USCGC Richard Etheridge



USCGC Richard Etheridge is the second of the United States Coast Guard's Sentinel-class cutter cutters. Like most of her sister ships she replaced a 110 ft Island-class patrol boat. Richard Etheridge was launched in August 2011.

The vessel was officially delivered to the Coast Guard on May 26, 2012, at Key West, Florida, and was commissioned into service in Port Everglades, Florida, on August 3, 2012.

Richard Etheridge, and the first and third vessels in the class, USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101), and USCGC William Flores (WPC-1103), are all based in Miami, Florida.

Like the other ships of her class, Richard Etheridge is named after an enlisted member of the Coast Guard.

Operational history
On March 18, 2014, Richard Etheridge landed 1500 lb of illicit drugs captured as part of Operation Martillo.

Namesake
Richard Etheridge is named after Keeper Richard Etheridge of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the first African-American to command a life-saving station. Etheridge led the Pea Island Lifesaving Station crew of six in a daring rescue operation that saved the entire crew of the schooner E.S. Newman, which had become grounded in a treacherous storm in 1896.

Design
The Sentinel-class cutters were designed to replace the shorter 110 ft Island-class patrol boats. Richard Etheridge is armed with a remote-control 25 mm Bushmaster autocannon and four, crew-served M2HB .50-caliber machine guns. It has a bow thruster for maneuvering in crowded anchorages and channels. It also has small underwater fins for coping with the rolling and pitching caused by large waves. It is equipped with a stern launching ramp, like the Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat and the eight failed expanded Island-class cutters. It has a complement of twenty-two crew members. Like the Marine Protector class, and the cancelled extended Island-class cutters, the Sentinel-class cutters deploy the Short Range Prosecutor rigid-hulled inflatable (SRP or RHIB) in rescues and interceptions. According to Marine Log, modifications to the Coast Guard vessels from the Stan 4708 design include an increase in speed from 23 to 28 kn, fixed-pitch rather than variable-pitch propellers, stern launch capability, and watertight bulkheads.

Richard Etheridge has an overall length of 153 ft, a beam of 25 ft, and a displacement of 325 LT. Its draft is 9 ft and it has a maximum speed of over 28 kn. The Sentinel-class cutters have an endurance of five days and a range of 2950 nmi.