Website Links
Description
Design - 83-footers were wood-hulled craft, the hull form was the round bilged type, single planked. Walter J. McInnis was appointed design agent on December 6 1940 to develop the plans for the 83-foot class. The design was completed March 19 1941 and 40 units were contracted to Wheeler Shipyard, Incorporated, Brooklyn, NY. War started before the contract was completed and subsequent contracts for 44, 40 and 106 units were awarded. The early units were fitted with an Everdur bronze wheelhouse. These were prefabricated in Boston. MA. and shipped by railcar to the Wheeler Yard. Later units (83436--83529) had plywood wheelhouses because of a shortage of bronze. Those 83-footers operating above Cape Henry. VA. were ice sheathed. All the craft were capable of 20.6 kts full speed at the time of delivery, but their performance was degraded by machinery wear as well as the increased displacement from armaments. radar. and sonar. Twelve additional units were built for the USN and four transferred to Cuba, three the Dominican Republic, one to Haiti, and four to Venezuela. Nineteen Coast Guard units were also transferred to Latin American navies during the war including eight to the navies of Cuba ,two to Colombia, six to Peru and three to Mexico. General Service - From 1941-45 they were used for antisubmarine patrol, coastal convoy escort and search and rescue. In the Spring of 1944. 60 units were shipped to Great Britain and became USCG Rescue Flotilla No. 1, based at Poole, England. It deployed in Two 30 boat rescue groups for Normandy landings and rescued 1500men. Thirty of these 60 units returned to the United States, 24 remained in Europe, 4 were transferred to the Royal Navy, and 2 were lost in January 1945. Forty units were ordered to COMSERV7THFLEET in the PHILSEAFRON as USCG PTC Flotilla Number One and operated out of Manicani Island. just south of the Island of Samar near Leyte. None of the units had served in Europe and none were returned to the United States. All were decommissioned in the Philippines and disposed of by Foreign Liquidation Commission (an organ of the U.S. State Department) in 1945. Twenty four additional units were transferred to the Pacific to serve in Advanced Base Harbor Defense Force (ABHD) (code named LION) at bases in Okinawa and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands, and Saipan and Guam in the Mariana Islands. Four of these units had served in Europe. Following WWII most 83 footers remaining in the Coast Guard were in a decommissioned status for brief periods and only final decommissioning is cited.