USCGC Osprey

USCGC Osprey
A white Coast Guard patrol boat with a red stripe under way on open water
Osprey on patrol in Puget Sound
History
United States
NameOsprey
NamesakeOsprey
OperatorUnited States Coast Guard
BuilderBollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
Completed1998
CommissionedJune 19, 1999
Home portPort Townsend, Washington
IdentificationHull number: WPB-87307
StatusIn active service
General characteristics
Class & typeMarine Protector-class patrol boat
Length87 ft (27 m)
Complement10 (1999)

USCGC Osprey (WPB-87307) is an 87-foot (27 m) Marine Protector-class of the United States Coast Guard, based at Port Townsend, Washington. Commissioned in June 1999, it was the seventh boat of its class and the first sent to the Coast Guard's Thirteenth District, now the Northwest District. Its crew patrols Puget Sound, the Salish Sea and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, carrying out law enforcement, search and rescue, marine environmental response and recreational boating safety missions. In 2001 Osprey took part in the seizure of the trawler Western Wind, which was carrying more than two tons of cocaine near the mouth of the strait.

Design

Osprey was built in 1998 by Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana. Bollinger built the Marine Protector class under a contract first awarded on March 13, 1996. The class replaced the older 82-foot Point-class cutters. Like the rest of the class, Osprey launches and recovers an aluminum-hulled boat, powered by an inboard diesel engine driving a waterjet, from a ramp at its stern. When it was commissioned, the cutter had a crew of ten.

Service history

Commissioning

The Thirteenth Coast Guard District (now U.S. Coast Guard Northwest District) commissioned Osprey on June 19, 1999, at Union Wharf in Port Townsend. It was the seventh boat built in the Marine Protector class and the first of the new class to arrive in the Pacific Northwest. Later that summer it patrolled Lake Washington during Seattle's Seafair celebration. When the cutter Adelie arrived at Port Angeles in 2001, it joined Osprey as the second high-speed patrol boat on the North Olympic Peninsula.

Western Wind cocaine seizure

On February 21, 2001, Coast Guard boarding crews found cocaine hidden in a secret hold of the trawler Western Wind near the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Osprey was part of the interdiction task force, along with U.S. Customs agents, three cutters and a helicopter from Port Angeles. The Peninsula Daily News called it the biggest cocaine seizure in the Pacific Northwest at approximately 5,538 pounds (2,512 kg). Rear Admiral Erroll M. Brown later honored the Osprey crew and presented them with a commemorative "snowflake" decal for the cutter.

Puget Sound operations

During Seafair in 2009, Osprey enforced a security zone around the Coast Guard's new national security cutter Bertholf in the annual Parade of Ships in Seattle. That year the Port of Port Townsend began plans for a new Coast Guard station in its Boat Haven marina. The building the Coast Guard had leased for the Osprey crew on Benedict Spit was moved in 2010 to make room for it, and the crew moved to temporary offices in the port's industrial park. The cutter has also been opened to the public for tours in Port Townsend.

In March 2023 Osprey operated near Neah Bay at the entrance to the strait, where its crew practiced hoists with an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter. On March 10, 2023, it trained with the Canadian frigate HMCS Winnipeg off Victoria, British Columbia.

International exercises

On May 21, 2026, Osprey joined a search and rescue exercise in the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Victoria with the Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel Itsukushima and the Canadian Coast Guard. The U.S. units also included a 45-foot (14 m) Response Boat – Medium and an MH-65 helicopter from Air Station Port Angeles.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "USCGC Osprey" (PDF). Cutter fact sheet. United States Coast Guard, Northwest District. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Osprey WPB 87307". Naval Cover Museum. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Port Townsend-based Coast Guard cutter changes command". Peninsula Daily News. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "Coast Guard Cutter Osprey operates in the Strait of Juan de Fuca". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. March 2023. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Port Townsend: Osprey crew to be recognized". Peninsula Daily News. 2001. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Bollinger Shipyards Celebrates Success". MarineLink. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  7. ↑ "87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat (WPB) – Marine Protector Class". U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on May 17, 2017. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Coast Guard Cutter Osprey (WPB 87307)". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. 1999. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Port Angeles: New Coast Guard cutter due to arrive Tuesday". Peninsula Daily News. July 2001. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Port Angeles: Trawler seized in 2.75-ton cocaine bust to go back into the water". Peninsula Daily News. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Port Townsend Osprey crew recognized for role in drug bust". Peninsula Daily News. 2001. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Bertholf parade of ships". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. 2009. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  13. ↑ "Port of Port Townsend aims for new Coast Guard station". Peninsula Daily News. 2009. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Building moved for new Coast Guard station". Peninsula Daily News. 2010. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  15. ↑ "'A big thank you': U.S. Coast Guard offers tours of cutter Osprey in Port Townsend". Peninsula Daily News. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  16. ↑ "U.S., Canadian, and Japanese Coast Guards complete joint search and rescue exercise in Strait of Juan de Fuca" (Press release). United States Coast Guard. May 2026. Retrieved November 9, 2026.
  17. ↑ "U.S., Canadian and Japanese Coast Guards complete joint search and rescue exercise in Strait of Juan de Fuca". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. May 21, 2026. Retrieved November 9, 2026.