USCGC Benjamin Dailey

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USCGC Benjamin Dailey (WPC-1123) was the United States Coast Guard's 23rd Sentinel-class cutter.^[2]^[3]^[4] She was the first cutter of her class stationed in the Coast Guard's Eighth District, with a homeport in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

NameBenjamin Dailey

NamesakeBenjamin Baxter Dailey

OperatorUnited States Coast Guard

BuilderBollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana

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History

USCGC Benjamin Dailey after sunset in Key West, Florida




United States
Name	Benjamin Dailey
Namesake	Benjamin Baxter Dailey
Operator	United States Coast Guard
Builder	Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
Sponsored by	Pamela Dailey Sawey
Acquired	April 20, 2017^[1]
In service	July 4, 2017
Stricken	September 6, 2022
Identification	MMSI number: 338926423 Callsign: NDOJ Hull number: WPC-1123
Motto	Audentes Fortuna Iuvat, "Fortune Favors the Bold"
Nickname(s)	Big Ben
Fate	Sold for scrap
Status	Arrived for scrapping at Brownsville, Texas
Badge


General characteristics
Class & type	Sentinel-class cutter
Displacement	353 long tons (359 t)
Length	46.8 m (154 ft)
Beam	8.11 m (26.6 ft)
Depth	2.9 m (9.5 ft)
Propulsion	2 × 4,300 kW (5,800 shp) 1 × 75 kW (101 shp) bow thruster
Speed	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range	2,500 nautical miles (4,600 km; 2,900 mi)
Endurance	5-8 days
Boats & landing craft carried	1 × Cutter Boat - Over the Horizon Interceptor Small boat callsign: Baxter
Complement	4 officers, 20 crew
Sensors & processing systems	L-3 C4ISR suite
Armament	1 × Mk 38 Mod 2 25 mm automatic gun 4 × crew-served Browning M2 machine guns

The vessel's manufacturer, Bollinger Shipyards, of Lockport, Louisiana, delivered the ship to the Coast Guard, in Key West, on April 20, 2017, for final outfitting and crew training.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

USCGC Benjamin Dailey was commissioned at a ceremony held in Pascagoula, Mississippi on July 4, 2017.

Mission

The Sentinel-class cutters are lightly armed patrol vessels with a crew of approximately two dozen sailors, capable of traveling almost 3,000 nautical miles, on five-to-eight day missions. The cutter is a multi-mission vessel intended to perform law enforcement, search and rescue, fisheries and environmental protection, and homeland security tasks.

Namesake

Benjamin B. Dailey was the keeper of the Cape Hatteras Lifesaving Station. On December 22, 1884 Dailey, and the crew of six United States Life-Saving Service surfmen he commanded, rescued nine crewmen from the foundering barkentine Ephraim Williams, and were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] Of the twelve Gold Lifesaving Medals awarded by the Life-Saving Service in its first thirty years of operation, seven were awarded for this rescue.^[11]

In 2010, Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the United States Coast Guard's most senior non-commissioned officer, proposed that the cutters in the Sentinel class should be named after enlisted sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who were recognized for their heroism.^[12]^[13] In 2014 the Coast Guard announced that Benjamin Dailey would be the namesake of the 23rd cutter.^[14]^[15]

Operational history

Shortly after being commissioned, Benjamin Dailey deployed on behalf of her operational commander, the Eighth Coast Guard District, conducting counter-narcotics, fisheries enforcement, and border security off southern Texas. In August 2017, the ship provided rescue and assistance for Houston after Hurricane Harvey struck the city. In May 2018, Benjamin Dailey participated in GOMEX 2018, a five-day exercise between the U.S. Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Mexican Navy in Tampico, Mexico.

On December 10, 2021, the ship was heavily damaged during a fire while in drydock in Tampa, Florida.^[16] The vessel was subsequently decommissioned^[17] and placed into inactive reserve at the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Beaumont, Texas on September 6, 2022. She departed the Beaumont Reserve Fleet to be scrapped on March 29, 2024.^[18]

