| Coast Guard Station New Bedford | |
|---|---|
| Part of 1st District | |
| New Bedford, Massachusetts | |
| Coordinates | 41°38′4.41″N70°55′11.24″W / 41.6345583°N 70.9197889°W |
| Type | Coast Guard Station |
| Site information | |
| Owner | United States Coast Guard |
| Open to the public | Yes |
| Site history | |
| In use | ???-2003 |
United States Coast Guard Station New Bedford was a United States Coast Guard station located in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The station was a sub-unit of Sector Southeast New England.
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The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the coastal defense, search and rescue, and maritime law enforcement branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the U.S. military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission with jurisdiction in both domestic and international waters and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its duties. It operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during peacetime, and can be transferred to the U.S. Department of the Navy by the U.S. President at any time, or by the U.S. Congress during times of war. Congressional authority transfers happened twice: in 1917, during World War I, and in 1941, during World War II.
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, the first modern lightvessel was off the Nore sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames in England, placed there by its inventor Robert Hamblin in 1734. The type has become largely obsolete; lighthouses replaced some stations as the construction techniques for lighthouses advanced, while large, automated buoys replaced others.
The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) is the service academy of the United States Coast Guard in New London, Connecticut. Founded in 1876, it is the second smallest of the five U.S. service academies and provides education to future Coast Guard officers in one of nine major fields of study. Unlike the other service academies, the Coast Guard Academy does not require a congressional nomination for admission.
The United States Life-Saving Service was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers. It began in 1848 and ultimately merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915.
Butler Flats Light is a sparkplug lighthouse located in the outer harbor of New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the mouth of the Acushnet River. Built in 1898 by the United States Lighthouse Board, it is the only known caisson lighthouse designed by a marine architect. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Butler Flats Light Station on June 15, 1987. Automated in 1978, it is now operated by the city as a private aid to navigation.
CCGS Hudson is an offshore oceanographic and hydrographic survey vessel operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship entered service in 1963 with the Canadian Oceanographic Service, stationed at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, called CSS Hudson. The ship made several significant scientific voyages, among them the first circumnavigation of the Americas in 1970. The ship was transferred to the Canadian Coast Guard in 1996 and remains in service.
A Coast Guard Air Station provides aviation support for the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard operates approximately 210 aircraft from 24 Coast Guard Air Stations in the United States. Fixed-wing aircraft, such as the HC 130 Hercules, are built for long range missions and operate from air stations. The HH-65 Dolphin and Sikorsky HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters also operate from Air Stations, Air Facilities and flight deck equipped cutters.
The history of the United States Coast Guard goes back to the United States Revenue Cutter Service, which was founded on 4 August 1790 as part of the Department of the Treasury. The Revenue Cutter Service and the United States Life-Saving Service were merged to become the Coast Guard per 14 U.S.C. § 1 which states: "The Coast Guard as established January 28, 1915, shall be a military service and a branch of the armed forces of the United States at all times." In 1939, the United States Lighthouse Service was merged into the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard itself was moved to the Department of Transportation in 1967, and on 25 February 2003 it became part of the Department of Homeland Security. However, under 14 U.S.C. § 3 as amended by section 211 of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2006, upon the declaration of war and when Congress so directs in the declaration, or when the President directs, the Coast Guard operates as a service in the Department of the Navy.
This article covers the organization of the United States Coast Guard.
USCGC Vigilant (WMEC-617) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. She is the twelfth cutter to bear the name Vigilant, dating back to 1790 when the original Vigilant was built for the United States Revenue-Marine. She was commissioned on October 3, 1964, at Todd Shipyards in Houston, Texas, at a cost of 2.3 million dollars. From 1964 through 1989 Vigilant was homeported in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1989, she underwent an 18-month Major Maintenance Availability in order to modernize her capabilities. In 1990, Vigilant moved her homeport to Port Canaveral, Florida. Vigilant has just completed another yard period, updating her with the most modern electronic and engineering equipment available.
USS Yakutat (AVP-32) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1944 to 1946. Yakutat tended seaplanes in combat areas in the Pacific during the latter stages of World War II. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard from 1948 to 1971 as the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Yakutat (WAVP-380), later WHEC-380, seeing service in the Vietnam War during her Coast Guard career. Transferred to South Vietnam in 1971, she was commissioned into the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the frigate RVNS Trần Nhật Duật (HQ-03). When South Vietnam collapsed in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War, she fled to the Philippines, where the Philippine Navy took custody of her and cannibalized her for spare parts until discarding her in 1982.
USCGC Escanaba (WHEC-64) 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 she never saw wartime service.
Palmer Island Light Station is a historic lighthouse in New Bedford Harbor in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. The lighthouse was built in 1849 out of stone rubble. It was discontinued when the harbor's hurricane barrier was built in the early 1960s, as its location immediately north of the barrier was no longer an outlying danger and there are lights on either side of the barrier opening.
The Clarks Point Light is located in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Originally constructed as a wooden tower, it was replaced with a stone tower in 1804. This in turn was replaced by a structure on the parapets of Fort Rodman which was deactivated in 1898. After restoration in the early 1970s, it was relit again in 2001 by the city as a private aid.
Fairhaven Bridge Light was a lighthouse on the bridge from New Bedford to Fairhaven, Massachusetts, at the north end of New Bedford Harbor. From 1888 to 1891 it served as the rear light of a range to guide ships past Butler Flats on the west side of the harbor entrance. The front light of the range was Palmer Island Light. It was also known as "Fairhaven Bridge Range Light".
The Casco class was a large class of United States Coast Guard cutters in commission from the late 1940s through the late 1980s. They saw service as weather reporting ships in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans until the early 1970s, and some saw combat service during the Vietnam War.
The United States Lightship WLV-613 (Ambrose) was a lightvessel commissioned in 1952 that became the last lightship to mark the Ambrose Channel. She was replaced by a Texas Tower lightstation on 24 August 1967.
USCGC Cape Horn was a 95-foot (29 m) type "C" Cape-class cutter constructed at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1958 for use as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat.
The Nantucket Lightship or United States Lightship WLV-612 is a lightvessel commissioned in 1950 that became the last lightship decommissioned in United States Coast Guard service.
