On 22 June 1993 the Coast Guard awarded the contract for the Keeper-class vessels to Marinette Marine Corporation in the form of a firm order for the lead ship and options for thirteen more.[2] The Coast Guard exercised options for three additional ships, including Marcus Hanna on 7 February 1996.[3] The ship was launched on 23 August 1997 into the Menominee River. The keynote speaker at the launch ceremony was Assistant Secretary of the Department of Transportation Melissa J. Spillenkothen. Also in attendance was U.S. RepresentativeJay Johnson. Marcus Hanna is the fourth of the fourteen Keeper-class ships built.[4]
Her hull was built of welded steel plates. She is 175 feet (53m) long, with a beam of 36 feet (11m), and a full-load draft of 8 feet (2.4m).[5]Marcus Hannadisplaces 850 long tons fully loaded.[6] Her gross register tonnage is 904, and her net register tonnage is 271.[7] The top of the mast is 58.75 feet (17.91m) above the waterline.[8]
Rather than building the ship from the keel up as a single unit, Marinette Marine used a modular fabrication approach. Eight large modules, or "hull blocks" were built separately and then welded together.[5]
Z-drives on a Keeper-class ship
The ship has two Caterpillar 3508 DITA (direct-injection, turbocharged, aftercooled) 8-cylinder Diesel engines which produce 1000 horsepower each. These drive two Ulstein Z-drives. Keeper-class ships were the first Coast Guard cutters equipped with Z-drives, which markedly improved their maneuverability.[3] The Z-drives have four-bladed propellers which are 57.1 inches (145cm) in diameter[8] and are equipped with Kort nozzles. They can be operated in "tiller mode" where the Z-drives turn in the same direction to steer the ship, or in "Z-conn mode" where the two Z-drives can turn in different directions to achieve specific maneuvering objectives. An implication of the Z-drives is that there is no reverse gear or rudder aboard Marcus Hanna. In order to back the ship, the Z-drives are turned 180 degrees which drives the ship stern-first even though the propellers are spinning in the same direction as they do when the ship is moving forward.[9] Her maximum speed is 12 knots.[3] Her tanks can hold 16,385 gallons of diesel fuel[8] which gives her an unrefueled range of 2,000 nautical miles at 10 knots.[10]
She has a 500 horsepower bow thruster. The Z-drives and bow thruster can be linked in a Dynamic Positioning System. This gives Marcus Hanna the ability to hold position in the water even in heavy currents, winds, and swells. This advanced capability is useful in bringing buoys aboard that can weigh more than 16,000 lbs.[6]
Electrical power aboard is provided by three Caterpillar 3406 DITA generators which produce 285 Kw each.[6] She also has a 210 Kw emergency generator, which is a Caterpillar 3406 DIT.[8]
The buoy deck has 1,335 square feet (124.0m2) of working area. A crane with a boom 42 feet (13m) long lifts buoys and their mooring anchors onto the deck. The crane can lift up to 20,000 pounds (9,100kg).[6]
The ships' fresh water tanks can hold 7,339 gallons. She has three ballast tanks that can be filled to maintain their trim, and tanks for oily waste water, sewage, gray water, new lubrication oil, and waste oil.[8]
Accommodations were designed for mixed gender crews from the start. Crew size and composition has varied over the years. In 2008 Marcus Hanna had a crew of 24 commanded by a Chief Warrant Officer.[11]
Marcus Hanna breaking ice near Boston
Marcus Hanna, as all Keeper-class ships, has a strengthened "ice belt" along the waterline so that she can work on aids to navigation in ice-infested waters. Not only is the hull plating in the ice belt thicker than the rest of the hull, but framing members are closer together in areas that experience greater loads when working in ice. Higher grades of steel were used for hull plating in the ice belt to prevent cracking in cold temperatures. Her bow is sloped so that rather than smashing into ice, she rides up over it to break it with the weight of the ship. Marcus Hanna is capable of breaking flat, 9-inch thick ice at 3 knots.[9]
The ship carries a cutter boat on davits. She was originally equipped with a CB-M boat which was replaced in the mid-2010s with a CB-ATON-M boat. This was built by Metal Shark Aluminum Boats and was estimated to cost $210,000.[12] The boat is 18 feet (5.5m) long and are equipped with a Mercury Marine inboard/outboard diesel engine.[13]
Lighthouse keeper Marcus Hanna