References

[1]
"Acquisition Update: Coast Guard Accepts 23rd Fast Response Cutter" (Press release). 2017-04-20. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
[2]
Eric Haun (2017-04-20). "Bollinger Delivers USCGC Benjamin Dailey". Marine Link. Archived from the original on 2017-04-21. The Coast Guard took delivery of the 154-foot patrol craft on April 20, 2017 in Key West, Fla. The vessel's commissioning is scheduled for July 4, 2017 in Pascagoula, Miss.
[3]
Ken Hocke (2017-04-21). "Bollinger delivers latest fast response cutter to USCG". WorkBoat magazine. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. Retrieved 2017-04-21. Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La., has delivered the 154'x25'5″x9'6″ Benjamin Dailey to the Coast Guard, the 23rd fast response cutter (FRC).
[4]
"Bollinger delivers the 23rd FRC to USCG". Port News. 2017-04-21. Archived from the original on 2017-04-22. This vessel was named after Coast Guard Hero Benjamin Dailey. Dailey, Keeper of the Cape Hatteras Life-Saving Station, was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal on April 24, 1885 for his exceptional bravery in one of the most daring rescues by the Life-Saving Service.
[5]
Christopher Havern (2014-01-23). "Benjamin B. Dailey". USCG. Archived from the original on 2014-08-28.
[6]
"Who are some of the heroes of the Coast Guard?". USCG. 2014-08-26. Archived from the original on 2014-03-15. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
[7]
"Rowboats to choppers, tales of rescue at sea". Life magazine. 1967-07-15. p. 50. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
[8]
"Two Tales of Bravery from the U.S. Life-Saving Service". Carolina Outer Banks. Archived from the original on 2014-08-28. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
[9]
"The U.S. Lifesaving Service". National Park Service. Archived from the original on 2014-07-15. Retrieved 2014-08-27. Cape Hatteras National Seashore preserves the history of the U.S. Lifesaving Service on the Outer Banks. Walk the same beaches that Rasmus Midgett once patrolled or stop and see what Keeper Dailey's medal looks like at the Museum of the Sea near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
[10]
"Hatteras Island Lifesaving Stations". North Carolina Beaches. Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. All seven members of the Ephraim Williams were rescued during a treacherous weather/water situation in December 22,1884. Keeper Benjamin B. Dailey and his men stoically braved huge breakers crashing ashore. An investigator of the wreck later wrote that the rescue was performed perhaps during the most tumultuous waters that anyone had ever seen.
[11]
David Stick (1989). "Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast". University of North Carolina Press. pp. 112–115. ISBN 9780807842614. Retrieved 2026-04-29. During the first thirty years of operation of the Lifesaving Service on the North Carolina coast a total of twelve Gold Lifesaving Medals, highest such award made by our government, were presented for exceptional bravery in saving life. Of this number, seven--more than half--were awarded to the lifesavers from Cape Hatteras and Creeds Hill stations who rescued the crew of the barkentine Ephraim Williams.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
[12]
Susan Schept (2010-03-22). "Enlisted heroes honored". United States Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2013-02-01. After the passing of several well-known Coast Guard heroes last year, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard Charles "Skip" Bowen mentioned in his blog that the Coast Guard does not do enough to honor its fallen heroes.
[13]
"U.S. Coast Guard announces name for first Sentinel-class cutter". 2010-03-22. Archived from the original on 2010-03-25. Retrieved 2013-02-01. Previously designated to be named the Coast Guard Cutter Sentinel, the cutter Bernard C. Webber will be the first of the service's new 153-foot patrol cutters. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen approved the change of the cutter's name to allow this class of vessels to be named after outstanding enlisted members who demonstrated exceptional heroism in the line of duty. This will be the first class of cutters to be named exclusively for enlisted members of the Coast Guard and its predecessor services.
[14]
"Acquisition Update: Coast Guard Unveils Names of FRCs 16-25". US Coast Guard. 2014-02-27. Archived from the original on September 26, 2014. Retrieved 2016-12-15. The Coast Guard recently announced the names of 10 Sentinel-Class Fast Response Cutters (WPCs 1116-1125) through a series of posts on its official blog, the Coast Guard Compass. Like the first 15 ships in the class, each ship will honor a Coast Guard enlisted hero.
[15]
"FRC Plan B: The Sentinel Class". Defense Industry Daily. 2014-05-02. Archived from the original on 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2014-04-03. All of these boats will be named after enlisted Coast Guard heroes, who distinguished themselves in USCG or military service. The first 25 have been named, but only 8 have been commissioned...
[16]
Berdychowski, Bernadette (December 11, 2021). "Coast Guard cutter undergoing repairs catches fire at Port Tampa Bay". Tampa Bay Times. Port Tampa Bay. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
[17]
Fagan, Linda L. (November 15, 2023). Fast Response Cutter Laydown (PDF) (Report). U. S. Coast Guard. p. 2. Retrieved June 21, 2024. One ship, Coast Guard Cutter (CGC) Benjamin Dailey (WPC 1123), was severely damaged in a shipyard fire in December 2021. Coast Guard subject matter experts determined that repair of the vessel was not feasible. If repaired, the cutter would not have fulfilled its expected service life and would have incurred higher operational costs. CGC Benjamin Dailey has been de-commissioned.
[18]
National Defense Reserve Fleet Inventory For the Month Ending April 30, 2024 (PDF) (Report). U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. May 1, 2024. p. 2. Retrieved June 22, 2024. Arrived BRF 06 SEP 2022; depart for All Star Metals recycling, 29 MAR 2024; ETA 01 APR 2024

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USCGC Benjamin Dailey

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