, testified about his review of the OceanGate submersible’s development. He expressed particular concern about the sub’s window.
“This is consistent with something on the path of failure,” Kemper said.
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.
Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
“Nothing unexpected about this”
On Tuesday, submersible pilot and designer Karl Stanley of the Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration testified to provide perspective about deep-sea submersible operations and safety. He said he felt the implosion ultimately stemmed from Rush’s desire to leave his mark on history.
“There was nothing unexpected about this. This was expected by everyone who had access to a little bit of information,” Stanley said.
This June 2023 United States Coast Guard still frame from video provided by Pelagic Research Services, shows remains of the Titan submersible, center, on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
U.S. Coast Guard Video courtesy Pelagic Research Services via AP
The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.
The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard panel Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans. Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.
In addition to Rush, the implosion also killed veteran Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; and British adventurer Hamish Harding.
Last month, Nargeolet’s family filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate. Known as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site, the most of any diver in the world, according to the lawsuit.
Danvers native and Coast Guard Rear Adm. Edward “Teddy” St. Pierre will be joining more than 250 wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans at the 14th annual Department of Defense Warrior Games Challenge later this month in Florida.
The event, which runs June 21-30 at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, will see athletes representing the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force, U.S. Special Operations Command, and the Coast Guard, such as St. Pierre, competing in cycling, indoor rowing, swimming, and track.
The Warrior Games are hosted each year by the U.S. Army Training & Doctrine Command, highlighting the exceptional physical skills and mental toughness of seriously wounded, ill, and injured active-duty and veteran service members. The event celebrates personal tenacity, perseverance, and the triumph of human spirit.
The Navy Wounded Warrior’s adaptive athletics program is designed to meet the abilities of injured or ill individuals with competitions that help build self-esteem, lower stress levels, and invite service members to rejoin a supportive team environment.
St. Pierre has served in the Coast Guard for nearly 30 years, with 16 duty stations throughout his career, according to an announcement. As he was approaching retirement, he received a diagnosis of atypical early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
St. Pierre enrolled in the Navy Wounded Warrior at Naval Medical Center San Diego, which helped him and his family prepare for transition to retirement in Florida. He attended his first adaptive sports camp in February 2023, rekindling his competitive spirit. St. Pierre previously competed in the 2023 Warrior Games Challenge and medaled in swimming and track.
For more information about the 2024 Warrior Games Challenge, visit dodwarriorgames.com.
Tuesday marks one year since the Titan sub, which was owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact with the Polar Prince, a Canadian research vessel, about one hour and 45 minutes into its voyage in the North Atlantic.
On Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation said in an update that its investigation is a “complex and ongoing effort” that will take longer than initially projected.
“We are working closely with our domestic and international partners to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the incident,” board chair Jason Neubauer said in a statement.
The Marine Board of Investigation said several factors, including the need to contract two salvage missions to secure vital information, have led to necessary delays and extended the original 12-month timeline for the investigation.
“We’re grateful for the international and interagency cooperation which has been vital in recovering, preserving and forensically testing evidence from a remote offshore region and extreme depth,” Neubauer said. “The MBI is committed to ensuring that we fully understand the factors that led to this tragedy in order to prevent similar occurrences in the future.”
This photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions shows a submersible vessel named Titan was used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic.
OceanGate Expeditions via AP
After the Titan sub lost contact with the Polar Prince, a massive international search and rescue effort was launched over several days because of the limited amount of oxygen that would be aboard the sub if it had become trapped beneath the surface.
However, on June 22, 2023, the Coast Guard announced that the sub had experienced a “catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” during its descent. It confirmed that the Titan’s debris was located about 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Those who died in the implosion were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman, billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
OceanGate suspended all operations in early July 2023. The company, which charged $250,000 per person for a voyage aboard the Titan, had been warned of potential safety problems for years.
Lucia Suarez Sang is an associate managing editor at CBSNews.com. Previously, Lucia was the director of digital content at FOX61 News in Connecticut and has previously written for outlets including FoxNews.com, Fox News Latino and the Rutland Herald.
Alameda police and fire personnel are working with the U.S. Coast Guard Friday to find a person who went into the water at Encinal Beach.
Authorities said the call reporting a person in the water came in at 4:33 p.m.
Fire units arrived at Ballena Blvd. and Tidewater Ave. and located an individual in the water. Alameda police were also at the scene.
Fire crews immediately attempted a rescue, but the individual apparently went further into the water. Fire crews have put a dive team into the water to attempt to bring the individual ashore.
So far, they have been unsuccessful. Authorities say they are still looking for the individual and are going to use their Alameda Fire Department sub team in the search. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter is providing air support.
No word yet from authorities about what this person was doing out in the bay or how they got stranded in the water.
A sailor missing for nearly two weeks was found alive off the coast of Washington State’s Cape Flattery by a Good Samaritan two days after the Coast Guard suspended the search for him and one other person.
The two people on the boat had left Washington’s Grays Harbor on Oct. 12 in a 43-foot vessel called Evening. They were meant to return to the area on Oct. 15, the Pacific Northwest Coast Guard said in a social media post on Tuesday The agency searched 14,000 square miles of water before suspending the search on Wenesday.
The unidentified man was found in a life raft that was about 70 miles northwest of Cape Flattery, the Coast Guard said on social media on Thursday. It’s not clear how the good Samaritans found the man, but a photo shared by the Coast Guard shows their boat approaching the life raft. The photo shows two people standing on the edge of the vessel and the missing man sitting up in the raft.
Officials did not name the rescuers but KING-TV identified them as Ryan Planes and his uncle John, from Sooke, British Columbia.
“We pulled him on board. He gave me a big hug and it was emotional,” John told the station.
John told KING-TV the rescued man said he was alone on the raft for 13 days, and after running out of foof, he caught a salmon and ate it to survive.
“We made him breakfast. He drank three bottles of water,” he told the station. “He was pretty hungry, poor guy.”
The rescued man is said to be in stable condition, the Coast Guard said, and was transported to shore by the Canadian Coast Guard and a Canadian rescue agency.
A map shared by the Coast Guard showed where the man was found in relation to where the Evening departed from, with the harbor starred and the life raft’s location marked with a pin.
#BreakingNews (1/2) #UPDATE 1 of the 2 missing mariners was located alive in a life raft approx. 70 miles NW of Cape Flattery, by good Samaritans. The man was transported to shore by @CoastGuardCAN in coordination with @VicJRCC_CCCOS. He’s reported to be in stable condition. pic.twitter.com/Qb2QhwIKb3