The ship's namesake is lighthouse keeper Marcus Hanna.[14] On 28 January 1885, Hanna was stationed at the Cape Elizabeth Light near Portland, Maine, when the schooner Australia ran up on the rocks nearby in a furious snowstorm. The temperature was 10 degrees below zero, so the spray from the surf immediately froze on everything it touched. The captain of the Australia drowned, but two crewmen climbed up the rigging to escape the cold water. Hanna risked falling into the sea himself as he clambered down the ice-covered rocks to get close enough to throw a line to the two men. He was able to haul them ashore, and though suffering from frostbite, they both survived. Hanna was awarded the gold lifesaving medal on 25 April 1885.[15] This was not his first act of valor. On 4 July 1863, then a Union Army sergeant fighting in the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, Hanna ran through Confederate fire to bring water to troops sweltering in their rifle pits. On 2 November 1895, Hanna was awarded the Medal of Honor for his action. He is the only person to have won both medals.[16]
Marcus Hanna replaced USCGC Spar, which was decommissioned in 1997.[14]
Operational history
The ship's crew came on board in October 1997 for training on their new ship. They sailed her from Lake Michigan, through the Great Lakes to reach the Atlantic. On 6 January 1998 Marcus Hanna arrived at her new home port in South Portland.[14] She was commissioned at a ceremony on 9 May 1998.[17]
Marcus Hanna's buoy tending involves lifting them onto her deck where marine growth is scraped and pressure washed off, inspecting the buoy itself, and replacing lights, solar cells, and radar transponders. The mooring chain or synthetic cable is inspected and replaced as needed. The concrete block mooring anchor is also inspected. The coast of northern New England is prone to difficult weather that requires extra maintenance of the buoys that are assigned to Marcus Hanna. For example, a Nor'easter in April 2007 moved 16 buoys up to 400 feet (120m) from their charted positions. These had to be reset. Two more buoys parted their mooring lines during the storm and drifted away. One washed ashore and the other, a NOAA weather buoy, was captured and taken ashore for repairs.[18] Cold weather also creates additional maintenance since ice can drag buoys off-station or damage them. Marcus Hanna swaps some large summer buoys for small ice-resistant ones in the fall and then reverses the process in the spring.[19]
The bulk of Marcus Hanna's year is spent at sea tending its buoys, or in port maintaining the ship. She has been asked to perform other missions, as described below.
Search and rescue
In February 2007, Marcus Hanna was dispatched to search for the fishing vessel Lady Luck, which had triggered a distress signal 12 miles off Cape Elizabeth.[20]
On 26 May 2016 the fishing boat Miss Emily was disabled off of Kennebunkport, Maine. Marcus Hanna towed her to Portland for repairs.[21]
Marcus Hanna deploys the Vessel of Opportunity Skimming System during a 2010 oil spill exercise
Marine environmental protection
In April 1999 Marcus Hanna discovered a 3-mile long oil slick at the mouth of the Kennebec River and identified a suspect vessel. The Coast Guard issued a verbal warning to the captain of the vessel.[22]
Marcus Hanna drilled with the Vessel of Opportunity Skimming System in March 2010 as part of an oil spill exercise.[23] In June 2013 the ship sailed to St. John, New Brunswick to participate in a joint United States/Canada oil spill recovery training exercise.[24]
Security
The Coast Guard provides security on the East River in New York City when the United Nations General Assembly meets. Marcus Hanna, and USCGC Katherine Walker, another First District buoy tender, have both exercised in the area.[25]
Public engagement
The Coast Guard has offered tours aboard Marcus Hanna on several occasions. These include:
The Keeper class of coastal buoy tenders consists of fourteen ships built for and operated by the United States Coast Guard. The ships were launched between 1995 and 1999 and all remain in active service. Their primary mission is to maintain thousands of aids to navigation, both buoys and land-based. Their secondary missions include marine environmental protection, search and rescue, law enforcement, and light ice-breaking.
USCGC Spar (WLB-206) is a United States Coast Guard Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender home-ported in Duluth, Minnesota. The ship maintains aids to navigation in the Twin Ports and Great Lakes.
USCGC Maple (WLB-207) is a Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender operated by the United States Coast Guard. She was based at Sitka, Alaska for 16 years and is currently homeported at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Her primary mission is maintaining aids to navigation, but she also supports search and rescue, law enforcement, oil spill response, and other Coast Guard missions.
A lighthouse keeper or lightkeeper is a person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Lighthouse keepers were sometimes referred to as "wickies" because of their job trimming the wicks.
