USCGC ''Alex Haley'' (WMEC-39) is a

United States Coast Guard Cutter United States Coast Guard Cutter is the term used by the U.S. Coast Guard for its commissioned vessels. They are or greater in length and have a permanently assigned crew with accommodations aboard. They carry the ship prefix USCGC. Histo ...

and former

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

vessel that was recommissioned for Coast Guard duty on 10 July 1999. It first entered service as USS ''Edenton'' (ATS-1), an on 23 January 1971. In 1995, ''Edenton'' won the

Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award The Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award is presented annually by the U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Operations to one ship in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and one in the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Generally the recipient is the ship with the highest score in ...

for the Atlantic Fleet. The conversion from a salvage ship to a Coast Guard cutter involved the removal of the stern towing machine, forward crane, and A-frame, and the installation of a

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

, retractable

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

, and air-search radar. Additionally, her four aging Paxman

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s were replaced with four 16-cylinder

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

diesels. The cutter was named after

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

Alex Haley Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family.'' ABC adapted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and ...

, the first chief journalist of the Coast Guard, the first African-American to reach the rank of

chief petty officer A chief petty officer (CPO) is a senior non-commissioned officer in many navies and coast guards, usually above petty officer. By country Australia "Chief Petty Officer" is the second highest non-commissioned rank in the Royal Australian Navy ...

, and the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning author of '' Roots: The Saga of an American Family''. Haley served in the Coast Guard for 20 years. The vessel's current home port is

Kodiak, Alaska Kodiak (Alutiiq language, Alutiiq: ) is the main city and one of seven communities on Kodiak Island in Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska, Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska. All commercial transportation between the island's communities and the outside ...

at the

Coast Guard Base Kodiak Coast Guard Base Kodiak is a major shore installation of the United States Coast Guard, located in Kodiak, Alaska. The largest tenant unit on the base is Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak, Air Station Kodiak. It is also the home port for several Un ...

from where she carries out her Fishery Law Enforcement and Search and Rescue primary missions.

In fiction

In the 2007 novel ''Robert Ludlum's The Arctic Event'' by James H. Cobb, ''Alex Haley'' is the ship that takes the heroes out to the island where a

Tu-4 The Tupolev Tu-4 (; NATO reporting name: Bull) is a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. The aircraft was a copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, having been reve ...

laden with

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' biovar ''anthracis''. Infection typically occurs by contact with the skin, inhalation, or intestinal absorption. Symptom onset occurs between one ...

crashed during the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

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

Photos

File:USS Edenton (ATS-1) at anchor in the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Capes (USA), 8 August 1989 (330-CFD-DN-ST-89-11241).jpg, USS ''Edenton'' before becoming ''Alex Haley'' File:USCGC Alex Haley transfers detained fishing vessel to China Coast Guard 2301 in Sea of Japan (5-6).jpg, USCGC Alex Haley in Sea of Japan File:ALEX HALEY ON PATROL (FOR RELEASE) (2898959553).jpg, USCGC Alex Haley on Patrol in Cook Inlet, Alaska

References

Notes

Sources

USCGC ''Alex Haley''
*

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alex Haley (WMEC-39) Edenton-class salvage and rescue ships Ships built in Lowestoft 1968 ships Medium endurance cutters