DETROIT—The U.S. Coast Guard is scheduled to formally recognize two employees of a St. Clair Shores marine towing company Wednesday for saving nine people when they responded to a mayday call after two boats collided and sank in Lake St. Clair July 2, 2010.
During the ceremony, Capt. Jeff Ogden, commander of Coast Guard Sector Detroit, will present Daniel McAndrew and Terry McGregor, of Marine One Towing, with the Captain David P. Dobbins Award for excellence in search and rescue.
The Captain David P. Dobbins Award is presented in recognition of outstanding actions accomplished while prosecuting search and rescue missions on the Great Lakes. It links the outstanding performance of today to the heritage of Dobbins, the first superintendent of the U.S. Lifesaving Service’s Great Lakes Ninth District in 1876. Dobbins, a native of Erie, Pa., and a schooner master, distinguished himself by performing and organizing heroic rescue efforts for the schooner Oneida in 1853, the schooner Comet in 1860, and many others even before the Lifesaving Service was officially established.
Interested in improving early rescue craft and solving the problems stemming from arduous rescue duties, Dobbins developed an innovative lifeboat that was self-righting, self-bailing, and less than half the weight of earlier designs. The Dobbins lifeboat was quicker, more maneuverable, and cost less than half of other rescue craft at the time, and elements of his design remain incorporated into today’s rescue craft.
