USCGC ''Catenary'' (WYTL-65606) was a cutter in the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

(USCG). Constructed by the Gibbs Gas Engine Company and commissioned in early 1962, the vessel served as part of the USCG for over 30 years before being decommissioned in mid-1995 and sold to the

United States Merchant Marine Academy The United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA or Kings Point) is a United States service academy in Kings Point, New York. It trains its midshipmen (as students at the academy are called) to serve as officers in the United States Merchant ...

. During her service ''Catenary'' was based primarily on the east coast of the United States where she was utilized mainly in a law enforcement role.

Construction and design

Crewed by five personnel, ''Catenary'' was a small vessel displacing 74 tons. She was long, with a beam of and a draft. The vessel's powerplant consisted of one Caterpillar D375 V-8 diesel engine which produced 400 shaft horsepower and drove a single propeller, giving a cruising speed of and a cruising range of . Her maximum speed was , at which she could patrol . She carried no armament, but was fitted with a SPN-11 detection radar. Upon completion she cost a total of $US 158,366 to construct.

History

''Catenary'' was one of fifteen steel-hulled icebreaking small harbor tugs that were put into service in the 1960s to replace wooden-hulled harbor tugs that the Coast Guard had used since the 1940s. ''Catenary'' was one of six in her class constructed by the Gibbs Gas Engine Company (later acquired by Aerojet General Corp.) in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

. After being commissioned in April 1962, she was initially homeported at

Gloucester City, New Jersey Gloucester City is a city in Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 11,456,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Her duties included law enforcement and search and rescue as well as ice operations. On 1 May 1995, ''Catenary'' was decommissioned and sold to the

. She served as a training vessel under the name MV ''Growler''. She performed training missions involving shiphandling, maneuvering, navigation, and towing, as well as participating in Merchant Marine Academy public relations trips throughout Long Island Sound, the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

, and New York Harbor. The vessel was operated by crews of midshipmen participating in the Academy's Power Squadron, a fleet of power-driven vessels used for everything from fishing to long-range trips.

References

External links

USCG Historians Office page on USCGC ''Catenary''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catenary (Wytl-65606) 1962 ships Ships of the United States Coast Guard United States Merchant Marine Academy Ships built in Jacksonville, Florida USCG 65' small harbor tugs

Construction and design

History

References

Further reading

External links