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USCGC Red Cedar
Class overview
Name	Red class
Builders	U.S. Coast Guard Yard
Operators	United States Coast Guard  Argentine Navy
Succeeded by	Keeper class
Built	1964–1971
In commission	1964–1999
General characteristics
Type	Buoy tender
Displacement	572 t (563 long tons) full load
Length	157 ft 10 in (48.11 m)
Beam	33 ft 0 in (10.06 m)
Draft	7 ft (2.1 m)
Installed power	1,800 bhp (1,300 kW)
Propulsion	2 × Caterpillar 398A Diesel engines
Speed	12.5 kn (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph)
Range	2,450 nmi (4,540 km; 2,820 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	4 officers, 28 enlisted

The Red class consisted of five coastal buoy tenders designed, built, owned, and operated by the United States Coast Guard. This was the first new class of buoy tenders built after World War II. It was designed to work in coastal waterways and the major rivers which fed them such as New York Harbor, Chesapeake Bay, and San Francisco Bay. Their primary mission was maintaining aids to navigation, with secondary missions of search and rescue, light icebreaking, law enforcement, and marine environmental protection.

At the end of their Coast Guard careers, two of the ships were sunk off the New Jersey coast as part of artificial reefs. The three others were transferred to the Argentine Navy, where they remain in service.

Origin and acquisition

Of the 26 coastal buoy tenders in the Coast Guard fleet in 1964, 11 of them were judged to be obsolete. Nonetheless, Congress only approved funding to replace the most outdated ships, and even then only on the basis that their replacements would save money due to lower maintenance and smaller crews.

Red Wood and Red Beech replaced two sister ships, steam-engine-powered buoy tenders, USCGC Hawthorne and USCGC Oak. The latter was the longest continuously serving vessel in the Coast Guard fleet at the time of her retirement.

The Coast Guard's FY 1963 budget included $3 million to fund Red Birch, which was described to Congress as a replacement for USCGC Hawthorne. Once built, however, she replaced USCGC Columbine in San Francisco.

In its FY 1969 budget request, the Coast Guard sought $2.5 million for a Red-class cutter to replace two older buoy tenders in the Chesapeake Bay and Portsmouth, Virginia area. Congress approved the funding for what became Red Cedar.

The Coast Guard received $3.1 million in its FY 1970 budget for Red Oak to replace USCGC Lilac, which was 37 years old at the time. Lilac was the last Coast Guard buoy tender to be propelled by a steam engine. Spare parts were largely unavailable and maintenance was costly and difficult.

Construction and characteristics

All five ships of the class were built at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland. Their hulls were built of welded steel plates. The ships were 157 feet (48 m) long overall, with a beam of 33 feet (10 m), and a draft of 7 feet (2.1 m). Their shallow draft and flat bottoms were required for their work along the edges of dredged channels, but this hull form made them harder to maneuver and more prone to rolling. Their hulls were reinforced for light icebreaking. They displaced 471 tons with a light load, and 572 tons with a full load.

The ships had two Caterpillar 398A diesel engines rated at 900 horsepower (670 kW) each. These drove two four-bladed controllable-pitch propellers which were 40 inches (1.0 m) in diameter. Red-class ships had a maximum speed of 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h; 14.4 mph). They had a bow thruster for increased maneuverability. This was driven by a power take-off from the starboard propulsion engine.

Their tanks held 17,620 US gallons (66,700 L; 14,670 imp gal) of diesel fuel. This gave them a range of 2,450 nautical miles (4,540 km; 2,820 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), or 2,100 nmi (3,900 km; 2,400 mi) at full speed. There were three engine control stations, two on the bridge wings and one in the pilothouse.

Their buoy deck featured a crane with the ability to lift 10 tons, which could be controlled from two different stations just below the bridge deck. The cranes' hydraulics were driven by a power take-off from the port propulsion engine. The buoy deck had 1,200 square feet (110 m) of working space.

