USCG Coastal Buoy Tender

USCG Coastal Buoy Tender
USCG Coastal Buoy Tender Joshua Appleby WLM-556
USCG Coastal Buoy Tender Katherine Walker WLM-552
Some of the controls and displays of the USCG Coastal Buoy Tender Katherine Walker WLM-552

The United States Coast Guard commissioned a new Keeper-class of coastal buoy tenders in the 1990s that are 175 feet (53 m) in length and named after Lighthouse keepers.

Keeper Class cutters serve the Coast Guard in a variety of missions. Keeper Class tenders are tasked with maintaining aids to navigation (ATON), search and rescue (SAR), law enforcement (LE), migrant interdiction, marine safety inspections, environmental protection and natural resources management. Keeper Class cutters have limited ice breaking capability.

These vessels are 175' long and replaced the WWII era 157' and 133' tenders. The new class of buoy tender cut crew size from 35 and 26, respectively, to 25 saving the already cash strapped Coast Guard financial and personnel resources.

Keeper Class Cutters were built by Marinette Marine of Marinette WI.

Keeper Class cutters are equipped with mechanical Z-drive Azimuth thruster propulsion units instead of the standard propeller and rudder configuration. These mechanical drives are designed to independently rotate 360 degrees. Combined with a thruster in the bow, they enable Keeper Class tenders to dynamically maneuver in a variety of sea states. This creates an extremely maneuverable platform which, when combined with modern navigation aids such as LORAN and GPS allow the Cutter to maintain static positions. This allows the cutter to precisely place an aid to navigation (ATON).

Keeper Class boarding teams are armed with modern small arms.

The following 175-foot WLMs in Service (as of 2006):

Cutter Homeport Namesake
Newport, Rhode Island Ida Lewis
Bayonne, New Jersey Katherine Walker
Rockland, Maine Abbie Burgess
South Portland, Maine Marcus Hanna
Baltimore, Maryland James Rankin
St. Petersburg, Florida Joshua Appleby
Portsmouth, Virginia Frank Drew
Ketchikan, Alaska Anthony Petit
Mobile, Alabama Barbara Mabrity
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania William Tate
Galveston, Texas Harry Claiborne
Atlantic Beach, Florida Maria Bray
Everett, Washington Henry Blake
San Pedro, California George Cobb

See also

Further reading


External links



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