USCGC Diligence (WMEC-616)

USCGC Diligence (WMEC-616) is a Reliance-class United States Coast Guard 210-foot medium endurance cutter formerly based in Wilmington, NC but now based in Pensacola, Florida.[2] Diligence was the second of 16 cutters built from 1962 to 1968, fourteen of this class cutter are still in active U.S. service, and two have been transferred to foreign navies.

USCGC Diligence in 2002
History
 United States
Builder: Todd Shipyards, Houston, Texas
Acquired: 20 July 1963[1]
Commissioned: 1964
Homeport: Pensacola, Florida
Identification:
Status: Active
General characteristics
Displacement: 759 tons
Length: 210 ft 6 in (64.16 m)
Beam: 34 ft (10 m)
Draft: 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) max
Propulsion: 2 x V16 2550 horsepower ALCO diesel engines
Speed: max 18 knots; 2,700-mile range
Range: cruise 14 knots; 6,100-mile range
Complement: 12 officers, 63 enlisted
Sensors and
processing systems:		 2 x AN/SPS-64
Armament:
Aircraft carried: HH-65 Dolphin

All Reliance-class cutters were built with dual shafts and controllable pitch propellers, and were capable of speeds up to 18 knots.[2]

History

Diligence originally moored in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, and was the 6th US Coast Guard Cutter to bear that name and be homeported in Wilmington, which is one of only twenty-one cities in the country with the designation of "A Coast Guard City".[3] Diligence is capable of performing any of the missions that white-hulled Coast Guard Cutters traditionally perform, ranging from alien migrant interdiction operations (AMIO) and drug interdiction missions down in the Caribbean, to fisheries protection of the Atlantic seaboard, to search and rescue (SAR) anywhere in between. The SAR capabilities are enhanced by utilizing helicopters to extend the reach of the cutters well beyond the horizon.

On 24 Jan. 2019, the Coast Guard announced that the Diligence would be homeported in Pensacola, Florida by 30 Sept. 2020.[4] Diligence departed Wilmington for the last time on 25 May 2020.[5]

The Diligence docked at her former home port in Wilmington, North Carolina

The cutter Diligence was seen in the 1966 science fiction movie Around the World Under the Sea starring Lloyd Bridges. USCGC DILIGENCE also appeared in the Matlock TV Series in "The Heist" episode.

References
  1. Todd Shipyards Archived 25 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "WPC's & WMEC's: 1945-2000". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  3. http://www.uscg.mil/community/Coast_Guard_Cities.asp
  4. http://www.wect.com/2019/01/24/uscg-cutter-diligence-moving-home-port-florida
  5. https://www.starnewsonline.com/photogallery/NC/20200524/PHOTOGALLERY/524009999/PH/1


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