USCGC Diligence in 2002 | |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Builder | Todd Shipyards, Houston, Texas |
Acquired | 20 July 1963 [1] |
Commissioned | 1964 |
Homeport | Pensacola, Florida |
Identification |
|
Status | Active |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | 759 tons |
Length | 210 ft 6 in (64.16 m) |
Beam | 34 ft (10 m) |
Draft | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) max |
Propulsion | 2 x V16 2550 horsepower ALCO diesel engines |
Speed | max 18 knots; 2,700-mile range |
Range | cruise 14 knots; 6,100-mile range |
Complement | 12 officers, 63 enlisted |
Sensors and processing systems | 2 x AN/SPS-64 |
Armament | |
Aircraft carried | HH-65 Dolphin |
USCGC Diligence (WMEC-616) is a Reliance-class United States Coast Guard 210-foot medium endurance cutter formerly based in Wilmington, NC but now based in Pensacola, Florida. [2] Diligence was the second of 16 cutters built from 1962 to 1968. Fourteen of this class of cutter are still in active U.S. service, and two have been transferred to foreign navies.
All Reliance-class cutters were built with dual shafts and controllable pitch propellers, and were capable of speeds up to 18 knots. [2]
Diligence, the sixth US Coast Guard cutter to bear that name, originally moored in Key West, Florida, later after it completed upgrades during MMA/MEP, was relocated to downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. Diligence is capable of performing any of the missions that white-hulled Coast Guard cutters traditionally perform, ranging from alien migrant interdiction operations (AMIO) and drug interdiction missions down in the Caribbean, to fisheries protection of the Atlantic seaboard, to search and rescue (SAR) anywhere in between. The SAR capabilities are enhanced by utilizing helicopters to extend the reach of the cutters well beyond the horizon.
On 24 January 2019, the Coast Guard announced that the Diligence would be homeported in Pensacola, Florida by 30 September 2020. [3] Diligence departed Wilmington for the last time on 25 May 2020. [4]
The cutter Diligence was seen in the 1966 science fiction movie Around the World Under the Sea starring Lloyd Bridges. USCGC Diligence also appeared in the Matlock TV series in the episode "The Heist".
USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39) is a United States Coast Guard Cutter and former United States Navy vessel that was recommissioned for Coast Guard duty on 10 July 1999. It first entered service as USS Edenton (ATS-1), an Edenton-class salvage and rescue ship on 23 January 1971. In 1995, Edenton won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.
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.
The Medium Endurance Cutter or WMEC is a type of United States Coast Guard Cutter mainly consisting of the 270-foot (82 m) Famous- and 210-foot (64 m) Reliance-class cutters. These larger cutters are under control of Area Commands. These cutters have adequate accommodations for crew to live on board and can do 6 to 8 week patrols.
USCGC Dauntless (WMEC-624) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter, commissioned in 1968.
USCGC Thetis (WMEC-910) is a United States Coast Guard Famous-class medium endurance cutter. She is the 10th ship of the Famous Class cutters designed and built for the U.S. Coast Guard and the third Coast Guard cutter to bear the name. Laid down August 24, 1984 by Robert Derecktor Shipyard Incorporated of Middletown, Rhode Island. She was launched April 29, 1986 and named for the cutters USRC Thetis, which served from 1899 to 1916, and USCGC Thetis (WPC-115), which served from 1931 to 1947. The Greek goddess Thetis, incidentally, was the mother of Achilles. The Famous Class cutter Thetis was commissioned on June 30, 1989. She conducts patrols throughout the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
USCGC Tampa (WMEC-902) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. She was commissioned 16 March 1984. Her motto, "Thy way is the sea, thy path in the great waters", matches the inscription that is engraved on the memorial at Arlington National Cemetery for the 131 persons lost following the sinking of a previous cutter Tampa on September 18, 1918.
USCGC Northland (WMEC-904) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. Her keel was laid down in 1981 and she was launched in 1982 by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company of Tacoma, Washington. She was commissioned on December 17, 1984.
