USCGC Cape Darby (WPB-95323)
| Career (USCG) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | USCGC Cape Darby |
| Owner: | U.S. Coast Guard |
| Builder: | United States Coast Guard Yard, Baltimore, Maryland |
| Commissioned: | 3 October 1958 |
| Decommissioned: | 11 September 1968 |
| Fate: | Transferred to South Korea, 24 March 1969 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Class and type: | Patrol boat |
| Displacement: | 98 tons |
| Length: | 95 ft (29 m) |
| Beam: | 20 ft (6.1 m) |
| Draft: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Propulsion: | 4 x Cummins VT-600 diesels |
| Speed: | 26 kn (48 km/h) |
| Range: | 3,560 nmi (6,590 km) |
| Complement: | 15 (1961) |
| Armament: | 2 x M2 Browning machine guns (as completed) |
USCGC Cape Darby 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.[2]
Design
The Cape-class cutter was designed originally for use as a shallow-draft anti-submarine warfare (ASW) craft and was needed because of the increased tension brought about by the Cold War. Cape Darby was a type "C" Cape-class cutter and was never fitted with ASW gear because the Coast Guard's mission emphasis had shifted away from ASW to search and rescue by the time she was built. The hull was constructed of steel and the superstructure was aluminum.[1] She was powered by four Cummins VT-600 diesel engines.[3]
History
The Cape class was originally developed as a ASW boat and as a replacement for the aging, World War II vintage, wooden 83-foot (25 m) patrol boats that were used mostly for search and rescue duties.[3] With the outbreak of the Korean War and the requirement tasked to the Coast Guard to secure and patrol port facilities in the United States under the Magnuson Act of 1950, the complete replacement of the 83-foot boat was deferred and the 95-foot boat was used for harbor patrols.[1][4][5] The first 95-foot hulls were laid down at the Coast Guard Yard in 1952 and were officially described as "seagoing patrol cutters". Because Coast Guard policy did not provide for naming cutters under 100 feet (30 m) at the time of their construction they were referred to by their hull number only and gained the Cape-class names in 1964 when the service changed the naming criteria to 65 feet (20 m). The class was named for North American geographic capes.[6]
The Cape class was replaced by the 110-foot (34 m) Island class beginning in the late 1980s and many of the decommissioned cutters were transferred to nations of the Caribbean and South America by the Coast Guard.[7][8]
Notes
- Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Cape Darby, 1958 (WPB-95323)", Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard Manned Army & Navy Vessels, U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office
- ↑ Scheina, p 79
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Scheina, p 80
- ↑ Green, D.L.; "The 82-foot Class Patrol Boat", The Engineer's Digest, March–April 1962, Number 133, pp 2–5, U.S. Coast Guard
- ↑ Johnson, p 283
- ↑ Johnson, p 284
- ↑ Scheina, p 63
- ↑ Colton, "U.S. Coast Guard Patrol Craft Built Since WWII (WPB, WPC, WSES)"
- References used
- "Cape Darby, 1958 (WPB-95323)". Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard Manned Army & Navy Vessels. U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- Colton, Tim. "U.S. Coast Guard Patrol Craft Built Since WWII (WPB, WPC, WSES)". Shipbuildinghistory.com. Shipbuilding History. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- Green, D.L. (March–April 1962). "The 82-foot Class Patrol Boat". The Engineer's Digest (U.S. Coast Guard). Number 133: 2–5.
- Johnson, Robert Irwin (1987). Guardians of the Sea, History of the United States Coast Guard, 1915 to the Present. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis. ISBN 978-0-87021-720-3.
- Scheina, Robert L. (1990). U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946–1990. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland. ISBN 978-0-87021-719-7.
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