The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

wooden-hulled 83-foot patrol boats (also called cutters) were all built by Wheeler Shipyard in Brooklyn, New York during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The first 136 cutters were fitted with a tapered-roof Everdur

silicon bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

wheelhouse but due to a growing scarcity of that metal during the war, the later units were fitted with a flat-roofed plywood wheelhouse. A total of 230 83-footers were built and entered service with the Coast Guard during the war. Twelve other 83-footers were built for the Navy and were transferred to Latin American navies. The patrol boats were powered by two 600-horsepower "Viking 2nd" Model TCG-8 inline eight-cylinder gasoline engines manufactured by the Sterling Engine Company. Their combined fuel economy was poor: 100 gallons per hour at a cruising speed of 12 knots, 120 gallons per hour at full throttle. The class was followed by Cape-class 95-foot patrol boat (or cutter) and 82-foot

Point-class cutter The Point-class cutter was a class of 82-foot patrol vessels designed to replace the United States Coast Guard's aging 83-foot wooden hull patrol boat being used at the time. The design utilized a mild steel hull and an aluminum superstructure. ...

Rescue Flotilla One

Sixty of the 83-foot cutters were sent to England to serve as rescue craft off each of the landing beaches during the

Invasion of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

."The U. S. Coast Guard in World War II"

History Command, text accompanying photo
2002117288
an
2002120254
accessed June 10, 2019 Officially called Rescue Flotilla One (ResFlo One), the cutters were nicknamed the "Matchbox Fleet" because their wood construction and large gasoline tanks made them potential tinderboxes. Renumbered USCG-1 through USCG-60, they were able to pull almost 500 men from the water on D-Day. The thirty cutters assigned to the American sector saved 194 men off shore from Omaha Beach and 157 near Utah Beach. Arriving off the invasion beaches at 5:30 AM, the cutter USCG-16 alone rescued 126 men that day. The thirty cutters assigned to the British and Canadian sectors saved 133 men from the water off Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches. No cutters were lost to enemy fire, but USCG-27 and USCG-47 foundered along the Normandy Coast during a storm on June 21, 1944. Operating from June through December 1944, the cutter flotilla saved 1438 lives.

''CGC 83525''

''CGC 83525'' has the honor of being the only US Coast Guard cutter to host an official surrender ceremony. On 4 September 1945, CGC 83525 transported US Navy RADM Marshall R. Greer to

Aguigan Aguiguan (also Aguigan and Aguihan, based on the Spanish rendition of the native name, Aguijan, which is still used) is a small bean-shaped coralline island in the Northern Mariana Islands chain in the Pacific Ocean. It is situated south-west of ...

Island in the Marianas to accept the surrender of the Japanese garrison that held the island from 2nd Lt Kinichi Yamada, two days after the

Surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

aboard USS ''Missouri''. Decommissioned after the war, CGC 83525 would be sold off after the war to a civilian owner, eventually being abandoned in the

Sacramento Delta ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. Parts of the vessel were salvaged during a clean up effort of the Delta in 2011 and donated to Coast Guard Station Rio Vista for use as a memorial.

''Tiburon''

In September, 2018, the last surviving 83-foot patrol boat, ''Tiburon'' (formerly CG-83366/USCG-11, built in 1942) was purchased by a Seattle couple for $100 from another private owner who had converted it to a

motor yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

. For the 75th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day) in June, 2019, it was on display on

Lake Union Lake Union is a freshwater lake located entirely within the city limits of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is a major part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which carries fresh water from the much larger Lake Washington on the east to ...

near the

Center for Wooden Boats The Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) is a museum dedicated to preserving and documenting the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest area of the United States. CWB was founded by Dick Wagner in Seattle in the 1970s and has grown to include three si ...

and the

Museum of History & Industry The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) is a history museum in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest private heritage organization in Washington state, maintaining a collection of nearly four m ...

. While moored in Seattle, ''Tiburon'' had also been the site of crew reunions for D-Day celebrations in 2006 and 2007.

References

Sources

* {{USCG, article = The U. S. Coast Guard in World War II , url = https://www.history.uscg.mil/Our-Collections/Commemorations/World-War-II/

External links