USCGC ''Dauntless'' (WMEC-624) is a

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, mult ...

medium endurance cutter The Medium Endurance Cutter or WMEC is a type of United States Coast Guard Cutter mainly consisting of the Famous- and ''Reliance''-class cutters. These larger cutters are under control of Area Commands (Atlantic Area or Pacific Area). These cutt ...

, commissioned in 1968 and still on active duty. She is the first cutter in Coast Guard history to hold this name. Like all ships in the ''Reliance'' class of 210-foot medium-endurance cutters, ''Dauntless'' is named for an aspirational trait, in this case meaning to "persevere fearlessly." This trait is further reflected in the ship's motto ''Sin Miedo'' which, in Spanish, means "Without Fear."

Construction and career

''Dauntless'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

on 15 May 1965 and launched on 21 October 1967 by

American Ship Building Company The American Ship Building Company was the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the World War II, Second World War. It started as Cleveland Shipbuilding in Cleveland, Ohio in 1888 and opened the yard in Lorain, Ohio in 1898. It changed ...

. Commissioned on 10 June 1968. Since her commissioning, ''Dauntless'' was homeported in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, until 1993, when she was decommissioned and entered Major Maintenance Availability (MMA) at the

Coast Guard Yard The United States Coast Guard Yard or just Coast Guard Yard is a United States Coast Guard operated shipyard located on Curtis Bay in northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland, just south of the Baltimore city limits. It is the largest industrial fac ...

in Curtis Bay,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. After 18 months and at a total cost of $21 million, the ship was completely overhauled from stem to stern. The major renovations included the addition of an engine exhaust stack aft of the pilot house, a complete powerplant overhaul, installation of new navigation and communications systems, and extensive habitability improvements. After MMA, ''Dauntless'' was assigned to her new homeport of

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. After her overhaul, her 3”/50cal gun was put on display onboard USS ''Lexington'' Museum. ''Dauntless'' has earned a reputation as one of the nation's premier "drug busters." ''Dauntless'' became the first cutter in history to seize one million pounds of marijuana, an accomplishment signified by a large gold marijuana leaf painted on her

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. During her Coast Guard career, ''Dauntless'' has over 85 illegal narcotics "busts" to her credit, more than any other cutter. She has also played a leading role in

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

(SAR) operations. During the mass Cuban exodus (see Mariel boatlift) between April 23 and May 13, 1980, over 25 vessels were towed to safety, eight persons adrift at sea were rescued, and an astonishing 55 SAR cases were conducted. President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

visited the cutter on November 17, 1982 and awarded her the Coast Guard Unit Commendation. It was the first time in 19 years that a President visited a Coast Guard cutter. The ship's most- publicized case occurred during January 1986, when ''Dauntless'' was first to arrive and served as on-scene commander (until relieved by USCGC ''Dallas'') for the response to the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

''Challenger'' disaster. On November 24, 1995, ''Dauntless'' rescued 578 migrants from a grossly overloaded 75-foot coastal freighter, the largest number of migrants rescued from a single vessel in Coast Guard history. Since relocating to Galveston, ''Dauntless'' has continued performing her primary missions of law enforcement, alien migrant interdiction operations, protection of marine resources, SAR, and more recently

homeland defense Homeland defense (HD) is the protection of a territory, sovereignty, domestic population, and critical infrastructure against external threats and aggression. (Definition will be incorporated into JP 3-26Definition deferred to ''Homeland Defense, J ...

in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. Operational highlights include the four "drug busts" resulting in over 3,000 pounds of illegal drugs seized; and the September 2001 rescue of a young commercial mariner from

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

who had fallen overboard from the vessel on which he was working, and was successfully located and returned to his ship. Since the events of September 11, 2001, ''Dauntless'' has conducted several patrols dedicated to enhancing port security in the Gulf of Mexico. In July 2018, ''Dauntless'' arrived at her newly assigned homeport of Pensacola,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Awards

The cutter's awards include the Coast Guard Unit Commendation (2), the

Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation The Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC; pronounced ''muck'') is a mid-level unit award of the United States Armed Forces. The U.S. Army awards units the Army MUC for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding achievement or s ...

(5), the

Coast Guard Bicentennial Unit Commendation The Coast Guard Bicentennial Unit Commendation was a unit award of the United States Coast Guard which was awarded to all active, reserve, auxiliary, and civilian personnel of the Coast Guard for service from March 1989 to October 1989. The award ...

, the

Coast Guard "E" ribbon The Coast Guard E Ribbon was established in September 1990 and is 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 ...

(7), the National Defense Service Medal (3), and the

Humanitarian Service Medal The Humanitarian Service Medal (HSM) is a military service medal of the United States Armed Forces which was created on January 19, 1977 by President Gerald Ford under . The medal may be awarded to members of the United States military (includi ...

(3).

In fiction

''Dauntless'' has appeared in two motion pictures: ''The Island'', in which (portraying herself) she was boarded and seized by Caribbean pirates, and in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film ''

Licence to Kill ''Licence to Kill'' is a 1989 spy film, the sixteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the second and final film to star Timothy Dalton as the MI6 agent James Bond. It sees Bond suspended from MI6 as he pursues t ...

''. In the 2016 novel ''Goliath'' by Shawn Corridan & Gary Waid, ''Dauntless'' along with ''Alex Haley'' are the two Coast Guard cutters that respond to the fire aboard and subsequent stranding of a Russian ULCC.

Gallery

File:USCG Dauntless returns to port.jpg, USCGC ''Dauntless'' returning to port in December 2009. File:USCG Dauntless returns to port -b.jpg, USCGC ''Dauntless'' returning to port in December 2009. File:Shipboard landing in Gulf of Mexico 131114-G-HN254-156.jpg, USCGC ''Dauntless'' in the

on 14 November 2013. File:Shipboard training aboard Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless (27369140420).jpg, USCGC ''Dauntless'' in the

on 10 June 2016.

References

External links

History
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dauntless Historic American Engineering Record in Texas Ships of the United States Coast Guard Reliance-class cutters 1967 ships Ships built in Lorain, Ohio