83-foot patrol boat

The United States Coast Guard wooden-hulled 83-foot patrol boats (also called cutters) were all built by Wheeler Shipyard in Brooklyn, New York during World War II. The first 136 cutters were fitted with a tapered-roof Everdur silicon bronze wheelhouse but due to a growing scarcity of that metal during the war, the later units were fitted with a flat-roofed plywood wheelhouse.[4] A total of 230 83-footers were built and entered service with the Coast Guard during the war. Twelve other 83-footers were built for the Navy and were transferred to Latin American navies.[5]

The 83-foot CGC-624 (later USCG-14) in 1942
Class overview
Name: 83-foot patrol boat
Builders: Wheeler Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York
Operators:  United States Coast Guard
Preceded by: 400-series patrol boat[1]
Succeeded by: Cape-class and Point-class cutters
Completed: 230
Preserved: 1
General characteristics [2]
Class and type: Patrol boat
Displacement: 76 tons fully loaded
Length: 83 ft (25 m)
Beam: 16 ft (4.9 m)
Height: 64 in (1,600 mm)
Installed power: Twin Sterling Viking II gasoline engines[3]
Propulsion: twin propellers
Speed: 20 kt

The patrol boats were powered by two 600-horsepower "Viking 2nd" Model TCG-8 inline eight-cylinder gasoline engines manufactured by the Sterling Engine Company. Their combined fuel economy was poor: 100 gallons per hour at a cruising speed of 12 knots, 120 gallons per hour at full throttle.[6]

The class was followed by Cape-class 95-foot patrol boat (or cutter) and 82-foot Point-class cutter.

Rescue Flotilla One
USCG-20 and USCG-21 off Normandy

Sixty of the 83-foot cutters were sent to England to serve as rescue craft off each of the landing beaches during the Invasion of Normandy.[5] Officially called Rescue Flotilla One (ResFlo One), the cutters were nicknamed the "Matchbox Fleet" because their wood construction and large gasoline tanks made them potential tinderboxes.[3]

Renumbered USCG-1 through USCG-60, they were able to pull almost 500 men from the water on D-Day. The thirty cutters assigned to the American sector saved 194 men off shore from Omaha Beach and 157 near Utah Beach.[7] Arriving off the invasion beaches at 5:30 AM, the cutter USCG-16 alone rescued 126 men that day.[8] The thirty cutters assigned to the British and Canadian sectors saved 133 men from the water off Gold, Juno and Sword Beaches.[7]

No cutters were lost to enemy fire, but USCG-27 and USCG-47 foundered along the Normandy Coast during a storm on June 21, 1944.[9] Operating from June through December 1944, the cutter flotilla saved 1438 lives.[8]

Tiburon

In September, 2018, the last surviving 83-foot patrol boat, Tiburon (formerly CG-83366/USCG-11, built in 1942[10]) was purchased by a Seattle couple for $100 from another private owner who had converted it to a motor yacht. For the 75th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy (D-Day) in June, 2019, it was on display on Lake Union near the Center for Wooden Boats and the Museum of History & Industry.[11] While moored in Seattle, Tiburon had also been the site of crew reunions for D-Day celebrations in 2006 and 2007.[12][13]

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References
  1. Flynn 2014, p. 14.
  2. Flynn 2014, p. 24.
  3. "Matchbox 60 vital to success of Operation Neptune". Coast Guard News. Bright Mountain Media, Inc. June 6, 2015. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  4. Scheina, Robert L. (1982). U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Naval Institute Press. p. 222. ISBN 9780870217173. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  5. "The U. S. Coast Guard in World War II", United States Coast Guard History Command, text accompanying photos 2002117288 and 2002120254, accessed June 10, 2019
  6. Acosta, Greg (March 22, 2019). "The World's Largest Inline Gasoline Engine Ever? The Sterling TCG-8". EngineLabs. Power Automedia. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  7. "The U.S. Coast Guard at D-Day: Rescue Flotilla One the "Matchbox Fleet"" (PDF). U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. March 13, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  8. "U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla One" (PDF). U.S. Coast Guard History Program. May 27, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  9. "Casualties: U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Vessels Sunk or Damaged Beyond Repair during World War II 7 December 1941-1 October 1945". Naval History and Heritage Command. May 1, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  10. Flynn 2014, p. 20.
  11. Elise Takahama (June 8, 2019). "Coast Guard cutter that survived D-Day landings being restored by King County couple". The Seattle Times.
  12. "June Dinner Program – Coast Guard Combat Operations on D-Day: A Local Living History Story" (PDF), PSMHS Newsletter, Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, June 2007
  13. Donna Gordon Blankinship (June 6, 2006). "D-Day veteran reunited with his Coast Guard cutter 62 years after invasion". Associated Press – via Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Sources

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Coast Guard document: "The U. S. Coast Guard in World War II".

See also
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