Barbados Coast Guard | |
---|---|
Founded | 1979 |
Country | Barbados |
Type | Coast Guard |
Part of | Barbados Defence Force |
Motto(s) | Per Deo Per Mare (By God, By SEA) |
Website | Official website |
Commanders | |
Commander-in-Chief | Dame Sandra Mason, President of Barbados |
Commanding Officer | Commander Derrick Brathwaite |
Fleet Master Chief | Master Chief Petty Officer 1 Ryan Nurse |
Insignia | |
Naval and Coast Guard Ensign |
The Barbados Coast Guard is the maritime element of the Barbados Defence Force. Its responsibilities include territorial defence, patrolling Barbados' territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as well as conducting maritime law enforcement, counter-narcotic, search and rescue, fisheries and environmental protection and the enforcement of port & harbour regulations. The Barbados Coast Guard currently is based at its headquarters at BCGS PELICAN in Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados. The base consists of a partially enclosed base for the coast guard fleet to dock. It consists of a small fleet, including its flagship BCGS TRIDENT.
Before Barbados became a republic the usual styling of the Barbados Coast Guard was HMBS which stood for Her Majesty's Barbadian Ship. After republic status, vessels will now be known as Barbados Coast Guard Ship (BCGS). [1]
The Marine division of the Barbados Police Service is co-located with the Barbados Coast Guard. Additionally, the Coast Guard base is home to the Barbados Cadet Corps Sea Cadets (the marine unit of the Barbados Cadet Corps).
BCGS PELICAN can be seen while travelling along the Spring Garden Highway in Barbados. This new base was commissioned in September 2007 and is an ultra-modern complex that caters to the maritime operational and training needs of the Barbados Defence Force and the other forces of the Regional Security System.
The Barbados Coast Guard includes the following equipment:
With the declaration of the Republic on 30 November 2021, HMBS was replaced as part of the removal of symbols of the monarchy with BCGS.
In 2007 and 2008 the Coast Guard accepted delivery of three Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessels, the BCGS Leonard C Banfield, BCGS Rudyard Lewis and BCGS Trident. [2] [3]
Named after the Barbados Defence Force's (BDF) first chief-of-staff Colonel Leonard Banfield, the vessel docked at the BCGS Pelican, the Coast Guard's new headquarters on Spring Garden, St Michael, around 8 a.m. The Dutch vessel, built by Damen Group, now takes the Coast Guard's fleet to 11, including the 26-year-old flagship BCGS 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," said Commander Errington Shurland.
Both the Leonard C. Banfield and the new headquarters were commissioned in a ceremony on September 14, 2007. The new vessel is reported to cost about US$6 million (BDS$12 million).
Military sources said the 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 Coast Guard, which now numbers 127 full-time personnel, would be increased at a rate of about 30 per year over the period 2007 to 2011. [4]
A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are inflated with air to a high pressure so as to give the sides resilient rigidity along the boat's topsides. The design is stable, light, fast and seaworthy. The inflated collar acts as a life jacket, ensuring that the vessel retains its buoyancy, even if the boat is taking on water. The RIB is an evolutionary development of the inflatable boat with a rubberized fabric bottom that is stiffened with flat boards within the collar to form the deck or floor of the boat.
A patrol boat is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and they generally range in size. They may be operated by a nation's navy, coast guard, police, or customs, and may be intended for marine, estuarine, or river environments.
The Damen Group is a Dutch defence, shipbuilding, and engineering conglomerate company based in Gorinchem, Netherlands.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) is the military of the Bahamas. Since the Bahamas does not have an army or an air force, its navy composes the entirety of its armed forces. Under The Defence Act, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force has been mandated to defend the Bahamas, protect its territorial integrity, patrol its waters, provide assistance in times of disaster, maintain order in conjunction with the law enforcement agencies of the Bahamas, and carry out any such duties as determined by the National Security Council. The Defence Force is also a member of CARICOM's Regional Security Task Force. The task force has seen action in the United Nations mandate in Haiti 1994.
