Past Cutters

Hull
Displacement (tons) 76 fully loaded (1945); 53 fully loaded (1946)
Length 83’2″ overall; 78’0″ wl
Beam 16’2″ main beam
Draft 5’4″ max (1945); 4’6″ max fully loaded at rest (1946)

Machinery
Main Engines CG-83343 through 83348: 2 Hall Scott Defenders. 1,200 rpm; all others: 2 Sterling Viking II
SHP All units: 1,200
Propellers twin

Performance
Max Speed 15.2 knots, 215 mi radius (1945); 23.5 statute mi (trials, 1946)
Max Sustained 12.0 knots, 375 mi radius (1945)
Cruising 10.0 knots. 475 mi radius (1945)
Economic 8.2 knots. 575 mi radius (1945)

Logistics
Gasoline (95%) 1,900 gal
Complement 1 officer, 13 men (1945)

Electronics (1945)
Detection Radar SO-2 (most units)
Sonar QBE series (none on 83339. 83367-83369. 83427. 8347&83480)

Armament
1941 1 1-pounder & 2-.30 cal mg
1945 120mm/80; 4 depth charge tracks; 2 Mousetraps; none on CG-83302, 83312, 83335, 83342, 83367. 83387, 83388, 83392, 83394, 83427, 83470, 83475, 83491, 83492. 83494, 83501, 83507, 83512, 83515, 83516, 83518-83521, & 83559

Early units (83300-83435) were fitted with an Everdur bronze wheelhouse. These were pre-fabricated in Boston, MA and shipped by rail car 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 knots full speed at 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 transferred to Cuba (4), the Dominican Republic (3), Haiti (1), and Venezuela (4). Nineteen Coast Guard units were also transferred to Latin American navies during the war-the navies of Cuba (8), Colombia (2), Peru (6), and Mexico (3).

1941-45 used for anti-submarine patrol coastal convoy escort and search and rescue; Spring 44 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 1,500: 30 of these 60 units returned to the United States. Twenty-four remained in Europe. Four were transferred to the Royal Navy and 2 were lost; Jan 45.30 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 these units had served in Europe and none were returned to the United States-all were decommissioned in the Philippines and disposed of by the 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 Advance Base Harbor Defense Force (ABHD) (code name 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 WW II most 83-footers remaining in the Coast Guard were in a decommissioned status for brief periods- only final decommissionings are cited.