USCGC Sweetgum

Last updated

UA 46.01 US Coast Guard Collection.jpg
USCGC Sweetgum hoisting a Martin PBM Mariner
History
Flag of the United States Coast Guard.svgUnited States
NameSweetgum
Namesake Sweetgum
Builder Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corp.
Laid down21 February 1943
Launched15 April 1943
Commissioned20 November 1943
Decommissioned2 February 1990
Recommissioned10 January 1992
Decommissioned15 February 2002
ReclassifiedWLB-309, 1965
Homeport
Identification
Honors and
awards
See Awards
FateTransferred to Panama, 2002
Flag of Panama.svgPanama
NameIndependencia
Namesake Independencia
Acquired2002
Homeport Noel Rodriguez
Identification
StatusActive
General characteristics
Class and type Mesquite-class buoy tender
Displacement935 t (920 long tons)
Length180 ft (55 m)
Beam37 ft (11 m)
Draft12 feet (3.7 m)
Propulsion2 × Cooper-Bessemer GN8 diesel engines
Speed13  kn (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Range8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph)
Complement6 officers and 74 enlisted
Armament

USCGC Sweetgum (WAGL-309) was a Mesquite-class buoy tender built in 1943 and operated by the United States Coast Guard. She was later transferred to Panama as SMN Independencia (A-401). The ship was named after a North American tree of the genus Liquidambar having prickly spherical fruit clusters and fragrant sap. [1]

Contents

Construction and career

Sweetgum was laid down by the Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corp., in Duluth, Minnesota on 21 February 1943. She was launched on 15 April 1943 and later commissioned on 20 November 1943. She was then assigned to Seventh District Miami, Florida. [2]

Service in the United States Coast Guard

During World War II, she operated around the Panama Canal Zone. [3] On 22 September 1944, she hoisted a US Navy Martin PBM Mariner onto the ship, from the which grounded on a coral reef of Carti Village, Gulf of San Blas, Panama. [4] The ship was reassigned to Mayport, Florida in September 1946. [2]

In September 1955, the ship evacuated the population of Florida after 1955 Atlantic hurricane season. She transported 43 tons of marijuana that had been seized in the Bahamas to Miami. [2]

In 1965, she was re-designated to WLB-309. In August and September 1967, she was part of a research effort to determine the pollution hazard posed by the almost one hundred oil tankers sunk near the U.S. coast during World War II. [5]

Sweetgum took part in the salvaging of the remains of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster that were scattered in the sea after shuttle exploded 75 seconds after liftoff on 28 January 1986. The ship features a long-reach mechanical arm that allows it to pick up and place objects from the ship's deck out to sea. That was the reason why they used it in the work of the Challenger. [6]

The Sweetgum was decommissioned on 2 February 1990 but was recommissioned again on 10 January 1992 and deployed to Mobile, Alabama.

Service in the Panamanian National Navy

On 15 February 2002, Sweetgum was put out of service and sold to Panama as SMN Independencia (A-401). [7] [1] She is home-ported at Noel Rodriguez Naval Base. [6] On 18 March 2007, it was reported that the ship would undergo repairs that costs more than $100,000, at a shipyard in Colombia. [6]

Awards

Related Research Articles

USCGC <i>Mesquite</i> (WLB-305) Seagoing buoy tender scuttled in Lake Superior

USCGC Mesquite (WAGL/WLB-305) was the lead ship in the Mesquite class of seagoing buoy tenders operated by the United States Coast Guard. She served in the Pacific during World War II, and spent the rest of her Coast Guard career in the Great Lakes. She ran aground and was wrecked in December 1989 off the Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. She was scuttled nearby as a recreational diving attraction.

USCGC <i>Acushnet</i> (WMEC-167) United States Coast Guard cutter

USCGC Acushnet (WMEC-167) was a cutter of the United States Coast Guard, homeported in Ketchikan, Alaska. She was originally USS Shackle (ARS-9), a Diver-class rescue and salvage ship commissioned by the United States Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for coming to the aid of stricken vessels and received three battle stars during World War II, before a long career with the Coast Guard. Acushnet patrolled the waters of the North Pacific and was one of the last World War II era ships on active duty in the US fleet upon her retirement in 2011.

SLNS <i>Samudura</i> (P261)

SLNS Samudura (P261) is a Sri Lanka Navy Offshore Patrol Vessel. Originally commissioned by the United States Coast Guard in 1968 as the medium endurance cutter USCGC Courageous, she was donated to Sri Lanka in 2004 and commissioned on February 19, 2005.

SS V.A. Fogg was a modified T2 tanker built in 1943, as SS Four Lakes. After service in World War II, she was eventually sold into private ownership. She was renamed V.A. Fogg in 1971, shortly before she exploded and sank off Freeport, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Caribbean</span> 1941-1945 naval campaign between Allied and Axis forces in World War II

The Battle of the Caribbean refers to a naval campaign waged during World War II that was part of the Battle of the Atlantic, from 1941 to 1945. German U-boats and Italian submarines attempted to disrupt the Allied supply of oil and other material. They sank shipping in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico and attacked coastal targets in the Antilles. Improved Allied anti-submarine warfare eventually drove the Axis submarines out of the Caribbean region.

USCGC <i>Madrona</i> (WLB-302)

USCGC Madrona (WLB-302) was a U.S. Coast Guard 180 foot seagoing buoy tender. Madrona was built by the Zenith Dredge Company of Duluth, Minnesota at a cost of $949,144.

