Keeper-class cutter


The United States Coast Guard commissioned a new Keeper class of coastal buoy tenders in the 1990s that are 175 feet in length and named after lighthouse keepers.
Keeper-class cutters serve the Coast Guard in a variety of missions and are tasked with maintaining aids to navigation, search and rescue, law enforcement, migrant interdiction, marine safety inspections, environmental protection and natural resources management. Keeper-class cutters are also used for light ice breaking operations.
These vessels are 175' long and replaced the World War II era 180', 157' and 133' tenders. The new class of buoy tender cut crew size from 50, 35 and 26, respectively, to 25, saving the already cash-strapped Coast Guard financial and personnel resources.
Keeper-class cutters were built by Marinette Marine of Marinette, WI.
Keeper-class cutters are equipped with mechanical Z-drive azimuth thruster propulsion units instead of the standard propeller and rudder configuration. These mechanical drives are designed to independently rotate 360 degrees. Combined with a thruster in the bow, they enable Keeper-class tenders to dynamically maneuver in a variety of sea states. This creates an extremely maneuverable platform which, when combined with modern navigation aids such as GPS, DPS, and ECDIS to allow the Cutter to maintain static positions. This allows the cutter to precisely place an aid to navigation.
Keeper-class boarding teams are armed with modern small arms.

List

The following 175-foot WLMs in service :
CutterHomeportNamesakeLaid downLaunchedCompleted
Newport, Rhode IslandIda Lewis23 January 199514 October 19951 November 1996
Bayonne, New JerseyKatherine Walker8 April 199614 September 199627 June 1997
Rockland, MaineAbbie Burgess26 September 19965 April 199719 September 1997
South Portland, MaineMarcus Hanna22 August 199623 August 199726 November 1997
Baltimore, MarylandJames Rankin21 April 199725 April 199826 August 1998
St. Petersburg, FloridaJoshua Appleby8 August 199820 November 1998
Portsmouth, VirginiaFrank Drew5 December 199817 June 1999
Ketchikan, AlaskaAnthony Petit30 January 19991 July 1999
Mobile, AlabamaBarbara Mabrity27 March 199929 July 1999
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaWilliam Tate8 May 199916 September 1999
Galveston, TexasHarry Claiborne26 June 199928 October 1999
Atlantic Beach, FloridaMaria Bray28 August 19996 April 2000
Everett, WashingtonHenry Blake20 November 199918 May 2000
San Pedro, CaliforniaGeorge Cobb18 December 199922 June 2000