Barbados Coast Guard

The Barbados Coast Guard is the maritime division of the Barbados Defence Force. Its responsibilities are patrolling Barbados' territorial waters as well as drug interdiction and humanitarian and life-saving exercises. The Barbados Coast Guard currently is based at HMBS Willoughby Fort in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados. This base is scheduled to be replaced with a new coast guard base at Spring Garden, and named HMBS Pelican. [cite web | url = http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewsleft.cfm?Record=29790 | title = Historic base decommissioned | | publisher = The Barbados Advocate | accessdate = 2007-08-12] . It consists of a small fleet including its flagship HMBS Trident, HMBS Endeavour (a 40-foot vessel), as well as around 5 patrol vessels.

The usual styling for the Barbados Coast Guard is HMBS which stands for His/Her Majesty's Ship.

The Marine division of the Royal Barbados Police Force also utilized Fort Willoughby. Additionally, the Coast Guard base also accommodates weekly training for the Barbados Sea Cadets (the marine unit of the Barbados Cadet Corps).

Fort Willoughby has been long in existence and has been replaced by a modern Coast Guard Base "HMBS Pelican". HMBS Pelican can be seen while travelling along the Spring Garden Highway in Barbados. This new base has not yet been commissioned but HMBS Willoughby Fort was decommissioned on Saturday, February 3rd 2007.

The Barbados Coast Guard is currently under the command of (OCBCG) Lt.Cdr. E.R. Shurland {citation needed}.

Named after the Barbados Defence Force's (BDF) first chief-of-staff Colonel Leonard Banfield, the vessel docked at the HMBS Pelican, the Coast Guard's new headquarters on Spring Garden, St Michael, around 8 a.m. The Dutch vessel, built by Damen Ships, now takes the Coast Guard's fleet to 11, including the 26-year-old flagship HMBS Trident. "This vessel is a significant addition to the Coast Guard's flotilla and it is expected that it will significantly assist in the safety and security of the waters around Barbados," Commander Ricky Shurland told the WEEKEND NATION.

Both the Leonard C. Banfield and the new headquarters was commissioned in a ceremony on September 14th 2007.

The new vessel is reported to cost about US$6 million (BDS$12 million).

Military sources said yesterday's delivery was the first in a US$37 million package that would include two other vessels of similar class, three 40-foot fast patrol boats, two 30-footers and three 21-foot in-shore patrol craft.

In terms of manpower the Coastguard, which now numbers 127 full-time personnel, would be increased at a rate of about 30 per year over the period 2007 to 2011.

ee also

*Military of Barbados
*His/Her Majesty's Ship

References and sources

SEA-CURITYhttp://bararchive.bits.baseview.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=./pubfiles/bar/archive/2007/September/15/LocalNews/45367.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=HMBS+Pelican&sectionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F1994&enddate=12%2F31%2F2007&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=1&Include