The ships were crewed by 4 officers and 28 enlisted men. Crew quarters were air-conditioned, a notable improvement in comfort at the time.

Ships in the Red class

Argentine service

Under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, surplus military equipment could be transferred to other countries through the Excess Defense Articles program to support U.S. foreign policy objectives. Red Wood, Red Birch, and Red Cedar were transferred to the Argentine Navy through this program, after their decommissioning by the U.S. Coast Guard. These transfers were part of a comprehensive program to improve the Argentine Navy's ability to interdict drugs and their precursor chemicals.

The three ships remain in service as of 2023, and continue to execute a variety of missions.

References

1. Senate, United States Congress. Coast Guard Authorization. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 3.
2. ^ "Worlds Fair Visit Planned By Red Wood". The Day. 16 September 1964. p. 11.
3. ^ "New Buoy Tender for Coast Guard". New York Times. 29 November 1964.
4. Appropriations, United States Congress House (1962). Treasury-Post Office Departments and Executive Office Appropriations for 1963, Hearings ... 87th Congress, 2d Session. p. 194.
5. ^ "New Coast Guard Buoy Tender Vessel Arrives". Half Moon Bay Review and Pescadero Pebble. 29 July 1965. p. 3.
6. House, United States Congress (1968). Report. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 14.
7. ^ Appropriations, United States Congress House (1969). Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1970, Hearings . . . 91st Congress, 1st Session. p. 118.
8. ^ Bellemare, James (January 1988). TECHNICAL EVALUATION OF U.S. COAST GUARD 180', 157' AND 133' BUOY TENDERS (PDF). US Coast Guard.
9. Palomar, Norman (1980). The Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet (11 ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 333. ISBN 0-87021-642-2.
10. ^ The Coast Guard Engineer's Digest. Coast Guard. 1963. p. 51.
11. Brown, Kip; Schwenk, Judith; Buckiarelli, Mark (June 1992). Aids to Navigation Service Force Mix 2000 Project (PDF). Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: Office of Navigation Safety and Waterway Services, US Coast Guard. pp. 1–17/1–18.
12. "Red Wood, 1964 (WLM 685)". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
13. ^ Ayres, Horace (13 August 1964). "Curtis Bay Yard Booms But Job Ceiling Stays". Evening Sun. p. 8.
14. "Garmatz Pledges His Help To Coast Guard Shipyard". Baltimore Sun. 5 August 1964. p. 27.
15. "Red Beech, 1964 (WLM 686)". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
16. "New Buoy Tender Is Commissioned". Baltimore Sun. 21 November 1964. p. 23.
17. "Coast Guard Vessel To Be Part Of Reef". Daily Times. 7 June 2000. p. 3.
18. "Red Birch, 1965 (WLM 687)". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2023-10-31.
19. "New Buoy Ship For Coast Guard". Baltimore Sun. 5 June 1965. p. 15.
20. ^ "New Buoy Ship For Coast Guard". Baltimore Sun. 5 June 1965. p. 15.
21. "Red Birch cutter makes final visit to Cambridge". Star-Democrat. 6 April 1998. p. 6.
22. Nelson, Jeff (28 May 1998). "Buoy tender ships out". The Capital. p. 47.
23. "Red Cedar, 1970 (WLM 688)". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
24. "Launch Is Family Affair For Downings". Daily Press. 1 August 1970. p. 3.
25. "Coast Guard Ship Is Commissioned". Baltimore Sun. 19 December 1970. p. 27.
26. "Red Oak WLM-689 ~ New Jersey Scuba Diving". Retrieved 2023-10-30.
27. "Christened Cutter". Evening Sun. 2 July 1971. p. 29.
28. Degener, Richard (14 September 1999). "Coast Guard buoy tender added to reef off Cape". Press of Atlantic City. p. 14.
29. International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. United States Department of State. March 1999. p. 63.

• Ships of the United States Coast Guard
• Ships built by the United States Coast Guard Yard