Tag Archives: Hamilton class cutters

Make Ready the Boarding and Capture team!

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The Coast Guard Historian’s Office has the 316-page CG-260 manual of organizations and regs for 378-foot high endurance cutters, dated January 1973, digitized online.

USCGC Morgenthau (WHEC-722), a 378-foot high endurance cutter, by John Wisinski

Covering the dozen Hamilton-class cutters, it makes interesting reading, especially for those interested in Cold War/Vietnam-era Coastie and by extension Naval lore.

I found the Landing and VBSS (Visit, board, search, and seizure) bills particularly interesting.

They include a two-squad 27-man Landing team, a 6-man Visit/Search team, a 31-man Boarding and Capture team, and a 27-man Prize Crew with the number of pistols (at the time M1911s) and rifles/SMGs (M1 Garands and M1 Thompsons) listed.

The Hamiltons would, in the 1980s, upgrade their WWII-era small arms lockers to M9s and M16A2s while ditching their 5″/38 main battery for a MK 75 76mm OTO. Also gone were the 26-foot whaleboats in lieu of RHIBs.

And don’t scream about OPSEC, as all this stuff is a few generations outdated.

Anyway, enjoy!

The Hamilton Five

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USCGC Boutwell (WPG-719; WHEC-719) in foreground; then directly starboard of Boutwell is the USCGC Jarvis (WHEC-725) which is moored ahead of the USCGC Munro (WHEC-724). Munro is astern of Jarvis and inboard of the Morgenthau (WHEC-722)--note the Harpoon launchers on Morgenthau directly behind her main battery; and finally the USCGC Sherman (WPG-720; WHEC-720) is directly astern of the Munro; USCG PACAREA photo; photo no. #PA 051892(01)-34A; May, 1992; photo by PAC R. L. Woods.

USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) in foreground; then directly starboard of Boutwell is the USCGC Jarvis (WHEC-725) which is moored ahead of the USCGC Munro (WHEC-724). Munro is astern of Jarvis and inboard of the Morgenthau (WHEC-722)–note the Harpoon launchers on Morgenthau directly behind her main battery; and finally the USCGC Sherman (WHEC-720) is directly astern of the Munro; USCG PACAREA photo; photo no. #PA 051892(01)-34A; May, 1992 ; photo by PAC R. L. Woods. Click to big up

The top of the line in 1960s warship technology, the dozen New Orleans-built Hamilton-class of High Endurance Coast Guard Cutters or “378’s” as they are referred to by the branch, were the go-to work horses of USCG for the past four decades. They replaced a host of WWII (and earlier) cutters and stood on the line against the Soviets, ready to escort convoys to Europe if the balloon ever went up. They saw real-live shooting war in Vietnam, providing naval gunfire support to the troops ashore. Mostly based on the west coast, today the class spends most of its time in Alaskan and Hawaiian waters.

Above you see five in 1992 in San Diego (Alameda). This is just after they were FRAM’d with Harpoon missiles (only Morgenthau so equipped) 76mm guns, CIWS and modern torpedo tubes.

Of these five today, Sherman has just returned to San Diego from international exercises in South American waters, Munro is based in Alaska, Morgenthau in Honolulu, Boutwell  is still in California, and Jarvis was decommissioned 2012 then transferred to the Bangladesh Navy where she serves as BNS Somudro Joy (F-28).

Within the coming decade all of the remaining Hamiltons will be decommissioned and replaced by the new National Security Cutter.