Paul Clark underway. | |
History | |
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United States | |
Name | USCGC Paul Clark |
Namesake | Paul Clark |
Operator | United States Coast Guard |
Builder | Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana |
Launched | January 13, 2012 |
Acquired | May 18, 2013 [1] |
Commissioned | August 24, 2013 [2] |
Out of service | 2018 |
Homeport | Miami, Florida |
Identification |
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Motto | Courage valor confidence |
Status | in active service |
Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Sentinel-class cutter |
Displacement | 353 long tons (359 t) |
Length | 46.8 m (154 ft) |
Beam | 8.11 m (26.6 ft) |
Depth | 2.9 m (9.5 ft) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
Endurance |
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Boats & landing craft carried | 1 × Short Range Prosecutor RHIB |
Complement | 2 officers, 20 crew |
Sensors and processing systems | L-3 C4ISR suite |
Armament |
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USCGC Paul Clark (WPC-1106) is the sixth Sentinel-class cutter. Like the previous five vessels of her class she is homeported in Miami, Florida. [3] She was delivered to the Coast Guard, for testing, on May 18, 2013. [1] [4]
On September 13, 2013 the vessel repatriated 66 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas. Four migrant boats had been intercepted by small Coast Guard vessels in four separate operations over the preceding days. Their passengers and crew were transferred to the larger Paul Clark for repatriation to Cuba.
"Our main concern is the safety of life at sea...Attempting to cross the Florida Straits in a homemade raft or vessel is inherently dangerous" explained Coast Guard Captain Mark Fedor. [5]
The vessel is named after Paul Leaman Clark, who served as a fireman in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. Clark was a landing boat engineer attached to USS Joseph T. Dickman during the allied assault on a beach in French Morocco when the craft's two other crew members were wounded by a Luftwaffe fighter. Clark took command of the craft, took the wounded crew members to USS Palmer for medical care and then returned to his duties as a beachmaster, directing disembarkation activity. For his courage he was awarded the Navy Cross. [6]
The Sentinel-class cutter, also known as the Fast Response Cutter due to its program name, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Deepwater program. At 154 feet (46.8 m), it is similar to, but larger than, the 123-foot (37 m) lengthened 1980s-era Island-class patrol boats that it replaces. Up to 58 vessels are to be built by the Louisiana-based firm Bollinger Shipyards, using a design from the Netherlands-based Damen Group, with the Sentinel design based on the company's Damen Stan 4708 patrol vessel. The Department of Homeland Security's budget proposal to Congress, for the Coast Guard, for 2021, stated that, in addition to 58 vessels to serve the Continental US, they requested an additional six vessels for its portion of Patrol Forces Southwest Asia.
The Ukrainian patrol vessel Starobilsk (P191) is an Island-class patrol boat of the Naval Forces of Armed Forces of Ukraine.
USCGC Knight Island (WPB-1348) receives her namesake from the Knight Island in the Prince William Sounds of Alaska. Knight Island was commissioned on April 22, 1992, at Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana. Knight Island and the other 48 Island class cutter’s construction are based on the internationally known Vosper-Thornycroft design. Her hull is a semi-displacement type monohull made of high strength steel, while the main deck and superstructure are aluminum. Knight Island employs an active fin stabilization system to improve her sea keeping abilities. With a top speed in excess of 30 knots and a cruising speed of 26 knots, the ship is capable of enduring unsupported operations for six days and accommodates two officers and sixteen enlisted personnel.
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 Richard Etheridge is the second of the United States Coast Guard's Sentinel-class cutters. Like most of her sister ships she replaced a 110-foot (34 m) Island-class patrol boat. Richard Etheridge was launched in August 2011.
USCGC William Flores (WPC-1103) is a Sentinel-class cutter homeported in Coast Guard District 7, Miami, Florida.
USCGC Robert Yered (WPC-1104) is a Sentinel-class cutter based in Miami, Florida. She was launched on November 23, 2012, and was commissioned on February 15, 2012. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Congressional Representative for the district containing the vessel's base, met the ship when she arrived in Miami on January 27, 2013.
