United States Coast Guard Career
On 17 January 1920, Prohibition was instituted by law in the United States. Soon, the smuggling of alcoholic beverages along the coastlines of the United States became widespread and blatant. The Treasury Department eventually determined that the United States Coast Guard simply did not have the ships to constitute a successful patrol. To cope with the problem, President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 authorized the transfer from the Navy to the Coast Guard of twenty old destroyers that were in reserve and out of commission. Ericsson was activated and acquired by the Coast Guard on 7 June 1924.
Designated CG-5, Ericsson was commissioned on 28 May 1925, and joined the "Rum Patrol" to aid in the attempt to enforce prohibition laws. On 11 April 1926, she captured the rum-runner Atalanta. During her time in the Coast Guard, Ericsson's gunners were awarded the USCG Gunnery Trophy for Destroyers for 1925–26 and 1926–27. Ericsson was decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 30 April 1930, and returned to the U.S. Navy on 23 May 1932. She was scrapped and her salvaged material sold on 22 August 1934 in accordance with the London Naval Treaty.
Read more about this topic: USS Ericsson (DD-56)
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