USS <i>Unimak</i> (AVP-31) Barnegat-class small seaplane tender

USS Unimak (AVP-31) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1943 to 1946 that saw service in World War II. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard as the cutter USCGC Unimak (WAVP-379), later WHEC-379, WTR-379, and again WHEC-379, from 1949 to 1975 and from 1977 to 1988.

USS <i>Enoree</i> (AO-69) Oiler of the United States Navy

USS Enoree (AO-69) was a Chiwawa-class oiler constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the only U.S. Navy ship named for the Enoree River in South Carolina.

USS Sequatchie (AOG-21) was a Mettawee-class gasoline tanker acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet, and to remote Navy stations.

USS Narraguagas (AOG-32) was a Mettawee-class gasoline tanker acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of transporting gasoline to warships in the fleet, and to remote Navy stations.

USCGC <i>Androscoggin</i> (WHEC-68)

USCGC Androscoggin (WHEC-68) was an Owasco-class high endurance cutter built for World War II service with the United States Coast Guard. The war ended before the ship was completed and consequently Androscoggin did not see wartime service until the Vietnam war.

USCGC <i>Tallapoosa</i> (WPG-52) United States Coast Guard cutter

USCGC Tallapoosa (WPG-52) was a United States Coast Guard cutter of the Tallapoosa-class and was designed to replace the revenue cutter Winona. Her hull was reinforced for light icebreaking. She was initially stationed at Mobile, Alabama, with cruising grounds to Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana and Fowey Rocks, Florida. During World War I she escorted convoys out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. After the war she served with the Bering Sea Patrol before returning to Savannah, Georgia before World War II. During the war Tallapoosa assisted with convoy escort duty and anti-submarine patrols.

USCGC <i>Tampa</i> (1912) US Coast Guard ship

USCGC Tampa (ex-Miami) was a Miami-class cutter that initially served in the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, followed by service in the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy. Tampa was used extensively on the International Ice Patrol and also during the Gasparilla Carnival at Tampa, Florida and other regattas as a patrol vessel. It was sunk with the highest American naval combat casualty loss in World War I.

USS <i>Matagorda</i> (AVP-22) Tender of the United States Navy

USS Matagorda (AVP-22/AG-122) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender in commission from 1941 to 1946 that saw service in World War II. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard as the cutter USCGC Matagorda (WAVP-373), later WHEC-373, from 1949 to 1967.

USS <i>Rockaway</i> (AVP-29) Tender of the United States Navy

USS Rockaway (AVP-29), later AG-123, was a United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender in commission from 1943 to 1946. She served in both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean during World War II. In 1948, she was loaned to the United States Coast Guard, in which she served as the cutter USCGC Rockaway (WAVP-377), later WAGO-377, WHEC-377, and WOLE-377, from 1949 to 1972.

USRC Forward was a revenue cutter constructed for the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service in 1882 by Pusey & Jones shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware. She was the second Revenue Cutter Service vessel named Forward and was named for Walter Forward, the fifteenth United States Secretary of the Treasury. The iron-hulled vessel originally cost US$72,750 and was powered by a two-cylinder steam engine with a topsail schooner brigantine sail pattern. Although Forward was considered a model ship at the time of its construction, it was severely underpowered and had unreliable machinery. The cost of repairs in the first fifteen years of operation was US$52,000.

USCGC <i>Gentian</i> (WLB-290)

For other ships of the same name, see ARC San Andres

USCGC <i>Bernard C. Webber</i>

USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101) is the first of the United States Coast Guard's 58 Sentinel-class cutters. Like most of her sister ships, she replaced a 110-foot (34 m) Island-class patrol boat. Bernard C. Webber, and the next five vessels in the class, Richard Etheridge, William Flores, Robert Yered, Margaret Norvell, and Paul Clark, are all based in Miami, Florida.

USCGC <i>Point Thatcher</i> (WPB-82314) United States Coast Guard cutter

USCGC Point Thatcher (WPB-82314) was an 82-foot (25 m) Point class cutter constructed at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1961 for use as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat. Since the Coast Guard policy in 1961 was not to name cutters under 100 feet (30 m) in length, it was designated as WPB-82314 when commissioned and acquired the name Point Thatcher in January 1964 when the Coast Guard started naming all cutters longer than 65 feet (20 m). Point Thatcher was unique because it was the only cutter that was built in the class that was powered using gas turbine main drive engines.

USCGC <i>White Sumac</i> White-class buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard

USS YF-416 was an American YF-257-class covered lighter built in 1943 for service in World War II. She was later acquired by the United States Coast Guard and renamed USCGC White Sumac (WAGL-540).

References

  1. 1 2 Record, Historic American Engineering. "U.S. Coast Guard Cutter SWEETGUM, Mobile, Mobile County, AL". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 U.S. COAST GUARD CUTTER SWEETGUM (PDF). National Park Service. Washington (state): U.S. Department of the Interior. p. 3.
  3. Sweetgum Fought Battle of Coco Solo. U.S. Coast Guard Magazine. July 1956. p. 34.
  4. "UA 46.01 US Coast Guard Collection". public1.nhhcaws.local. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  5. Coast Guard Begins Search for Sunken Oil Tanker. Vol. 64. Commander's Digest. 1967. p. 4.
  6. 1 2 3 "Barco Independencia será renovado | La Prensa Panamá". www.prensa.com (in Spanish). 18 March 2007. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  7. Jeff Beach, interview by author, 10 February 2002, Washington, D.C.