TheCape-classcutter was designed originally for use as a shallow-draftanti-submarine warfare (ASW) craft and was needed because of the increased tension brought about by theCold War.Cape Henlopen was a type "C" Cape-class cutter and was never fitted with ASW gear because the Coast Guard's mission emphasis had shifted away from ASW to search and rescue by the time she was built. The hull was constructed of steel and the superstructure was aluminum.[1] She was powered originally by four Cummins VT-600 diesel engines; however during 1980–1982 she was refit with two 16V149 Detroit diesel main engines.[2]
The Cape class was originally developed as an ASW boat and as a replacement for the aging,World War II vintage, wooden 83-foot (25 m) patrol boats that were used mostly forsearch and rescue duties.[4] With the outbreak of theKorean War and the requirement tasked to the Coast Guard to secure and patrol port facilities in the United States under theMagnuson Act of 1950, the complete replacement of the 83-foot boat was deferred and the 95-foot boat was used for harbor patrols.[1][5][6] The first 95-foot hulls were laid down at the Coast Guard Yard in 1952 and were officially described as "seagoing patrol cutters". Because Coast Guard policy did not provide for naming cutters under 100 feet (30 m) at the time of their construction they were referred to by their hull number only and gained the Cape-class names in 1964 when the service changed the naming criteria to 65 feet (20 m). The class was named for North American geographiccapes.[7]
The Cape class was replaced by the 110-foot (34 m)Island class beginning in the late 1980s and many of the decommissioned cutters were transferred to nations of theCaribbean andSouth America by the Coast Guard.[8][9]
Cape Henlopen was stationed atCoast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, Washington, from 1959 to December 1966. In August 1961, she assistedUSCGC Minnetonka in fighting a fire aboard the fishing vesselAlaska Reefer in theStrait of Juan de Fuca.[1] From December 1966 to 1968, she was stationed atPort Angeles, Washington. On 29 October 1967, she escorted the distressed Soviet motor vesselAltajaskie Gory while in U.S. waters off Washington. On 20 November 1967, she escorted the distressed Soviet fishing vesselOgonj and other Soviet vessels while in U.S. seas off the coast of the State of Washington.[2]
"Cape Henlopen, 1958 (WPB-95328)"(PDF).Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard Manned Army & Navy Vessels. U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved25 April 2015.
United States
Costa Rica
