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Ten and a half months before the RUSH made the first at-sea seizure, the USRC Oliver Wolcott made what appears to be the service’s first solo opium seizure — oddly enough, ashore. On Jan. 14, 1886, a landing party from the cutter found 3,011 ½ pounds hidden in barrels stored at the Kasaan Bay Salmon Fishery, in southern Alaska. The opium had been concealed there by the SS Idaho — a coastal freighter that ran a route between ports in the Washington Territory, Canada, and southern Alaska. Several weeks earlier, officers and crew of the Wolcott had assisted Customs Officers at Port Townsend, Washington Territory with the seizure of several hundred pounds of opium from the Idaho. The vessel had been released, since no ties between the opium and the owner or officers of the steamer could be proven. However, a disgruntled crewman from the Idaho —upset after having been fired for missing movement after a night of partying on New Year’s Eve — subsequently provided intelligence on the location of additional contraband. Using this intelligence, the Wolcott raced almost 700 miles to Kasaan Bay from Port Townsend to seize the opium before it could be moved by the Idaho.
Three years later the Wolcott would make the service’s first at-sea interdiction that included seizure of both opium and the vessel smuggling it, and the arrest of its crew. Prompted by intelligence from customs agents in Victoria, on Jan. 10, 1889, the Wolcott steamed from Port Townsend to nearby Port Discovery Bay. Once there, the cutter hid behind Clallam Spit, just inside the entrance to the bay. That evening, when the British sloop Emerald entered, one of Wolcott’s boats shot out to intercept it. The Emerald’s Master and crew immediately began tossing packages overboard, but the Wolcott’s boarding party quickly scrambled aboard and took control. They found nearly 400 pounds of opium on deck. A subsequent search of the vessel also revealed 12 undocumented Chinese migrants hidden aboard.
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The Emerald’s master and crew were arrested, and the vessel and opium were seized. The cutter steamed to Port Townsend the next morning, where the vessel, contraband, prisoners, and Chinese Nationals were transferred to customs officials. The cutter then returned to Discovery Bay and recovered an additional ten pounds of opium that had been jettisoned during the interdiction.
Outdated, Outnumbered, and Outrun
Although the revenue cutters on the west coast did cut into the illegal maritime flow of opium into the Pacific Northwest, they were outnumbered and often outrun by smugglers, especially in Puget Sound and surrounding waters. In response, in 1896 the RMS added two 65-ft steam-powered harbor launches — the Guard and the Scout — capable of making up to 15 knots, to the Port Townsend force. The addition of what would today be called fast coastal interceptors, certainly increased the interdiction capability in the region.
However, Capt. Dorr Tozier, who commanded the small flotilla at the time, found that despite the new interceptors and continued intelligence support from the U.S. Consulate and treasury agents in Victoria, his vessels often still found themselves in hopeless stern chases of smugglers. The speed advantage of his harbor launches was not enough to overcome the inability to coordinate the underway movements of his force—until the advent of radio (then called wireless telegraph).
Recognizing the potential advantages of this new technology, CAPT Tozier brokered a deal in 1903 between the newly formed Pacific Wireless Company and the local customs collector. According to the terms of the agreement, Pacific Wireless would install and operate on a test basis, wireless telegraph sets aboard the USRC Grant, (which had replaced the Wolcott), at the Port Townsend Customs House, and at a substation at Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island. This allowed Tozier to alert his launches back in port to intercept incoming smugglers that he had detected while patrolling Puget Sound aboard the Grant. Based on the success of this experiment, Congress later appropriated funds to install wireless aboard the Coast Guard’s 12 cruising cutters.
Displacement of Smuggling Ventures
Adoption of this new technology allowed near-real time coordination of the cutters’ efforts and displaced many smuggling ventures to the land border with Canada. Seizures began to be made as far east as international the rail crossing in northern New York state. When Canada finally outlawed opium in July 1908, even more traffic was displaced from the region. The loss of a secure base for production and the added threat from Canadian law enforcement motivated smugglers to move much of their operations to Mexico.
However, the existence of a large customer base in the Pacific Northwest kept smugglers from totally abandoning the region. Maritime drug smuggling continued throughout World War I, with the Scout making multiple seizures of opium, morphine, and undocumented aliens along the west coast from 1914 to 1917.
By the start of Prohibition in 1920, smugglers had expanded their illegal cargoes to include heroin, morphine, and cocaine, and added new maritime routes from Cuba to the American Gulf and Florida coasts. The smuggling of drugs continued throughout Prohibition—although at a lower volume than alcohol—but little is known of the practice during the World War II era.
Maritime drug smuggling would remain low-key until the early 1970’s. By that time, Marijuana had become the preferred recreational drug of Americans. Accordingly, it quickly became the preferred cargo of smugglers. Marijuana would dominate the market until the mid-1980’s, when the shipment of cocaine began to displace it.
Throughout the entire period, the Coast Guard would continually improve interdiction effectiveness by supplementing its already extensive use of intelligence with the rapid adoption of evolving technology — including radio, air surveillance, and radar.
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