USCGC Margaret Norvell (WPC-1105) is the fifth Sentinel-class cutter, based at Miami, Florida. She was launched on January 13, 2012, and delivered to the Coast Guard on March 21, 2013. She was commissioned on June 1, 2013. She was commissioned at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, near where her namesake, Margaret Norvell, staffed a lighthouse for decades.
USCGC Charles David Jr is the seventh Sentinel-class cutter. Upon her commissioning she was assigned to serve in Key West, Florida, as the first of six vessels to be based there. She was delivered to the Coast Guard, for testing, on August 17, 2013. She was officially commissioned on November 16, 2013.
USCGC Charles Sexton (WPC-1108) is the eighth Sentinel-class cutter, and the second to be based in Key West, Florida. She was delivered to the United States Coast Guard for a final evaluation and shakedown on December 10, 2013, and the vessel was commissioned on March 8, 2014.
USCGC Kathleen Moore is the ninth Sentinel-class cutter by Bollinger shipyards delivered to the United States Coast Guard. She was delivered to the Coast Guard, for pre-commissioning testing, on 28 March 2014.
USCGC William Trump (WPC-1111) is a Sentinel-class cutter of the United States Coast Guard. When it was delivered to the Coast Guard, on November 25, 2014, it was the eleventh vessel, of its class, and the fifth vessel based in the Coast Guard's station in Key West, Florida.
USCGC Joseph Napier is a Sentinel-class cutter homeported in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is the fifteenth Sentinel class to be delivered, and the third of six to be assigned to Puerto Rico. she was commissioned on 29 January 2016.
USCGC Isaac Mayo is a Sentinel-class cutter homeported in Key West, Florida. She is the twelfth Sentinel class to be delivered, and the sixth of six to be assigned to Key West.
USCGC Richard Dixon is the United States Coast Guard's thirteenth Sentinel-class cutter, commissioned in Tampa, Florida, on June 20, 2015. She arrived in her home port of San Juan, Puerto Rico on June 24, 2015.
USCGC Lawrence Lawson is the 20th Sentinel-class cutter to be delivered to the United States Coast Guard. She was built at Bollinger Shipyards, in Lockport, Louisiana, and delivered to the Coast Guard, for her sea trials, on October 20, 2016. She was commissioned on March 18, 2017. She is the second cutter of her class to be the homeported at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, and also the second to be stationed outside of the Caribbean.
USCGC Joseph Gerczak (WPC-1126) is the 26th Sentinel-class cutter built for the United States Coast Guard. She is one of three Fast Response Cutters homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii.
USCGC Forrest Rednour (WPC-1129) is the 29th Sentinel-class cutter built for the United States Coast Guard. She is the first of the four vessels of her class to be home-ported in San Pedro, California. Other sister ships have been based in Florida, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, North Carolina, Hawaii and Alaska. But Forrest Rednour is the first to be homeported on the west coast of the lower 48 states. The vessel will be homeported at a base near Los Angeles' Terminal Island. Three sister ships will join her, at this base.
USCGC William Sparling (WPC-1154) is the United States Coast Guard's 54th Sentinel-class cutter.
USCGC Glen Harris (WPC-1144) will be the United States Coast Guard's 44th Sentinel-class cutter.
The first six FRCs for District 7 will be homeported in Miami; the next six in Key West; and the remaining six in Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard accepted delivery of Paul Clark, the sixth vessel in the Coast Guard's Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter (FRC) recapitalization project on May 18 in Key West, FL.
Crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Paul Clark repatriated 66 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas, Cuba, Friday. This repatriation was a result of four separate migrant interdiction events this week.
Early into the assault, which lasted from November 8–11, 1942, Clark was unloading a transport when a hostile plane battered his boat with machinegun fire. The heavy fire mortally wounded the bowman and severely injured the coxswain. Showing unsurpassed courage and initiative Clark took control of the boat and withdrew from the beach with the injured crewmember aboard.