Tag Archives: us coast guard yard

A Peek At Curtis Bay

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While the Navy still maintains four government-run public Naval Shipyards (Norfolk, Portsmouth, Puget Sound, and Pearl), an often forgotten gem in its smaller sister service, the Coast Guard, is the U.S. Coast Guard Yard. Located on just 22 acres of waterfront along Maryland’s Curtis Bay just south of the Baltimore city limits, the little yard that could is the Service’s sole shipbuilding and major repair facility, and has held that title since 1899. The USCGY, besides a longstanding tradition of performing overhauls and SLEPs on the service’s aging cutters (including assets going back to the 1940s), is the last American supporter of MK 75 76mm guns.

The yard just posted a great series of drone shots showcasing its operations.

The ship lift is full to expanded capacity thanks to the $26M Shiplift Expansion Project that added a third rail system. You even get a different perspective of the 87-foot Patrol Boats being crane-lifted!

Note the gray hulls to the left, likely 87-foot WPBs getting ready to be transferred to an overseas ally as aid. At least five other white hull WPBs are further up on the left corner. Two buoy tenders are to the left along with another 87 while the barque Eagle and a 270-foot cutter are in dry dock ashore with a 110-foot Island class WPB ahead of them

Check out the 87 foot Maritime Protector patrol boat (WPB) being lifted. The 87-foot Recurring Depot Availability Program (RDAP) project is a four-year recurring maintenance cycle for the Coast Guard’s entire Atlantic Area 87-foot coastal patrol boat fleet (47 vessels). Each cutter is at the Yard for a 66-day planned maintenance period. Crews arrive with a “used” 87-foot patrol boat and pick up a freshly overhauled patrol boat from the Yard, which they immediately sail back to their homeport.

America’s tall ship, USCGC Eagle, alongside a 270-foot Bear class cutter undergoing SLEP. Note that the 270’s hangar is extended

Eagle, the 270 and 110-foot Island-class WPB in the foreground

Another view of the Eagle and the 270

Two WWII vets, still hard at work

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Here we see past Warship Wednesday subject, the oldest vessel in the U.S. Coast Guard, and one of the last ships afloat and in active service that dates from World War II: the Gorch Fock-class segelschulschiff USCGC Eagle (WIX-327), America’s only active-duty square rigger.

This uncommon view of her was taken last week at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore, the only one in the service, as Eagle undertakes the next step in her five-year SLEP modernization. She is inside the former U.S. Navy ARD-18 Class Auxiliary Repair Dock, USS Oak Ridge (ARDM-1).

Built at Alameda in 1944, the Oak Ridge is 81-years young and during her lengthy Naval career was based in the Philippines, Groton, Rota, and Kings Bay until she was disposed of in 2001. The 551-foot dock can lift ships up to 437-feet long, making her ideal for the Coast Guard as her largest vessels, the new National Security Cutters, are just 418-feet oal.

The dock was transferred to the Coasties in 2001 with the assumption she had about five more years left on her before she would be condemned, and Eagle may be Oak Ridge‘s last customer.

The dock is in bad shape.

According to a 2015 DHS report, she sank in 2011 resulting in $4 million in repairs and costs $1 million per year to barely maintain– 11 times greater than the more modern Syncrolift shiplift system the Yard has installed.

Her gantry cranes, installed in 1963, are inoperative as “it is no longer cost-effective to fabricate replacement parts for crane engines, structure, and controls.” Further, “Other installed equipment including diesel generators, auxiliary pumps, boilers, streamlines, welding gas, air compressors, airlines, and crew berthing have all been removed from
service over the past 10 years as a result of disrepair.”

As far as her hull, she is supposed to be dry-docked herself every 10 years but hasn’t been since the 1990s and there are no active shipyards within a safe distance from the CG Yard capable of drydocking her, so, “this work has been permanently deferred until Oak Ridge is removed from service,” which is expected in 2018.

As for Eagle, on the other hand, the last mid to walk her decks likely hasn’t been born yet.