HMBS Bahamas (P-60), along with sister ship HMBS Nassau (P-61), is a 198 foot Offshore Patrol Vessel delivered to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force on 12 January 1999. Both vessels were built by Moss Point Marine of Escatawpa, Mississippi to a design by Vosper International Ltd, Naval Architects and Designers, Glasgow, UK. Bahamas serves the RBDF by patrolling Bahamian waters in anti-poaching and illegal immigration control missions, notably interdicting Haitian vessels, as well as drug enforcement missions in cooperation with the United States Coast Guard and Drug Enforcement Administration as part of Operation Bahamas, Turks and Caicos (OPBAT).
The Hero-class patrol vessels, previously the Mid-Shore Patrol Vessel Project, is a series of nine patrol vessels constructed by Halifax Shipyards for the Canadian Coast Guard. Based on the Dutch Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessel, construction began in 2011 and the first vessel entered service in 2012. The vessels are assigned to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada, used for coastal patrol duties.
The UKBF 42m Customs Cutter, formerly HMRC 42m Customs Cutter & UKBA 42m Customs Cutter, is a class of four patrol vessels, derived from the Dutch Damen Stan Patrol 4207 design, operated by the UK Border Force.
The Dutch shipbuilding firm The Damen Group, designs and manufactures a wide variety of vessels, including a range of related patrol vessels known generally as the Damen Stan Patrol vessels.
HMBS Leonard C Banfield is patrol vessel of the Barbados Coast Guard. She was commissioned on 14 September 2007. She is built to the design of the Damen Group's Stan 4207 patrol vessel, a class of 42-metre (138 ft) 240 ton vessels.
Iliria is an Iliria-class patrol vessel of the Albanian Coast Guard, built in Gorinchem, Netherlands by Damen Group. The class takes the name of the ship itself as it is its first. While the name itself is based on Illyria, an ancient region where today's Albania is part. The ship was commissioned and entered in service in 2008.
Orik is a patrol vessel of the Albanian Navy Brigade, built by the Damen Group in the Pasha Liman naval shipyard. She was the second Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessel to be built, and was commissioned in 2011. She was built in Albania.
The County class is a class of offshore patrol vessels built for the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard (JDF). Based on the Dutch Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessel, the first vessel entered service in 2005. Three were originally purchased, but only one remains in service with the JDF. In 2017, an additional two vessels were purchased and both remain in service as of 2023. The Jamaican vessels are equipped with a stern launching ramp, capable of deploying and retrieving a small jet boat, for rescue or pursuit. The vessels' bridge electronics were supplied by Alphatron Marine.
The Dutch shipbuilding firm The Damen Group, designs and manufactures a range of patrol vessels, of various sizes, including the Damen Stan 4207 Patrol Vessels. The Damen Stan patrol vessel designs' names include a four digit code, where the first two digits are the vessel's length, in metres, and the second two digits are its width.
HMBS Lignum Vitae is the first of four Damen Stan 3007 patrol vessels commissioned by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. She was projected to be ready for delivery to the Bahamas in June 2015.
The HMBS Arthur Dion Hanna is the first of four Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessels commissioned by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. She was built in the Netherlands, and delivered to the Bahamas in May 2014.
HBMS Cascarilla is the second of four Damen Stan 3007 patrol vessels commissioned by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.
Iliria-class patrol vessels is an Albanian Coast Guard class of patrol vessels, that is based on the Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessel design. The first ship of this class Iliria, from which the class takes its name, was produced in Gorinchem, Netherlands by Damen Group and was commissioned in 2008. The other three vessels were built locally starting from 2009 to 2014 in Albania by the state-owned Pashaliman Shipyard. Over a dozen navies, coast guards and other government agencies operate vessels based on this design. While some of those vessels are equipped for purely civilian patrols, the Albanian ships are armed with a remote-controlled 20mm Nexter M621 NARWHAL cannon.
The Warrior-class inshore patrol vessel is a class of multi-mission inshore patrol vessels (MMIPVs) built for the South African Navy, and are intended to replace the Warrior-class OPVs between 2022 and 2024. All three vessels are named after historical South African 'warriors' who had a significant impact on the development of the country.
Captain Hugh Mulzac is a County-class offshore patrol vessel of the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard. Built for the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard as HMJS Middlesex in 2005, the vessel was purchased in 2019 by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It operates in the territorial waters of the island nation, performing maritime security and search and rescue missions. It is the second ship to be named for Hugh Mulzac, a Vincentian native who was the first African-American commercial ship captain, commanding the SS Booker T. Washington in World War II.