The United States Coast Guard commissioned a new Keeper class of coastal buoy tenders in the 1990s that are 175 feet (53 m) in length and named after lighthouse keepers.

Keeper-class cutters serve the Coast Guard in a variety of missions and are tasked with maintaining aids to navigation (ATON), search and rescue (SAR), law enforcement (LE), migrant interdiction, marine safety inspections, environmental protection and natural resources management. Keeper-class cutters are also used for light ice breaking operations.

These vessels are 175' long and replaced the World War II era 180', 157' and 133' tenders. The new class of buoy tender cut crew size from 50, 35 and 26, respectively, to 25, saving the already cash-strapped Coast Guard financial and personnel resources.

Keeper-class cutters were built by Marinette Marine of Marinette, WI.

Keeper-class cutters are equipped with mechanical Z-drive azimuth thruster propulsion units instead of the standard propeller and rudder configuration. These mechanical drives are designed to independently rotate 360 degrees. Combined with a thruster in the bow, they enable Keeper-class tenders to dynamically maneuver in a variety of sea states. This creates an extremely maneuverable platform which, when combined with modern navigation aids such as GPS, DPS, and ECDIS to allow the Cutter to maintain static positions. This allows the cutter to precisely place an aid to navigation (ATON).

Keeper-class boarding teams are armed with modern small arms.

Contents

1 List

2 See also

3 Notes

4 Further reading

5 External links

List

The following 175-foot WLMs in service (as of 2006):

Cutter Homeport Namesake Laid down Launched[1] Completed[1]

USCGC Ida Lewis (WLM-551) Newport, Rhode Island Ida Lewis 23 January 1995[2] 14 October 1995 1 November 1996

USCGC Katherine Walker (WLM-552) Bayonne, New Jersey Katherine Walker 8 April 1996[2] 14 September 1996 27 June 1997

USCGC Abbie Burgess (WLM-553) Rockland, Maine Abbie Burgess 26 September 1996[2] 5 April 1997 19 September 1997

USCGC Marcus Hanna (WLM-554) South Portland, Maine Marcus Hanna 22 August 1996[2] 23 August 1997 26 November 1997

USCGC James Rankin (WLM-555) Baltimore, Maryland James Rankin 21 April 1997[2] 25 April 1998 26 August 1998

USCGC Joshua Appleby (WLM-556) St. Petersburg, Florida Joshua Appleby 8 August 1998 20 November 1998

USCGC Frank Drew (WLM-557) Portsmouth, Virginia Frank Drew 5 December 1998 17 June 1999

USCGC Anthony Petit (WLM-558) Ketchikan, Alaska Anthony Petit 30 January 1999 1 July 1999

USCGC Barbara Mabrity (WLM-559) Mobile, Alabama Barbara Mabrity 27 March 1999 29 July 1999

USCGC William Tate (WLM-560) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania William Tate 8 May 1999 16 September 1999

USCGC Harry Claiborne (WLM-561) Galveston, Texas Harry Claiborne 26 June 1999 28 October 1999

USCGC Maria Bray (WLM-562) Atlantic Beach, Florida Maria Bray 28 August 1999 6 April 2000

USCGC Henry Blake (WLM-563) Everett, Washington Henry Blake 20 November 1999 18 May 2000

USCGC George Cobb (WLM-564) San Pedro, California George Cobb 18 December 1999 22 June 2000