USCGC Vigilant (WMEC-617)

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Career (USCG)
USCGC Vigilant (WMEC-617)
Builder:	Todd Shipyards, Houston, Texas
Laid down:
Launched:
Commissioned:	October 3, 1964
Status:	Active
Homeport:	Port Canaveral, Florida
General Characteristics
Displacement:	759 tons
Length:	210' 6"
Beam:	34'
Draught:	10' 6" 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:	1 x Mk 38 25mm machine gun 2 x M-2HB .50 caliber machine gun
Aircraft carried:	HH-65 Dolphin
Motto:	Semper Vigilans Always Vigilant

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 Revenue Cutter Service. This Cutter 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.

[edit] Vigilant / Kudirka incident

On November 23, 1970, Simonas "Simas" Kudirka, a Soviet seaman of Lithuanian nationality, leapt from the 400-foot (120 m) mother ship Sovetskaya Litva, anchored in American waters (near Aquinnah, Massachusetts on Martha's Vineyard Island), aboard the Vigilant, sailing from New Bedford. The Soviets accused Kudirka of theft of 3,000 rubles from the ship's safe. Ten hours passed. After attempts to get the U.S. State Department to provide guidance failed, Rear Admiral William B. Ellis, commander of the First Coast Guard District, ordered Commander Ralph E. Eustis to permit a KGB detachment to board the Vigilant to return Kudirka to the Soviet ship. This led to a change in asylum policy by the U.S. Coast Guard. Admiral Ellis and his chief of staff were given administrative punishment under Article 15 of the UCMJ. Commander Eustis was given a non-punitive letter of reprimand and assigned to shore duty.

Kudirka was tried for treason by the Soviet Union and given a ten-year sentence in the Gulag. Subsequent investigations revealed that Kudirka could claim American citizenship through his mother and was allowed to come to the United States in 1974.

The incident was portrayed in a 1978 television movie, The Defection of Simas Kudirka, with Alan Arkin playing Kudirka and Donald Pleasence playing the captain of the Soviet ship.