USCGC Point Verde (WPB-82311) was an 82 foot Point-class cutter constructed at the Coast Guard Yard

United States Coast Guard Yard

The United States Coast Guard Yard or just Coast Guard Yard is a United States Coast Guard operated shipyard located on Curtis Bay in northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland, just south of the Baltimore city limits. It is the coast guard's sole shipbuilding and major repair facility, and part of the...

 at Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1961 for use as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat. Since the Coast Guard policy in 1961 was not to name cutters

United States Coast Guard Cutter

Cutter is the term used by the United States Coast Guard for its commissioned vessels. A Cutter is or greater in length, has a permanently assigned crew, and has accommodations for the crew to live aboard...

 under 100 feet (30.5 m) in length, it was designated as WPB-82311 when commissioned and acquired the name Point Verde in January 1964 when the Coast Guard started naming all cutters longer than 65 feet (19.8 m).

Construction details

Point Verde was built with a mild steel hull and an aluminum superstructure that could accommodate an 8 man crew. She was powered by two 600 hp VT600 Cummins

Cummins

Cummins Inc. is a Fortune 500 corporation that designs, manufactures, distributes and services engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission control and electrical power generation systems...

 diesel main drive engines and had two five-bladed 42 inch propellers. The main drive engines were later replaced by 900 hp VT900M (1710) Cummins engines. Longitudinally framed construction was used to save weight. Water tank capacity was 1550 gal and fuel tank capacity was 1840 gal at 95% full. In 1990 she was not refit with 800 hp Caterpillar main drive engines.

History

After delivery in 1961, Point Verde was assigned a homeport of Venice, Louisiana

Venice, Louisiana

Venice is an unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is 130 km south of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River at . It is the last community down the Mississippi accessible by automobile, and is the southern terminus of the Great River Road...

, where she served as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat. In September 1965 she assisted in cleanup operations in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Betsy

Hurricane Betsy

Hurricane Betsy was a Category 4 hurricane of the 1965 Atlantic hurricane season which caused enormous damage in the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana. Betsy made its most intense landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River, causing significant flooding of the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into...

. Escort duty was performed in November 1965 of a raised barge carrying chlorine. After Norwegian MV Sage Sky struck a submerged object, Point Verde escorted her to Southwest Pass. The crew of Point Verde used their law enforcement experience after a knife fight aboard MV Ashley Lykes by taking two seamen into custody near Southwest Pass on 26 February 1967. On 2 April 1967 she escorted the disabled FV Lovie D. to South Pass

South Pass

South Pass is two mountain passes on the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Wyoming. The passes are located in a broad low region, 35 miles broad, between the Wind River Range to the north and the Oregon Buttes and Great Divide Basin to the south, in southwestern Fremont...

. On 30 October 1967 she medevac

MEDEVAC

Medical evacuation, often termed Medevac or Medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to the wounded being evacuated from the battlefield or to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of an accident to receiving medical facilities using...

ed a passenger from MV Bashkara Jayanti 380 miles southeast of New Orleans. Point Verde assisted in fighting a fire on MV Gulf Supreme in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana

Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana

Plaquemines Parish is the parish with the most combined land and water area in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Pointe à la Hache...

 on 25 December 1967. She towed a disabled pleasure craft near Mobile Point

Mobile Point

Mobile Point is a peninsula in Baldwin County, Alabama that partially encloses Mobile Bay. At its western tip is Fort Morgan, which faces Fort Gaines sitting across the inlet to the Mobile Bay, on Dauphin Island. Along the point is the unincorporated community of Fort Morgan, Alabama....

 to Dauphin Island, Alabama

Dauphin Island, Alabama

Dauphin Island is a town in Mobile County, Alabama , on a barrier island also named Dauphin Island , at the Gulf of Mexico. The population was 1,371 at the 2000 census. The town is included in the Mobile metropolitan statistical area...

 on 30 October 1968. While in dry dock at New Orleans she sustained a fire during January 1969.

From 1969 to 1979 Point Verde was homeported at Dauphin Island. After 1979 she was stationed at Pensacola, Florida

Pensacola, Florida

Pensacola is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle and the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 56,255 and as of 2009, the estimated population was 53,752...

. On 12 June 1991 Point Verde was decommissioned and transferred to the government of Mexico.

External links

• "Point" Class 82-foot WPBs Coast Guard Historian's website