Forty years ago Saturday, the Coast Guard cutter Cuyahoga was cruising north on Chesapeake Bay when at 9:06 p.m. it was struck by a 521-foot Argentine coal freighter.
The Cuyahoga, the oldest ship then in commission in the Coast Guard or Navy, was a training vessel for the Coast Guard Officer Candidate School. During its 51 years of service, it chased rum-runners during Prohibition, escorted presidential yachts and searched for German submarines during World War II.
The 29 men on board the Cuyahoga that night in 1978 included its regular crew, 14 officer candidates and two Indonesian Navy officers.