USCGC Juniper (WLB-201) is the lead ship of the U.S. Coast Guard's current class of seagoing buoy tenders. She is outfitted with some of the most advanced technological and navigational capabilities currently available.
USCGC Elm (WLB-204) is a U.S. Coast Guard Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender home-ported in Astoria, Oregon. She is responsible for maintaining aids to navigation on the coasts of Oregon and Washington, including the Columbia River.
USCGC Woodrush (WLB-407) was a buoy tender that performed general aids-to-navigation (ATON), search and rescue (SAR), and icebreaking duties for the United States Coast Guard (USCG) from 1944 to 2001 from home ports of Duluth, Minnesota and Sitka, Alaska. She responded from Duluth at full speed through a gale and high seas to the scene of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinking in 1975. In 1980, she took part in a rescue rated in the top 10 USCG rescues when she helped to save the passengers and crew of the cruise ship Prinsendam after it caught fire in position 57°38"N 140° 25"W then while being towed sank off Graham Island, British Columbia. She was one of the first vessels to respond to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. She was decommissioned on 2 March 2001 and sold to the Republic of Ghana to serve in the Ghana Navy.
USCGC Henry Blake (WLM-563) is a United States Coast Guard Keeper-class cutter based at Naval Station Everett in Everett, WA. Henry Blake's primary mission is the maintenance of 80 lighted, 39 unlighted, and 65 shore-based aids to navigation in the Puget Sound area and along the coast of Washington. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, search and rescue, and homeland security. Henry Blake is assigned to the Thirteenth Coast Guard District.
USCGS Katherine Walker (WLM-552) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1996, she has spent her entire career homeported at Bayonne, New Jersey. Her primary mission is to maintain 335 aids to navigation in New York Harbor, Long Island Sound, and surrounding waters. She is assigned to the First Coast Guard District.
USCGC Ida Lewis (WLM-551) is the lead ship of the United States Coast Guard Keeper-class of Coastal Buoy Tenders. Launched in 1995, she has spent her entire career maintaining navigational aids near her homeport of Newport, Rhode Island. Ida Lewis is assigned to the First Coast Guard District.
USCGC Anthony Petit (WLM-558) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1999, she has served her entire career maintaining navigational aids in Southeast Alaska. She is assigned to the Seventeenth Coast Guard District.
USCGC Abbie Burgess (WLM-553) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1997, she is home-ported in Rockland, Maine. Her primary mission is maintaining 366 aids to navigation from Boothbay Harbor, Maine to the Canadian border. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, light icebreaking, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the First Coast Guard District.
USCGC James Rankin (WLM-555) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1998, she is home-ported at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, Maryland. Her primary mission is maintaining 361 aids to navigation in Upper Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries including the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Potomac River, and the Annapolis area. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, light icebreaking, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the Fifth Coast Guard District.
USCGC Frank Drew (WLM-557) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1998, she is home-ported in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her primary mission is maintaining over 300 aids to navigation in lower Chesapeake Bay, the rivers that flow into it, and a potion of the North Carolina Coast. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, light icebreaking, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the Fifth Coast Guard District.
USCGC George Cobb (WLM-564) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1999, she is home-ported in San Pedro, California. Her primary mission is maintaining over 178 floating aids to navigation on the California coast from San Francisco to San Diego. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the Eleventh Coast Guard District.
USCGC William Tate (WLM-560) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1999, she is home-ported in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her primary mission is maintaining over 260 aids to navigation on the Delaware River, in Delaware Bay and in nearby waterways. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the Fifth Coast Guard District.
USCGC Maria Bray (WLM-562) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1999, she is home-ported in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Her primary mission is maintaining over 300 aids to navigation from Georgetown, South Carolina to Fort Pierce, Florida. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to Sector Jacksonville of the Seventh Coast Guard District.
USCGC Harry Claiborne (WLM-561) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1999, she is home-ported in Galveston, Texas. Her primary mission is maintaining aids to navigation between the Mexican boarder and the mouth of the Mississippi River. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the Eighth Coast Guard District.
USCGC Barbara Mabrity (WLM-559) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard. Launched in 1999, she is home-ported in Mobile, Alabama. Her primary mission is maintaining aids to navigation from western Florida to the Mississippi River. Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, search and rescue, and security. She is assigned to the Eighth Coast Guard District.
↑ Polmar, Norman (1997). Ships and Aircraft of the United States Fleet (16thed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p.521. ISBN1-55750-686-8.
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