USCGC ''Charles Sexton'' (WPC-1108) is the eighth

cutter Cutter may refer to: Tools * Bolt cutter * Box cutter * Cigar cutter * Cookie cutter * Cutter (hydraulic rescue tool) * Glass cutter * Meat cutter * Milling cutter * Paper cutter * Pizza cutter * Side cutter People * Cutter (surname) * Cutt ...

, and the second to be based in

Key West, Florida Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Islan ...

. She was delivered to the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

for a final evaluation and shakedown on December 10, 2013, and the vessel was commissioned on March 8, 2014.

Design

The Sentinel-class cutters were designed to replace the shorter s. ''Charles Sexton'' is armed with a remote-control

Bushmaster autocannon The M242 Bushmaster chain gun is a 25 mm (25×137mm) single-barrel chain-driven autocannon. It is used extensively by the U.S. military, such as in the Bradley fighting vehicle, as well as by other NATO members and some other nations in ground ...

and four crew-served

M2HB The M2 machine gun or Browning .50-caliber machine gun (informally, "Ma Deuce") is a heavy machine gun that was designed near the end of World War I by John Browning. While similar to Browning's M1919 Browning machine gun, which was chambered ...

.50-caliber machine guns. She has a

bow thruster Manoeuvering thrusters (bow thrusters and stern thrusters) are transversal propulsion devices built into or mounted to either the Bow (watercraft), bow or stern (front or back, respectively) of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow th ...

for maneuvering in crowded anchorages and channels. She also has small underwater fins for coping with the rolling and pitching caused by large waves. She is equipped with a

stern launching ramp Some modern patrol vessels are equipped with a stern launching ramp, or simply launching ramp, for deploying smaller rescue or pursuit boats without requiring the parent ship to first come to a halt. Typically the smaller craft are powered b ...

, like the and the eight failed expanded Island-class cutters. She has a

complement Complement may refer to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class collections into complementary sets * Complementary color, in the visu ...

of twenty-two crew members. Like the Marine Protector class, and the cancelled extended Island-class cutters, the Sentinel-class cutters deploy the

Short Range Prosecutor The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Short Range Prosecutor is a 7-meter, high speed launch designed to be launched from cutters, at speed, from a stern launching ramp. The Short Range Prosecutor is a Rigid-hulled inflatable boat, rigid-hull infl ...

rigid-hulled inflatable A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are i ...

(SRP or RHIB) in rescues and interceptions. According to ''

Marine Log Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine current power * Marine debris * Marine energy * Marine habitats * Mari ...

'', modifications to the Coast Guard vessels from the Stan 4708 design include an increase in speed from , fixed-pitch rather than variable-pitch

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

s, stern launch capability, and watertight bulkheads. ''Charles Sexton'' has an

overall length The overall length (OAL) of an ammunition cartridge is a measurement from the base of the brass shell casing to the tip of the bullet, seated into the brass casing. Cartridge overall length, or "COL", is important to safe functioning of reloads i ...

of , a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of , and a

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

of . Her

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

is and she has a maximum speed of over . The Sentinel-class cutters have endurances of five days and a range of .

Operational career

On May 21, 2015, the ''Charles Sexton'' intercepted 117 undocumented migrants from the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

from a dangerously overloaded boat. 93 men and 24 women were repatriated home. ''Charles Sexton'' joined in the search for the freighter , which disappeared during an October 2015

Hurricane Joaquin Hurricane Joaquin ( ; ) was a powerful tropical cyclone that devastated several districts of The Bahamas and caused damage in the Turks and Caicos Islands, parts of the Greater Antilles, and Bermuda. It was also the strongest Atlantic hurricane ...

. The cutter intercepted 39 Cuban refugees, for return to Cuba, in November 2015. Three separate refugee craft were intercepted. In November, 2018, the ''Charles Sexton'', and her sister ship, the ''William Trump'', interdicted 36 Cuban migrants, and repatriated 35 of them to

Cabañas, Cuba Cabañas is a village and ''consejo popular'' of the municipality of Mariel, in the Artemisa Province, on the northeast coast in western Cuba. History Prior to 1970 was a municipality of Pinar del Río Province. Cabañas bay is a harbor with in ...

. One migrant seemed to suffer from respiratory arrest. The onboard EMT treated the victim, who was then sent to a US port for further medical treatment.

Namesake

The vessel is named after

Charles W. Sexton Charles W. Sexton (March 7, 1953 – January 11, 1991), Machinery Technician First Class, United States Coast Guard, USCG, was awarded a posthumous award of the Coast Guard Medal for "extraordinary heroism." Action cited Sexton died during the r ...

, who served as a Machinery Technician in the United States Coast Guard. Sexton lost his life while rescuing fishermen off the mouth of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles Sexton (WPC-1108) 2013 ships Ships built in Lockport, Louisiana Sentinel-class cutters