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During World War II, 649 Allied survivors of over 40 German U-boat attacks were rescued and landed in 16 ports in New England. Nantucket received more survivors than any other port in southern New England, with 90 merchant sailors landed all during two frenetic weeks in the spring of 1942, rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter General Greene. Because of the exigencies of war, these men mostly arrived on island in darkness and were given round-the-clock security details before being whisked to Newport by the US Coast Guard Cutter General Greene. A number of them were Chinese, African, and European. After a failed stint as a museum ship in Newburyport, the Greene was apprehended by her former USCG colleagues in 1979, when Guatemalan drug kingpins named her Belmont.

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