The vessel was officially delivered to the Coast Guard on May 26, 2012, at Key West, Florida,[1] and was commissioned into service in Port Everglades, Florida, on August 3, 2012.[2][4]
Like the other ships of her class, Richard Etheridge is named after an enlisted member of the Coast Guard.
Operational history
On March 18, 2014, Richard Etheridge landed 1,500 pounds (680 kg) of illicit drugs captured as part of Operation Martillo.[6]
Namesake
Richard Etheridge is named after Keeper Richard Etheridge of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the first African-American to command a life-saving station. Etheridge led the Pea Island Lifesaving Station crew of six in a daring rescue operation that saved the entire crew of the schooner E.S. Newman, which had become grounded in a treacherous storm in 1896.
Design
The Sentinel-class cutters were designed to replace the shorter 110 feet (34 m) Island-class patrol boats.[7]Richard Etheridge is armed with a remote-control 25 mm Bushmaster autocannon and four, crew-served M2HB .50-caliber machine guns. It has a bow thruster for maneuvering in crowded anchorages and channels. It also has small underwater fins for coping with the rolling and pitching caused by large waves. It is equipped with a stern launching ramp, like the Marine Protector class and the eight failed expanded Island-class cutters. It has a complement of twenty-two crew members. Like the Marine Protector class, and the cancelled extended Island-class cutters, the Sentinel-class cutters deploy the Short Range Prosecutorrigid-hulled inflatable (SRP or RHIB) in rescues and interceptions.[8] According to Marine Log, modifications to the Coast Guard vessels from the Stan 4708 design include an increase in speed from 23 to 28 knots (43 to 52 km/h; 26 to 32 mph), fixed-pitch rather than variable-pitch propellers, stern launch capability, and watertight bulkheads.[9]
Richard Etheridge has an overall length of 153 feet 6 inches (46.79 m), a beam of 25 feet (7.6 m), and a displacement of 325 long tons (330 t; 364 short tons). Its draft is 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m) and it has a maximum speed of over 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). The Sentinel-class cutters have an endurance of five days and a range of 2,950 nautical miles (3,390 mi; 5,460 km).[7]
^"Bollinger Built Fast Response Cutter Undergoes Sea Trials". Maritime Executive. 2011-12-06. Archived from the original on 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2011-12-13. The vessel, now known as BERNARD C. WEBBER, was launched on April 21 and first got underway on November 27th to begin builder's trials. The builder's trials will include pier side and underway machinery and equipment tests including propulsion, command control and navigation. After successful builder's trials WEBBER will prepare for acceptance trails by the Coast Guard, prior to its January 2012 delivery.
^"Coast Guard Seizes Cocaine and Marijuana". Maritime Executive. 2014-03-18. Retrieved 2014-03-19. Crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Richard Etheridge, a 154-foot Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter homeported at Sector Miami, offload approximately 1,500 pounds of cocaine, worth an estimated wholesale value of $23 million, in St. Petersburg, Fla., Monday, March 17, 2014.
_CoA.jpg)
