USCGC Spencer (WMEC-905)

USCGC ''Spencer'' (WMEC-905) is a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. Her keel was laid on 26 June 1982 at Robert Derecktor Shipyard Incorporated, Middletown, Rhode Island. Named for John Canfield Spencer, United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1843 to 1844 under President John Tyler, she was and launched on 17 April 1984 and commissioned into service on 28 June 1986.

Operational history

1980s

During a law enforcement patrol in 1987, ''Spencer'' arrested 23 people and confiscated more than 46,000 pounds of marijuana from four smuggling vessels. While on a south patrol in 1989, ''Spencer'' rescued and repatriated 538 Haitian migrants bound for the United States, and later seized a Panamanian freighter laden with 438 kilograms of cocaine.

1990s

In March 1991, ''Spencer'' towed a disabled U.S. Navy frigate, ''W.S. Sims'', a ship twice ''Spencer''s size, to safety. ''Spencer'' participated in the search for a missing Air National Guard pararescueman during the 1991 Perfect Storm. In June 1994, ''Spencer'' made the first planned deployment of a 270-foot cutter with an SH-60 helicopter. This ship/helicopter deployment was shortened so that ''Spencer'' could participate in the response to a mass exodus of Haitian migrants. ''Spencer'' was on-scene command for patrol boats recovering survivors and dead from the February 1993 sinking of the ferry ''Neptune'' in the Gulf of Gonave. The ship rescued over 1700 Haitian migrants during this patrol, 544 of whom were rescued on a single day on July 4, 1994. Two months later, ''Spencer'' repatriated more than 200 Haitian migrants from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. During New York City's Annual Fleet Week of 1995, ''Spencer'' welcomed more than 5000 visitors. ''Spencer'' also carried several crew members from the Treasury Class high endurance cutter USCGC Spencer (WPG-36), which served during World War II, in honor of Fleet Week's celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of that war. In early 1996, ''Spencer'' responded to the Alas Nacionales plane crash off the coastal waters of the Dominican Republic in which 188 people lost their lives. On April 22, 1997, ''Spencer'' seized 3905 pounds of cocaine off the coast of Honduras. When the fishing vessel ''Lady of Grace'' became disabled during a severe storm in November 1997, ''Spencer'' was there to save the crew and tow the vessel to safety. In 1999, ''Spencer'' was the on-scene command vessel for the EgyptAir Flight 990 crash off Nantucket, controlling both U.S. Navy and Coast Guard assets in the search and recovery efforts. Recently, ''Spencer'' worked with the French warship , to seize 1800 kilograms of pure cocaine off the coast of Venezuela.

2020s

On July 1, 2023 ''Spencer'' began a major overhaul at the Coast Guard Yard. The work was carried out under the Service Life Extension Program and is collectively referred to as the "SLEP". It is intended to increase the cutter's lifetime by up to ten years by replacing her obsolete equipment and by generally making her easier to maintain. In particular, ''Spencer''s two 27-ton main diesel engines were replaced with new ALCO 251 engines; the two removed diesel engines were sent to Fairbanks Morse Defense for remanufacture and later reinstallation in sister ship ''USCGC Campbell'' during ''Campbell''s SLEP. The other areas on which the SLEP concentrated were the cutter's weapons system, electrical system and hull. ''Spencer'' was scheduled to spend fifteen months in SLEP but in the event spent twenty months, leaving the Coast Guard Yard on March 8, 2025.

References

External links

''Spencer'' home page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer
Ships of the United States Coast Guard
Famous-class cutters
1984 ships
Ships built in Middletown, Rhode Island