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, mu ...
high endurance cutter
The designation of high endurance cutter (WHEC) was created in 1965 when the United States Coast Guard adopted its own designation system. High endurance cutters encompass the largest cutters previously designated by the United States Navy as ...
constructed. The 2,748-ton cutter’s ocean crossing range was 10,000 miles at 20 knots.
''Mellon'' was laid down on 25 July 1966 at
Avondale Shipyards Avondale Shipyard was an independent shipbuilding company, acquired by Litton Industries, in turn acquired by Northrop Grumman Corporation. In 2011, along with the former Ingalls Shipbuilding, the yard was part of Huntington Ingalls Industries. It c ...
Andrew W. Mellon
Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...
, the 49th U.S.
Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
from 1921-1932, and launched on 11 February 1967 by Mrs. John W. Warner, Jr., sponsor and granddaughter of the late Secretary Andrew Mellon. ''Mellon'' was commissioned 9 January 1968.
''Mellon'' was built with a welded steel hull and aluminum superstructure. She was one of the first naval vessels built with a combined diesel and gas turbine propulsion plant. Her twin screws can use 7,000 diesel shaft horsepower to make 17 knots, and a total of 36,000 gas turbine shaft horsepower to make 28 knots. The two
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...
s are
Fairbanks-Morse
Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, ...
and are larger versions of their 1968 diesel locomotive design. Her two
Pratt-Whitney
Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially airlines) and military av ...
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December ...
passenger jet aircraft. The ''Hamilton''-class cutters were among the first American vessels to use jet aircraft-type turbines for propulsion.
Operational history
USCGC ''Mellon'' was originally homeported in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the islan ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...
. ''Mellon'' saw extensive service during the conflict in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
. She was twice awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. During her service in the waters adjacent to Vietnam, ''Mellon'' conducted numerous naval gunfire support missions, rescue operations, medical civic action programs, and training programs for Vietnamese military personnel. In March 1970, ''Mellon'' was involved in pursuit of mutineers involved in the SS ''Columbia Eagle'' incident during the Vietnam War.
Upon returning from Vietnam, ''Mellon’s'' primary theater of operation shifted to an area of the Pacific Ocean known as "Ocean Station November." Here she performed search and rescue and oceanographic research missions. Coast Guard cutters conducting
Ocean Station
A weather ship, or ocean station vessel, was a ship stationed in the ocean for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting. They were primarily located in the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans, report ...
operations were a primary communication link for commercial aircraft making trans-oceanic flights in the era before
satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...
communications and satellite
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
navigation. By the mid-1970s, ''Mellon’s'' primary area of operation shifted northward to the icy waters of the
Gulf of Alaska
The Gulf of Alaska (Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the eas ...
and the
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Amer ...
.
In February 1974, ''Mellon'' played a major role rescuing the crew of the empty Italian
ore-bulk-oil carrier
An ore-bulk-oil carrier, also known as combination carrier or OBO, is a ship designed to be capable of carrying wet or dry cargoes. The idea is to reduce the number of empty ( ballast) voyages, in which large ships only carry a cargo one way and r ...
''Giovanna Lolli-Ghetti''. They survived a series of explosions, fire, and then sinking of the combination carrier within three hours. At midnight ''Mellon'' was advised of a distress call from 900 miles northeast of Hawaii. At roughly 1115 hrs the next morning, ''Mellon'' reached the area where the vessel ''Tamerlane'' (Norway) was rescuing survivors from the now deserted tanker.
The survivors transferred to ''Mellon'' for medical treatment, warm food and clean clothes. The nearby ''Novikov Priboy'' from Russia arrived to give additional medical aid. Seven of the crew were not recovered. Two survivors with severe burns were airlifted off ''Mellon'' by a USCG
Sikorsky HH-52 Seaguard
The Sikorsky HH-52 Seaguard (company designation S-62) was an early amphibious helicopter designed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. It was the first of the company's amphibious rotorcraft to fly.
The S-62 ...
helicopter carried out and flown off the Australian light aircraft carrierHMAS ''Melbourne''. The rest were taken back to Honolulu on ''Mellon''.Mellon History United States Coast Guard, p. 3, 6 June 2008, Retrieved 12 November 2010
In October 1980, ''Mellon'' assisted in the rescue of 520 passengers and crew of the MS ''Prinsendam'', a 427 foot long luxury cruise liner in distress in the Gulf Of Alaska when fire broke out in her engine room. The vessel’s
master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
declared the fire out of control after an hour and ordered the vessel abandoned. Most of the passengers and crew made it into lifeboats, while some were left on board. Eventually all the lifeboats and all passengers and crew were found and recovered with no deaths or serious injuries. After the rescue operations were completed, the ''Mellon'' remained on scene in a futile attempt to fight the fire that had originated in the ''Prinsendam'' engine room and progressed throughout the ship. While the ''Prinsendam'' was under tow by salvage tugs, and escorted by ''Mellon'', the burning ship suddenly listed hard over to port and sank within a few minutes.
In 1981, ''Mellon'' moved to her new homeport of
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
.
''Mellon'' was modernized from 1985 to 1989 during the
Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization
The Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) program of the United States Navy extended the lives of World War II-era destroyers by shifting their mission from a surface attack role to that of a submarine hunter. The FRAM program also cove ...
(FRAM) program. She and a portion of the Hamilton-class were outfitted with all-weather, over-the-horizon RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and test firings of the harpoon were conducted on the ''Mellon'' in January 1990. At least three WHEC cutters, the USCGC ''Hamilton'', USCGC ''Morgenthau'', and USCGC ''Mellon'', were equipped with Harpoon missiles.
All ''Hamilton''-class cutters also carried an ASW suite that was upgraded during FRAM, this included MK 32 Mod 7 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes, AN/SQS-38 sonar, Mk-309 Mod 0 Underwater Battery Fire Control System, and AN/SLQ-25 (NIXIE) torpedo countermeasures. After the collapse of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, the joint Navy/USCG board decided there was no military threat to require the installation of anti-ship missiles and anti-submarine weapons on board cutters, and subsequently removed the weapons. However the fitting and firing of Harpoons on these cutters served as a proof of capability for all Hamilton-class USCG cutters.
''Mellon'' is scheduled to be decommissioned in August, 2020. Mellon History United States Coast Guard, p. 1, 21 June 2008,
Trivia
In the 1980 Disney film ''
The Last Flight of Noah's Ark
''The Last Flight of Noah's Ark'' is a 1980 American family adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions starring Elliott Gould, Geneviève Bujold and Ricky Schroder. The film was released by Buena Vista Distribution on July 9, 1980. A full ...
'', the ''Mellon'' found and rescued the crew of an airplane that had been converted into a makeshift life raft.
Gallery
File:USCGC Mellon Seattle 2018.jpg, USCGC ''Mellon'' in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
for SeaFair Fleet Week
File:USCGC Mellon (WHEC-717).png, In Seattle in 2018 repainting her "Racing Stripe".