USCGC Escanaba (WMEC-907) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter based in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her keel was laid on April 1, 1983, at Robert Derecktor Shipyard Incorporated, Middletown, Rhode Island. She was launched February 6, 1985 and is named for her predecessor, USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77) which sank during World War Two, and was named for the Escanaba River and Escanaba, Michigan. Escanaba (WMEC-907) was formally commissioned August 29, 1987 in Grand Haven, Michigan, the home port of her predecessor.
USCGC Campbell (WMEC-909) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter based at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. Campbell is the sixth Coast Guard Cutter to bear the name and is assigned to the Atlantic. The ship bears the distinction of having made some of the largest narcotics seizures in Coast Guard history as well as being the command ship for the TWA 800 recovery effort.
USCGC Mohawk (WMEC-913) is a 270' United States Coast Guard Famous-class medium endurance cutter. She was launched on September 9, 1989 at Robert Derecktor Shipyard Incorporated of Middletown, Rhode Island and commissioned in March 1991. She is the third cutter named for the Mohawk nation, a tribe of Iroquoian Indians from the Mohawk Valley of New York.
USCGC Bear (WMEC-901) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. She was laid down August 23, 1979 and launched September 25, 1980 by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company of Tacoma, Washington. She was commissioned February 4, 1983. She was named for USRC Bear (AG-29), a steam barquentine that was built in Scotland and served the United States Treasury Department in the United States Revenue Cutter Service's Alaskan Patrol.
USCGC Valiant (WMEC-621) is a United States Coast Guard multi-mission medium endurance cutter in service since 1967. Valiant is home ported in Jacksonville, Florida and operates in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico for the Commander, Coast Guard Atlantic Area. Missions include search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, marine environmental protection, and national defense operations.
USCGC Reliance (WMEC-615) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. She is the fourth Revenue Cutter / Coast Guard Cutter to bear the name Reliance and the first of the 210' Medium Endurance Cutter Fleet. Constructed by Todd Shipyards in Houston, Texas and commissioned in 1964, she was originally homeported in Corpus Christi, Texas. Her duties included offshore oil rig inspections, fisheries, counter drug, alien migrant interdiction, marine pollution patrols, and search and rescue. Reliance has been homeported in Yorktown, Virginia, Port Canaveral, Florida, New Castle, New Hampshire and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. As of May 2019, she is stationed at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida.
USCGC Confidence (WMEC-619) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter.
USCGC Resolute (WMEC-620) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter.
USCGC Steadfast (WMEC-623) was a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter in commission for 56 years. Commissioned in 1968, Steadfast was home ported in St. Petersburg, Florida for her first 24 years of service. In 1992, she was decommissioned for Major Maintenance Availability (MMA) to extend her service another 25 years. Following MMA in February 1994, Steadfast was re-commissioned and home ported in Astoria, Oregon until her decommissioning on February 1, 2024.
USCGC Venturous (WMEC-625) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. The vessel was constructed by the American Shipbuilding Company in Lorain, Ohio in 1967 and commissioned in 1968. The ship has served on both the west and eastern coasts of the United States. The vessel is used for search and rescue, fishery law enforcement, border enforcement and smuggling interdiction along the coasts and in the Caribbean Sea.
USCGC Decisive (WMEC-629) was a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. Decisive's keel was laid on 12 May 1967, at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, Maryland. Decisive was launched 14 December 1967, and commissioned 23 August 1968. Following its commissioning in 1968, the ship was homeported in New Castle, New Hampshire. The cutter moved homeports several times during its tenure, including St. Petersburg, Florida and Pascagoula, Mississippi before its final assignment to Pensacola, Florida. It was decommissioned on 2 March 2023.
USCGC Dependable (WMEC–626) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. Dependable was commissioned November 22, 1968. On April 9, 2024 Dependable was removed from active duty and placed in commission, special status. Her most recent homeport was Virginia Beach, Virginia.
USCGC Smilax (WAGL/WLIC-315) is a 100-foot (30 m) United States Coast Guard Cosmos-class inland construction tender. Commissioned in 1944, Smilax is the "Queen of the Fleet", the oldest commissioned U.S. Coast Guard cutter.