USCGC ''Lawrence Lawson'' is the 20th to be delivered to the United States Coast Guard. She was built at

Bollinger Shipyards Bollinger Shipyards is an American constructor of ships, workboats and patrol vessels. Its thirteen shipyards and forty drydocks are located in Louisiana and Texas. Its drydocks range in capacity from vessels of 100 tons displacement to 22,000 to ...

, in Lockport, Louisiana, and delivered to the Coast Guard, for her sea trials, on October 20, 2016. She was commissioned on March 18, 2017. She is the second cutter of her class to be the homeported at the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, New Jersey, and also the second to be stationed outside of the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

. Like her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s, ''Lawrence Lawson'' is primarily devoted to search and rescue, and interception of drug and people smugglers. The vessels are capable of a full speed of at least , and have a range of . The vessels are designed to support a crew of approximately two dozen, for missions of up to five days. The 58 Sentinel-class cutters will replace the slightly smaller s.

Homeported in Cape May

The homeport of ''Lawrence Lawson'' and her sister ship, is the Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May. According to the '' Cape May County Herald'' local citizens welcome the Coast Guard presence, and its contribution to the local economy.

Operational history

Days after President Donald Trump announced he was making a large cut to the Coast Guard's budget the Coast Guard diverted ''Lawrence Lawson'' to Washington DC, where senior members of the military and Congress toured the vessel. Her first commanding officer was LCDR Joe Rizzo, a 2005 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academyhttp://www.capemaycountyherald.com/community/coast_guard/article_6742ffc6-0e66-11e7-8aaf-7373121b21d4.html, Cape May County Herald, Mar. 21, 2017

Namesake

In 2010, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, the U.S. Coast Guard's senior enlisted person at the time, lobbied for the new Sentinel-class cutters to be named after enlisted Coast Guardsmen, or personnel from its precursor services, who had distinguished themselves by their heroism. The vessel is named in honor of

Lawrence O. Lawson Lawrence Oscar Lawson (September 11, 1842 - 29 Oct 1912) was a station keeper in the United States Life-Saving Service. He was given command of the Evanston, Illinois, Life–Saving Station Number 12, District 11 of the United States Life-Saving ...

, who served as the

United States Lifesaving Service The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian effort ...

's stationkeeper, in Evanston, Illinois, and who led the crew of his oar-powered surfboat into icy, stormy waters in the widely celebrated rescue of the entire crew of the steamship ''Calumet''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence O. Lawson 2016 ships Ships built in Lockport, Louisiana Sentinel-class cutters