Coast Guard Accepts 50th FRC Equipped with Rhotheta RT-500-M

The US Coast Guard accepted delivery of the 50th fast response cutter (FRC), William Chadwick, Aug. 4 in Key West, Florida. William Chadwick will be homeported in Boston.

Born in Dover, New Jersey, the cutter’s namesake was a keeper of the Green Island Lifeboat Station in New Jersey and recipient of the Congressional Gold Lifesaving Medal for his rescue of the crew of the schooner George Taulane on Feb. 3, 1880. Chadwick remained keeper of Green Island Station until his retirement in August 1886.

The Coast Guard has ordered 64 FRCs to date. Forty-eight are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; four each in California and Bahrain; three each in Guam, Hawaii, Texas and New Jersey; two each in Alaska, Mississippi and North Carolina; and Clarence Sutphin Jr and John Scheuerman, which are currently underway to Bahrain. Future FRC homeports include Astoria, Oregon; and Kodiak, Seward and Sitka, Alaska.

Bollinger Shipyards delivered the 50th FRC on the Coast Guard’s 232nd birthday and that she’ll be homeported in Sector Boston, the Birthplace of the Coast Guard! The men and women that built this vessel are second to none.

All FRCs are being equipped with the Rhotheta RT-500-M wideband V-UHF radio direction finder.