New Book Honors Coast Guard Legend Jack Downey

CHATHAM – There’s no shortage of yarns about Jack Downey. Most stories about the legendary Coast Guardsman were appreciative, a few recollections were less than flattering, and there were likely plenty that could never be put in print. But Downey’s imprint on the Coast Guard — both its procedures and its culture — was as undeniable as the imprint he made on the communities he served, including Chatham.

 His story is told in “New England’s Lifesaver: Coast Guard Legend Master Chief Jack Downey” (History Press, 2025), penned by two former colleagues, retired Coast Guard Capt. William Russell Webster and retired Coast Guard Reserve Capt. Michael Cicalese. 

When he retired in 2008 with the rank of Command Master Chief, Downey capped a legendary career in the Coast Guard that included service on surfboats, cutters and an icebreaker and command positions at various stations. Among his many accomplishments, Downey was the first to receive the Coast Guard's Joshua James "Ancient Keeper" Award for longevity and sheer number of rescues, numbering over 700. He is remembered as a gifted leader, a generous mentor and an affable friend with a salty sense of humor.

Locally, mariners remember Downey as a Coast Guard leader who helped Station Chatham navigate a challenging time when weak leadership and aging rescue boats had led to a lack of public confidence in the service. It was one of many such achievements for Downey, who earned a reputation as a fixer.

Downey’s memoir might have been written sooner, had he accepted Webster’s offer to write it with him, but Downey was intent on doing the job himself — and had even chosen a title, “A Sea of Devotion.” Sadly, he passed away three years ago at the age of 75, apparently without having started the task.

 Webster, the former commander of Coast Guard Group Woods Hole, put out the call for recollections about Downey, and the floodgates opened. 

 “The stories just came in, literally 100 stories within the first month,” he said. Fortunately, Downey had organized his memorabilia well (“ironically, in fishermen’s totes,” Webster said) and assembling the story was relatively easy.

 “Until we got into the book, I'm not sure I realized just [what a] great person that he was,” Cicalese added. 

 The volume is a flattering but candid recollection of Downey’s life and career. A Rhode Islander who grew up on the waterfront, Downey enlisted right out of high school in 1966 and served a number of assignments on shore and at sea. But he became a reservist only a few years later to focus on raising a family, and earning enough money to do so by working with his father as a plumber. He was invited to take command of Station Point Judith, near his home, but only if he returned to active duty, which required that he accept a reduction in rank. He did so, and helped get the station back on track over the next two years, before accepting an assignment aboard the cutter Chase. In 1984 he took command of Station Woods Hole, and then had a stint on an ice-breaking harbor tug before he was called to Chatham.

 “Recent troubles at Station Chatham included a failed rescue of a fishing boat on Chatham Bar,” Webster and Cicalese wrote. “Downey was needed as soon as possible. Several scathing newspaper articles and a town hall meeting demanded that the officer in charge be relieved. It was time for Chief ‘Fix-it’ to do what he did best, again.”

 Part of the trouble was that Station Chatham’s rescue boats were struggling to navigate the famous Chatham Bar, where pounding surf had claimed many vessels. He was tasked with finding a boat that could both pass though the shallow harbor entrance and endure the punishment the bar could mete out on a rescue vessel’s keel, rudder and propeller. The 44-foot lifeboats were being retired, and the Coast Guard brought in a state-of-the-art 47-footer “which we nearly wrecked on the sandy bottom,” Webster recalled. Forty-one foot utility boats didn’t work, either. “We literally tried everything,” he said. Working with Chatham’s Coast Guard civilian liaison, Parker Wiseman, Downey brought Chatham its first jet drive rescue boat, the 28-foot LeCompte, “which was a novelty for Chatham,” Webster said. Jet drives are now the preferred tool for rescue boats operating on the bar.

 Downey was also focused on community outreach, working directly with the local fishing fleet to improve safety and deepen the trust between local mariners and the Coast Guard. Whether in Chatham, on Nantucket or at Point Judith, Downey stressed programs that tied the local unit to the community.

 “He never publicized those things,” Cicalese said, nor did he seek accolades for his other achievements. “Downey was to the Coast Guard what Herreschoff would’ve been to the sailing community, or maybe Edison to electricity. He really pushed it.”

 “New England’s Lifesaver” chronicles Downey’s other notable accomplishments, including his participation in the investigation of an accident at Station Niagara, N.Y., that left two Coast Guardsmen dead after their 21-foot rescue boat swamped in Lake Ontario. Working with Webster, Downey helped formulate 22 specific safety recommendations that led to service-wide changes to the way small rescue boats are operated. 

In addition to being an innovative problem solver, Downey had another key trait: adaptability.

 He demonstrated this many times, as when he was suddenly called in to be officer in charge of the Cutter Hammerhead, which was at the time a “state-of-art cutter that drove like a video game and launched and recovered a small boat through a stern notch,” Webster said. “All new to him, but he leaned on the existing crew and did beautifully. In my research for the book, I found out he later commanded or assisted two other Hammerhead 87-foot cutters, including one that played a critical role off New York City after 9/11.”

 When Downey reluctantly accepted an assignment working with cadets at the Coast Guard Academy, he took the opportunity to teach the next generation of rescuers about the Pendleton rescue in 1952, even bringing the historic lifeboat CG36500 from Cape Cod to New London, Conn., to bring the lesson to life. Downey was also a technical advisor for Disney's 2016 feature film “The Finest Hours.”

 “This was just his last chapter of honoring his mentor and friend Bernie Webber,” Webster said. “He brought Bernie back to the [Chatham] station each summer to interact with his crews in very private ways, even starting a tradition that survives to this day with new chiefs wearing Webber's collar devices until the next chiefs were made.”