USCGC Mellon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
USCGC Mellon (WHEC-717) was the third United States Coast Guard Hamilton-class high endurance cutter constructed. The 2,748-ton cutter’s ocean crossing range was 10,000 miles at 20 knots.
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USCGC Mellon (WHEC-717) in the Bering Sea, 2001. | |
History | |
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United States | |
Builder | Avondale Shipyards |
Laid down | 25 July 1966 |
Launched | 11 February 1967 |
Commissioned | 9 January 1968 |
Decommissioned | 20 August 2020 |
Homeport | Seattle, Washington |
Identification |
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Motto |
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Badge | |
General characteristics | |
Type | High endurance cutter |
Displacement | 3,250 metric tons |
Length | 378 ft (115 m) |
Beam | 43 ft (13 m) |
Draft | 15 ft (4.6 m) |
Installed power |
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Propulsion |
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Speed | 29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph) |
Range | 14,000 nmi (26,000 km; 16,000 mi) |
Endurance | 45 days |
Complement | 167 and can carry up to 186 |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Electronic warfare & decoys | 2 × MK 36 SRBOC launcher system |
Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 1 × MH-65 Helicopter |
Aviation facilities | Flight deck and Hangar |
Mellon was laid down on 25 July 1966 at Avondale Shipyards near New Orleans, Louisiana. She was named for Andrew W. Mellon, the 49th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1921-1932, and launched on 11 February 1967 by Mrs. John W. Warner, Jr., sponsor and granddaughter of the late Secretary Andrew Mellon. Mellon was commissioned 9 January 1968.
Mellon was built with a welded steel hull and aluminum superstructure. She was one of the first naval vessels built with a combined diesel and gas turbine propulsion plant. Her twin screws can use 7,000 diesel shaft horsepower to make 17 knots, and a total of 36,000 gas turbine shaft horsepower to make 28 knots. The two diesel engines are Fairbanks-Morse and are larger versions of their 1968 diesel locomotive design. Her two Pratt-Whitney marine gas turbine engines are similar to those installed in Boeing 707 passenger jet aircraft. The Hamilton-class cutters were among the first American vessels to use jet aircraft-type turbines for propulsion.[1]