USCGC ''Charles Sexton'' (WPC-1108) is the eighth
cutter, and the second to be based in
Key West, Florida
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...
.
[
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]
She was delivered to 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 ...
for a final evaluation and shakedown on December 10, 2013,
and the vessel was
commissioned on March 8, 2014.
Design
The Sentinel-class cutters were designed to replace the shorter s.
''Charles Sexton'' is armed with a remote-control
Bushmaster autocannon and four crew-served
M2HB
The M2 machine gun or Browning .50 caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed towards the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Browning's earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, wh ...
.50-caliber machine guns. It has a
bow thruster
Manoeuvering thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow th ...
for maneuvering in crowded anchorages and channels. It also has small underwater fins for coping with the rolling and pitching caused by large waves. It is equipped with a
stern launching ramp, like the and the eight failed expanded Island-class cutters. It has a
complement of twenty-two crew members. Like the Marine Protector class, and the cancelled extended Island-class cutters, the Sentinel-class cutters deploy the
Short Range Prosecutor
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Short Range Prosecutor is a 7-meter, high speed launch designed to be launched from cutters, at speed, from a stern launching ramp.
The Short Range Prosecutor is a rigid-hull inflatable, powered by water-jet ...
rigid-hulled inflatable (SRP or RHIB) in rescues and interceptions.
According to ''
Marine Log
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
'', modifications to the Coast Guard vessels from the Stan 4708 design include an increase in speed from , fixed-pitch rather than variable-pitch
propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
s, stern launch capability, and watertight bulkheads.
''Charles Sexton'' has an
overall length
The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads in ...
of , a
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
of , and a
displacement
Displacement may refer to:
Physical sciences
Mathematics and Physics
*Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
of . Its
draft is and it has a maximum speed of over . The Sentinel-class cutters have endurances of five days and a range of .
Operational career
On May 21, 2015, the ''Charles Sexton'' intercepted 117 undocumented migrants from the
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...
from a dangerously overloaded boat.
[ 93 men and 24 women were repatriated home.
''Charles Sexton'' joined in the search for the freighter , which disappeared during an October 2015 Hurricane Joaquin.][
The cutter intercepted 39 Cuban refugees, for return to Cuba, in November 2015.][ Three separate refugee craft were intercepted.
In November, 2018, the ''Charles Sexton'', and her sister ship, the ''William Trump'', interdicted 36 Cuban migrants, and repatriated 35 of them to Cabañas, Cuba.][ One migrant seemed to suffer from respiratory arrest. The onboard EMT treated the victim, who was then sent to a US port for further medical treatment.
]
Namesake
The vessel is named after Charles W. Sexton, who served as a Machinery Technician in the United States Coast Guard.[
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]
Sexton lost his life while rescuing fishermen off the mouth of the Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...
.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles Sexton (WPC-1108)
2013 ships
Ships built in Lockport, Louisiana
Sentinel-class cutters