Rockland Coast Guard City

Our Community - Past & Present

Coast Guard Station Rockland

The U. S. Coast Guard has a long and rich heritage of service in the Penobscot Bay area. Earlier in this century, several lighthouses and lifeboat stations served local mariners. The Coast Guard Station Pier, formerly known as the Coast Guard Moorings, is located on two parcels of land at the end of Tillson Avenue in downtown Rockland. Prior to World War II the Coast Guard used the pier facility to moor vessels that worked in the area.

The pier was acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II as a base for its coastal patrol boats and turned over to the Coast Guard in January 1944. After the war the Coast Guard established a Group Command in Rockland to oversee operations. The Coast Guard purchased the 106 year old “Bird Block” building, extensively renovated it, and it became the home of the station offices, unaccompanied personnel housing, galley and exchange in 1982. Coast Guard Moorings has been used by many Coast Guard Cutters over the years and now serves the ABBIE BURGESS, THUNDER BAY, TACKLE and Station small boats.

THUNDER BAY is a 140’ tug. The vessel is named after a bay on the east coast of Michigan in northern Lake Huron. In August 1988 THUNDER BAY was relocated to her current homeport of Rockland, Maine. The vessel is a true multi-mission Cutter. In addition to domestic and international icebreaking the vessel performs lighthouse maintenance and restoration throughoutNew England, services floating aids to navigation, conducts search and rescue, participates in Ports and Waterways Coastal Security patrols, and assists in Marine Environmental Protection.
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ABBIE BURGESS is the third 175ft Keeper Class Coastal Buoy Tender. It is now one of fourteen Keeper Class Buoy Tenders serving the Coast Guard. ABBIE BURGESS is equipped with excellent technology in computer navigation and buoy positioning. At full displacement ABBIE BURGESS travels at a roaring 12 knots. At 10 knots ABBIE's range is 2,000 miles and she can be underway for five days before replenishing. The crew of the ABBIE BURGESS is responsible for 336 lighted and unlighted floating aids and also helps service aids from other Coast Guard units when necessary. NOAA (National Oceanographic Atmospheric Association) has also called on ABBIE BURGESS to help them with their offshore weather buoys.

TACKLE is a 65’ harbor tug. Tenacity and skill is the name of the game when it comes to staying on top of icebreaking on the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, something the TACKLE, along with its fellow cutters, the 140-foot THUNDER BAY from Rockland, the 65-foot BRIDLE from Southwest Harbor and the 65-foot SHACKLE from South Portland, excel at with great pride and consistency. Together this black-hulled convoy of icebreakers fulfills the Coast Guard’s mission to clear a navigable path through frozen rivers, ensuring that important commerce interests can reach their destination or that critical flood control measures are enacted, all for the good and well-being of Maine residents and our nation as a whole. The TACKLE also maintains 34 Aids to Navigation, including 4 lighthouses.

Rockland U.S. Coast Guard Units

CG Station Rockland	CWO Sebastian Arnsdorf	207-596-6667
USCGC THUNDER BAY	LT Jerry Smith Jr	207-596-6763
USCGC ABBIE BURGESS	CW04 Paul Dupuis	207-594-2663
USCGC TACKLE	BMC Jesse Deery	207-594-7954

United States Coast Guard History

The United States Coast Guard, one of the country's five armed services, is a unique agency of the federal government.  We trace our history back to 4 August 1790, when the first Congress authorized the construction of ten vessels to enforce tariff and trade laws, prevent smuggling, and protect the collection of the federal revenue.  Known variously as the Revenue Marine and the Revenue Cutter Service, we expanded in size and responsibilities as the nation grew.  

The modern Coast Guard can be said to date to 1915, when the Revenue Cutter Service merged with the United States Life-Saving Service and Congress formalized the existence of the new organization. In 1939, the U.S. Lighthouse Service was brought under its purview..  Later, in 1946, Congress permanently transferred the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation to the Coast Guard, thereby placing merchant marine licensing and merchant vessel safety under our purview.

Coast Guard. In 1967, the Coast Guard moved from the Department of the Treasury to the newly formed Department of Transportation, an arrangement that lasted until it was placed under the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 as part of legislation designed to more efficiently protect American interests following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The United States Coast Guard Academy is a four year service academy located in New London, Connecticut. About 225 cadets graduate each year, receiving a bachelor's degree and a commission as an Ensigns in the Coast Guard. Graduates are obligated to serve five years on active duty. Most graduates are assigned to duty aboard a Coast Guard cutter after graduation, either as Deck Watch Officers (DWOs) or as Engineer Officers in Training (EOITs). Newly enlisted personnel are sent to 8 weeks of Basic Training at the Coast Guard Training Center Cape May in Cape May, New Jersey. The balance of the eight week boot camp is spent in learning teamwork and developing physical skills. An introduction of how the Coast Guard operates with special emphasis on the Coast Guard's Core Values is an important part of the training.

In times of peace we operate as part of the Department of Homeland Security, serving as the nation's front-line agency for enforcing our laws at sea, protecting our coastline and ports, and saving life.  In times of war, or on direction of the President, we serve under the Navy Department.

Rockland, Maine History

Rockland is a city in Knox County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 7,609. It is the county seat of Knox County. It was settled in 1769, and was originally part of Thomaston, Maine. In 1848 it became a separate town named East Thomaston, and was chartered as a city in 1854.

Rockland has always benefited from a unique combination of geography and economics that has made it one of the most beautiful and practical destinations on the coast of Maine. Its nearly 8,000 residents live at the heart of Midcoast Maine, an area world famous for its mountainous and rocky shore with hundreds of harbors and inlets, and for some of the best cruising waters anywhere for sailing and boating for pleasure or sport. A nearly mile-long granite breakwater protects Rockland Harbor and lighthouse making it one of the finest shipping and recreational boating harbors on the East Coast of the United States.

Shipbuilding, lime processing, granite quarrying, and commercial fishing and lobstering have all figured in Rockland’s industrial past. The community’s proud past survives in many ways, including a newly restored and enlarged Carnegie library, traditional but modernized health care facilities, new and renovated schools and an incredible mix of traditional residential styles of architecture that rivals the historic homes of many larger cities.

Rockland is also an officially designated micropolitan area, and has made several "best cities and towns to live" lists in recent years. Since the early 1990s, Rockland has seen a shift in its economy away from the fishery and toward a service center city. It has also seen a large increase in tourism and the downtown has transformed into one of unique shops, boutiques, fine dining and art galleries. Rockland is the commercial center of the midcoast Maine region, with many historic inns, a coffee roaster, a food co-op and is also home to the Farnsworth Art Museum.