USCGC Boutwell

USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) was a United States Coast Guard high endurance cutter based out of San Diego, California. Named for George S. Boutwell, United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant. Boutwell engaged in many CG missions, including Search and Rescue, Law Enforcement, Maritime Security, and National Defense.

USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719)
History
United States
Name: USCGC Boutwell
Namesake: George S. Boutwell
Builder: Avondale Shipyards
Cost: US$15 million
Laid down: 1967
Launched: 17 June 1967
Sponsored by: Mrs. Douglas Dillon
Commissioned: 1968
Decommissioned: March 16, 2016
Homeport: San Diego, California
Identification:
Motto: "Best in the West"
Fate: Decommissioned March 16, 2016 transferred to the Philippine Navy
General characteristics
Class and type: Hamilton-class cutter
Displacement: 3,250 tons
Length: 378 ft (115.21 m)
Beam: 43 ft (13.11 m)
Draft: 15 ft (4.57 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 29 knots (54 km/h)
Range: 14,000 miles
Endurance: 45 days
Boats & landing
craft carried:		 2 x OTH
Complement: 167 personnel
Sensors and
processing systems:
  • Mk-92 FCS
  • AN/SPS-40 air-search radar
  • AN/SPS-73 surface-search radar
Electronic warfare
& decoys:
  • WLR-1H Electronic Support
  • 2 x Mk-36 SRBOC
Armament:
Aircraft carried: 1 x HH-65 Dolphin helicopter
Aviation facilities: Retractable hangar

Boutwell was decommissioned on March 16, 2016 at Naval Base San Diego, California.[1][2] She was then sold to the Philippines as Excess Defense Article (EDA) and rechristened the BRP Andrés Bonifacio (FF-17), becoming [3][4] the third Hamilton-class cutter to be transferred to the Philippine Navy.

History

USCGC Boutwell was the fifth of the Coast Guard's fleet of 378-foot high endurance cutters. She was built in 1967 in the Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was launched on 17 June 1967, and her launching sponsor was Mrs. Douglas Dillon. After she was commissioned in 1968, she proceeded to her first home port, Boston, Massachusetts. In 1973 she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she remained until she entered the Fleet Renovation and Modernization Program in 1990. Once her renovation was complete she moved to Coast Guard Island in Alameda, California. In 2011 she relocated to San Diego, California, to replace the decommissioned high endurance cutter USCGC Hamilton.

In 1980 Boutwell conducted the largest at-sea rescue ever achieved, when she rescued more than 500 people from the burning cruise ship Prinsendam in the Gulf of Alaska. When the 43-foot (13.1 m) halibut-fishing vessel Comet sank in the Bering Sea approximately 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) northeast of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, after her engine room flooded, Boutwell rescued her crew of four after they had been in the water for only four minutes.[5] In 1998, Boutwell made the largest high-seas drift net arrest in Coast Guard history.

Boutwell participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She defended the oil terminals off the coasts of Iraq and Iran. For her many accomplishments and continued excellence, Boutwell received the Admiral John B. Hayes Award for Unit Excellence. In 2005, she seized 28,000 pounds (13,000 kg) of cocaine over US$900 million using the newly developed Go-Fast Response Team. With the help of a helicopter from the new Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON), Boutwell demonstrated a capability to stop and seize drugs from every go-fast boat she pursued.[6]

Boutwell was recognized as the 2013 Forrest O. Rednour Memorial Award Large Afloat Dining Facility[7] and as the second-place winner for the 2014 Large Unit Afloat MWR [Morale, Welfare, and Recreation] Program of the Year.[8] In October 2014, Boutwell completed a noteworthy[9] counterdrug deployment in support of the U.S. Coast Guard's Western Hemisphere Strategy; this deployment was cited by Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Paul Zukunft as an example of how better integration of operations and intelligence can have an impact on smuggling in the Western Hemisphere.[10]

After U.S. President Barack Obama announced during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting meeting in November 2015 that concluded the 2015 APEC summit in Manila that the United States would make a U.S. Coast Guard high endurance cutter and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography research vessel Melville available to the Philippines, Boutwell was decommissioned on 16 March 2016 at Naval Base San Diego, California, and sold to the Philippines as an excess defense article (EDA).[3] [4] Boutwell was the third Hamilton-class cutter to be transferred to the Philippine Navy.[1][2]

References
  1. Aben, Elena (13 March 2016). "USCG cedes cutter to PHL Navy". Manila Bulletin. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. "USCG: CGC Boutwell - Meet the CO". Archived from the original on 2016-04-19. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  3. Jordan, Bryant (10 October 2015). "After Decades of Service, USCGC Boutwell Makes Final Fleet Week Cruise". Military.com. San Francisco: Military Advantage. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  4. Mangosing, Frances (17 February 2015). "Obama says PH Navy will receive two ships from US". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  5. "alaskashipwreck.com Alaska Shipwrecks (C)". Archived from the original on 2019-04-26. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  6. uscg.mil. "Boutwell home page". uscg.mil. Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved 2014-04-25.
  7. uscg.mil. "ALCOAST 186/14". uscg.mil. Archived from the original on 2014-06-07. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  8. uscg.mil. "ALCGPSC 161/14". uscg.mil. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  9. uscg.mil. "Coast Guard, Western Hemisphere partners seize $423M in cocaine during multiple drug busts". uscg.mil. Archived from the original on 2015-01-04. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  10. usni.org (2015-01-16). "Commandant Zukunft: U.S. Coast Guard Moving More Resources to Western Hemisphere". usni.org. Archived from the original on 2015-02-08. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
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