USCGC ''Joseph Napier'' is a homeported in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

. She is the fifteenth Sentinel class to be delivered, and the third of six to be assigned to

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. she was commissioned on 29 January 2016. Like her sister ships, she is equipped for coastal security patrols, interdiction of drug and people smugglers, and

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 ...

. Like the smaller 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 ...

. The ramp allows the deployment and retrieval of her high speed water-jet powered pursuit boat without first coming to a stop. She is capable of more than and armed with a remote controlled

M242 Bushmaster The M242 Bushmaster chain gun is a 25 mm caliber, 25 mm (25×137mm) single-barrel chain-driven autocannon. It is used extensively by the United States Armed Forces, U.S. military, such as in the Bradley fighting vehicle, as well as by other NAT ...

autocannon; and four crew-served

Browning M2 machine gun 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 ...

Operational history

''Joseph Napier'' intercepted a fishing vessel in February 2017, that was attempting to smuggle over four tons of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

. '' Lady Michelle''s crew of four individuals from

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

were taken to the

U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located ...

, for prosecution. The cocaine's street value was estimated at US$125 million.

Namesake

She is named after Joseph Napier, who had commanded a lifeboat station at

St. Joseph, Michigan St. Joseph, colloquially known as St. Joe, is a city and the county seat of Berrien County, Michigan. It was incorporated as a village in 1834 and as a city in 1891. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 7,856. It lies on the shore ...

. Napier was an employee of the

United States Lifeboat Service The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian eff ...

, one of the precursor services that were amalgamated into the Coast Guard.

Lore

Being one of seven FRC's home ported in San Juan, Puerto Rico is a big job and eventually each boat carves out their own niche. The USCGC ''Joseph Napier'' (WPC-1115) has carved out that spot being known as "El bote de gente soñolienta". The crew of the aptly named Bote de gente soñolienta can often been seen lounging on the outside decks on beanbag chairs or logging countless hours of rack ops in an attempt to break the long-standing record held by the USCGC .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph Napier (WPC-1115) Sentinel-class cutters Ships of the United States Coast Guard 2015 ships Ships built in Lockport, Louisiana