Haitian Coast Guard
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The Haitian Coast Guard, officially the Haitian Coast Guard Commission (French: ''Commissariat des Gardes-Côtes d’Haïti'') or G-Cd'H, is an operational unit of the
Haitian National Police The Haitian National Police (PNH; french: Police Nationale d'Haïti, , National Police of Haiti) is the law enforcement and ''de facto'' police force of Haiti. It was created in 1995 to bring public security under civilian control as mandated i ...
. It is one of the few law enforcement organisations in the world to combine water policing and
coast guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
duties while remaining as a policing unit. It operates primarily as a law enforcement agency, with secondary responsibilities in search and rescue.


History

The Haitian Coast Guard was formed in the late 1930s, 20 years after the disbandment of the
Haitian Navy The Armed Forces of Haiti (french: Forces Armées d'Haïti—FAd'H), consisted of the Haitian Army, Haitian Navy (at times), the Haitian Air Force, Haitian Coast Guard, (ANI) and some police forces (Port-au-Prince Police). The Army was always ...
, and was equipped with two small
picket boat A picket boat is a type of small naval craft. These are used for harbor patrol and other close inshore work, and have often been carried by larger warships as a ship's boat. They range in size between 30 and 55 feet. Patrol boats, or any craft en ...
s named ''1'' and ''2'' and the 161-ton '' Sans Souci''. The latter was formerly the American
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 ...
'' Captain James Taylor''. During World War II, six 83-foot cutters, named ''1'' through ''6'', were transferred from the
US 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, multi ...
in 1942. Three 121-ton SC class
submarine chaser A submarine chaser or subchaser is a small naval vessel that is specifically intended for anti-submarine warfare. Many of the American submarine chasers used in World War I found their way to Allied nations by way of Lend-Lease in World War II. ...
s, ''Touissaint L'Ouverture'', ''16 Aout 1946'', and ''Admiral Killick'', were transferred in 1947, along with the 47-ton cutter ''Savannah'' and the light transport ''Vertières''. The two picket boats were withdrawn at this time. In 1948, a US Naval Mission arrived in Haiti. The transport ''Vertières'' sank in 1951 and was replaced by the ''Artibonite'', a LCT which had been previously wrecked on the Haitian coast and was subsequently salvaged. The Coast Guard remained this way until the ''Admiral Killick'' was stricken in 1954 and was replaced by a US-sourced buoy tender given the same name in 1955. In 1956 a new 100 ton coast cutter, '' La Crête-à-Pierrot'', was acquired from the United States. The two remaining sub-chasers were stricken in 1960 which is when the new ''Vertières'', sister to the ''La Crête-à-Pierrot'', was acquired. The US Navy netlayer , renamed ''Jean-Jacques Dessalines'', arrived in 1960 for a five-year, extended to 17-year lease. On April 21, 1970, three units — ''La Crête-à-Pierrot'', ''Vertières'', and ''Jean-Jacques Dessalines'' — mutinied and shelled the Presidential Palace in
Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
. They were driven off by fighter aircraft and then interred themselves in the
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Guantanamo Bay Naval Base ( es, Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by members of the U.S. military) is a United States military base ...
. The US disarmed the vessels and relocated them initially to
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
and then back to Haiti. Duvalier celebrated this event by renaming the Coast Guard the "Haitian Navy" (''La Marine Haitienne''). In 1973, Duvalier attempted to expand this with the purchase of up to 24 small boats, allegedly to include
PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the wa ...
s, but these plans came to naught. In 1976, the Haitian Navy purchased five small patrol craft from Sewart Seacraft of
Berwick, Louisiana Berwick is a town in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,946 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Morgan City Micropolitan Statistical Area. Jenny Craig, weight loss guru and founder of Jenny Craig, Inc., is origi ...
. The ''Dessalines'' was returned to the United States, while the ''Admiral Killick'', ''Artibonite'' and the ''Savannah'' and the six 83-foot cutters were stricken. In 1978, the , a Sotoyomo class tug, was acquired and recommissioned as the ''Henri Christophe''. The planned sale of a sister ship fell through. The Coast Guard in the late 1980s consisted of only the armed tug ''Henri Christophe'', nine small patrol craft built in the United States between 1976 and 1981, and the old presidential yacht ''Sans Souci''. This small force was composed of 45 officers and 280 enlisted personnel based at Port-au-Prince. When the Haitian Armed Forces were disbanded in the 1990s, the remnants of the Haitian Navy was renamed the Coast Guard and was transferred to the National Police.


Current Coast Guard

The
marine police Water police, also called harbor patrols, port police, marine/maritime police, nautical patrols, bay constables, river police, or maritime law enforcement or coastal police are police officers, usually a department of a larger police organizat ...
is exercised by a specialized unit of the National Police called the Corps des Gardes-Côtes or Coast Guard. This unit was created July 16, 1996 and is based Bizoton.


Role and mission

The core mission of the Coast Guard is to secure the maritime area of Haiti through surveillance of territorial waters and the safety of maritime navigation divided into these different functions: * Perform active surveillance of the national maritime areas; * Ensuring compliance with laws and regulations regarding fishing and navigation; * Participate in the fight against drug trafficking; * Participate in the fight against all forms of crime.


Structure

The Coast Guard consists of a command post (CP) include: Commandant of the Coast Guard, an Assistant Commandant, an Operations Manager and Head of the Administration and three basic units: ;Bases *
Killick Killick (formerly the Admiral Killick Haitian Navy base;''Washington Post''"Coast Guard cutter delivers medical supplies, help; 'we saved a lot of lives'"Spencer S. Hsu, 15 January 2010 (accessed 22 January 2010)'' also called Point Killick'') i ...
, the base of
Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...
** ''equipped with:'' 6 vedettes and 4
patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and the ...
s. * The base of
Cap-Haïtien Cap-Haïtien (; ht, Kap Ayisyen; "Haitian Cape"), typically spelled Cape Haitien in English and often locally referred to as or , is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the department of Nord. Previousl ...
** ''equipped with:'' 4 vedettes and 2 patrol boats. * The base of
Jacmel Jacmel (; ht, Jakmèl) is a commune in southern Haiti founded by the Spanish in 1504 and repopulated by the French in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Port-au-Prince across the Tiburon Peninsula ...
** ''equipped with:'' 2 vedettes and 1 patrol boat. ;Ship types * 12 Vedette: 40 foot boat - ex-Haitian naval cruisers c.1980s * Patrouilleur: 32-foot patrol boat called GO FAST for fast response.


Identification

Haitian Coast Guard vessels are marked with a diagonal blue before red slash and before the words ''Gardes-Côtes''. Coast Guard vessels are painted all-white.


Fleet

Haitian Coast Guard will purchase 4 unit 47-foot Motor Lifeboats and 4 unit Eurocopter MH-65 Dolphins from
US 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, multi ...
.


References


External links


Official Coast Guard page

Official National Police page

Canadian Embassy article
{{Authority control Coast guards
National Police National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: Cuban National Police *East Timor: National Police of ...
Government agencies established in 1995 1995 establishments in Haiti