USCGC Benjamin Dailey

USCGC Benjamin Dailey (WPC-1123) was the United States Coast Guard's 23rd Sentinel-class cutter.^[2][3][4] She was the first cutter of her class stationed in the Coast Guard's Eight District, with a homeport in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

USCGC Benjamin Dailey after sunset in Key West, Florida
History
United States
Name	Benjamin Dailey
Namesake	Benjamin Baxter Dailey
Operator	United States Coast Guard
Builder	Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
Sponsored by	Pamela Dailey Sawey
Acquired	April 20, 2017[1]
In service	July 4, 2017
Stricken	September 6, 2022
Homeport	Beaumont Reserve Fleet, Beaumont, Texas
Identification	MMSI number: 338926423 Callsign: NDOJ Hull number: WPC-1123
Motto	Audentes Fortuna Iuvat, "Fortune Favors the Bold"
Nickname(s)	Big Ben
Fate	Sold for scrap
Status	Arrived for scrapping at Brownsville, Texas
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	Sentinel-class cutter
Displacement	353 long tons (359 t)
Length	46.8 m (154 ft)
Beam	8.11 m (26.6 ft)
Depth	2.9 m (9.5 ft)
Propulsion	2 × 4,300 kW (5,800 shp) 1 × 75 kW (101 shp) bow thruster
Speed	28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph)
Range	2,500 nautical miles (4,600 km; 2,900 mi)
Endurance	5-8 days
Boats & landing craft carried	1 × Cutter Boat - Over the Horizon Interceptor Small boat callsign: Baxter
Complement	4 officers, 20 crew
Sensors and processing systems	L-3 C4ISR suite
Armament	1 × Mk 38 Mod 2 25 mm automatic gun 4 × crew-served Browning M2 machine guns

The vessel's manufacturer, Bollinger Shipyards, of Lockport, Louisiana, delivered the ship to the Coast Guard, in Key West, on April 20, 2017, for final outfitting and crew training.^[1][2][3][4]

USCGC Benjamin Dailey was commissioned at a ceremony held in Pascagoula, Mississippi on July 4, 2017.

Mission

The Sentinel-class cutters are lightly armed patrol vessels with a crew of approximately two dozen sailors, capable of traveling almost 3,000 nautical miles, on five-to-eight day missions. The cutter is a multi-mission vessel intended to perform law enforcement, search and rescue, fisheries and environmental protection, and homeland security tasks.

Namesake

In 2010, Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the United States Coast Guard's most senior non-commissioned officer, proposed that all 58 cutters in the Sentinel class should be named after enlisted sailors in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services, who were recognized for their heroism.^[5][6] In 2014 the Coast Guard announced that Benjamin B. Dailey, keeper of the Cape Hatteras Lifesaving Station, would be the namesake of the 23rd cutter.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Dailey, and the crew of Life Saving Service surfmen he commanded, had rescued nine crewmen from the wreck of the Ephraim Williams, and were awarded the Gold Life Saving Medal.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Operational history

Shortly after being commissioned, Benjamin Dailey deployed on behalf of her operational commander, the Eighth Coast Guard District, conducting counter-narcotics, fisheries enforcement, and border security off southern Texas. In August 2017, the ship provided rescue and assistance for Houston after Hurricane Harvey struck the city. In May 2018, Benjamin Dailey participated in GOMEX 2018, a five-day exercise between the U.S. Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Navy, and the Mexican Navy in Tampico, Mexico.

On December 10, 2021, the ship was heavily damaged during a fire while in drydock in Tampa, Florida.^[15] The vessel was subsequently decommissioned^[16] and placed into inactive reserve at the Beaumont Reserve Fleet in Beaumont, Texas on September 6, 2022. She departed the Beaumont Reserve Fleet to be scrapped on March 29, 2024.^[17]

CGC BENJAMIN DAILEY conducting flight operations with a HH-65 from CG Air Station New Orleans