Coast Guard has a long, diligent history in Wilmington, despite having no vessel here now

Wilmington hasn't been home to a U.S. Coast Guard vessel for more than four years, but the seafaring service's history in the city remains.

In fact, Wilmington's Coast Guard history goes all the way back to the first president of the United States, George Washington, who commissioned the first 10 U.S. Revenue Cutters in 1791 under the recommendation of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.

The modern-day U.S. Coast Guard dates to 1915, when the service was formed by merging the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service.

According to the USCG, the cutter Diligence was built in Washington, North Carolina, in 1791 and initially sailed out of New Bern before moving permanently to Wilmington in 1792.

The boat's master, Thomas Cooke, lived on South Fourth Street near the current-day Basilica Shrine of St. Mary and disappeared with his son in 1796, both rumored victims of payback dealt by smugglers whose goods they had confiscated.

According to a story in the since-shuttered Salt Magazine that quotes Coast Guard historian William H. Thiesen, three other ships bearing the Diligence name would soon follow the Diligence I, all of them based in Wilmington and each one bigger and faster than the previous cutter.

The Diligence II served in the so-called Quasi-War with France (1798-1801) and is on permanent display as a full-size replica at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

Diligence III sank in a hurricane off the Outer Banks in 1806, and Diligence IV participated in the War of 1812. The Diligence line ended temporarily when Diligence IV was decommissioned in the 1830s. The Diligence V was commissioned in 1919 but was never stationed out of Wilmington.

Other Coast Guard vessels to be stationed in Wilmington over the decades include the McCulloch, originally the Wachapreague, which was stationed here from 1966 to 1972.

From 1947 until 1972, the Coast Guard Cutter Mendota was stationed in Wilmington. It participated in law enforcement and search and rescue missions. It was decommissioned in 1973 and sold for scrap in 1978.

Probably the best-known Coast Guard vessel to have been stationed in Wilmington is the sixth Diligence, which was originally commissioned in 1964 and then stationed in Wilmington in 1992 after a $28 million overhaul. The Diligence remained here until 2020, when it left for the U.S. Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, where it remains.

Wilmington is still an official Coast Guard City, having been re-designated as such for the fourth time in 2019 after first receiving the designation in 2003, the fourth U.S. city to receive the title. Cities are supposed to reapply for designation every five years.

The Coast Guard still maintains stations in the Wilmington area in Wrightsville Beach and Oak Island.