USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39)

USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39)
History
United States
Name: Edenton (ATS-1)
Namesake: Alex Haley (USCG)
Laid down: 28 March 1967
Launched: 15 May 1968
Commissioned: 23 March 1971
Decommissioned: 29 March 1996
Struck: 29 December 1997
Fate: Transferred to USCG
United States
Name: Alex Haley
Namesake: Alex Haley (USCG)
Acquired: 10 July 1999
Homeport: Kodiak, Alaska
Motto: Find the good and praise it.
Status: in active service
General characteristics
Class and type: Edenton-class salvage and rescue ship
Displacement:
  • 2,592 tons (lt)
  • 3,484 tons (fl)
Length: 283 ft (86 m)
Beam: 59 ft (18 m)
Draft: 17 ft (5.2 m), 18 ft (5.5 m)max
Propulsion:
  • 4 Caterpillar diesels,
  • twin screws,
  • 6,800 shp
Speed: 18 knots
Range: 10,000 miles
Complement:
  • 10 officers
  • 90 enlisted
  • 4 aircrew
Armament:
  • 2 × 25 mm guns,
  • 2 × .50 caliber guns

The USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39) is a United States Coast Guard Cutter and former U.S. Navy vessel that was recommissioned for Coast Guard duty on 10 July 1999. It was first commissioned as the USS Edenton (ATS-1), an Edenton-class salvage and rescue ship on 23 January 1971. In 1995, Edenton won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award for the Atlantic Fleet.

The conversion from a salvage ship to a Coast Guard cutter involved the removal of the stern towing machine, forward crane, and A-frame, and the installation of a flight-deck, retractable hangar, and air-search radar. Additionally, her four aging Paxman diesel engines were replaced with four 16 cylinder Caterpillar diesels.

The cutter was named after author and journalist Alex Haley, the first chief journalist of the Coast Guard, the first African-American to reach the rank of chief petty officer, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Haley served in the Coast Guard for 20 years.

Her current home port is Kodiak, Alaska at the U.S. Coast Guard Integrated Support Command Kodiak from where she carries out her Fishery Law Enforcement and Search and Rescue primary missions.

Photos

References

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