USCGC Dauntless (WMEC-624)
USCGC Dauntless (WMEC-624)
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Builder: | American Ship Building Company |
| Laid down: | 15 May 1965 |
| Launched: | 21 October 1967 |
| Commissioned: | 10 June 1968 |
| Homeport: | Galveston, Texas |
| Motto: | Sin Miedo Spanish for Without Fear |
| Status: | Active |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 759 tons |
| Length: | 210 ft 6 in (64.16 m) |
| Beam: | 34 ft (10 m) |
| Draft: | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) max |
| Propulsion: | 2 x Cooper-Bessemer Corporation FVBM-12 turbocharged diesel engines (1968); 2 x Alco diesels (1987) |
| Speed: | max 18 knots; 2,700 mile range (1968) |
| Range: | cruise 14 knots; 6,100 mile range (1968) |
| Complement: | 12 officers, 63 enlisted (1990) |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
2 x AN/SPS-64 (1987) |
| Armament: |
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The USCGC Dauntless (WMEC-624) is a United States Coast Guard cutter, commissioned in 1968 and still on active duty.
She is the first cutter in Coast Guard history to hold this name. Like all ships in the Reliance class of 210-foot medium-endurance cutters, Dauntless is named for an aspirational trait, in this case meaning to "persevere fearlessly." This trait is further reflected in the ship's motto Sin Miedo which, in Spanish, means "Without Fear."
Since her commissioning, Dauntless was homeported in Miami, Florida, until 1993, when she was decommissioned and entered Major Maintenance Availability (MMA) at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland. After 18 months and at a total cost of $21 million, the ship was completely overhauled from stem to stern. The major renovations included the addition of an engine exhaust stack aft of the pilot house, a complete powerplant overhaul, installation of new navigation and communications systems, and extensive habitability improvements. After MMA, Dauntless was assigned to her new homeport of Galveston, Texas.
Dauntless has earned a reputation as one of the nation's premier "drug busters." Dauntless became the first cutter in history to seize one million pounds of marijuana, an accomplishment signified by a large gold marijuana leaf painted on her superstructure. During her Coast Guard career, Dauntless has over 85 illegal narcotics "busts" to her credit, more than any other cutter.
She has also played a leading role in search and rescue (SAR) operations. During the mass Cuban exodus (see Mariel boatlift) between April 23 and May 13, 1980, over 25 vessels were towed to safety, eight persons adrift at sea were rescued, and an astonishing 55 SAR cases were conducted. The ship's most- publicized case occurred during January 1986, when Dauntless was first to arrive and served as on-scene commander (until relieved by USCGC Dallas) for the response to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. On November 24, 1995, Dauntless rescued 578 migrants from a grossly overloaded 75-foot coastal freighter, the largest number of migrants rescued from a single vessel in Coast Guard history.
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Wikipedia