USCGC Pelican

USCGC Pelican
A white Coast Guard patrol boat with a red stripe moored at a pier and decorated with signal flags
Pelican dressed with flags on its commissioning day, January 8, 2001
History
United States
NamePelican
NamesakePelican
OperatorUnited States Coast Guard
BuilderBollinger Shipyards, Lockport, Louisiana
CommissionedJanuary 8, 2001
Home portPort of Vermilion, Abbeville, Louisiana
IdentificationHull number: WPB-87327
StatusIn active service
General characteristics
Class & typeMarine Protector-class patrol boat
Length87 ft (27 m)

USCGC Pelican (WPB-87327) is an 87-foot (27 m) Marine Protector-class of the United States Coast Guard, based at the Port of Vermilion in Abbeville, Louisiana. Commissioned at Abbeville in January 2001, it carries out search and rescue, environmental protection and maritime law enforcement in the Gulf of Mexico. Its crew took part in the search for the 11 missing workers after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, and in the search for two missing workers after a 2012 platform explosion off Grand Isle.

Design

Pelican is one of the Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boats built for the Coast Guard by Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana, under a contract first awarded on March 13, 1996. The class replaced the older 82-foot Point-class cutters.

Service history

Commissioning and homeport

Pelican was commissioned on January 8, 2001, at Abbeville. At the time, the Coast Guard planned to move the cutter to the Port of Vermilion once that facility was finished.

Deepwater Horizon

At about 10 p.m. on April 20, 2010, the Eighth District command center received a report of an explosion and fire aboard the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, about 42 miles (68 km) southeast of Venice, Louisiana. Eleven crew members were missing. The patrol boats Cobia and Zephyr searched through the night. Pelican and the patrol boat Coho were also dispatched to the search.

Search and rescue

On the morning of November 16, 2012, a fire broke out on the West Delta 32 oil platform owned by Black Elk Energy, about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Grand Isle. Eleven workers were taken to hospitals and two were missing. Pelican and the patrol boat Razorbill joined response boats from Stations Grand Isle and Venice, along with aircraft from Aviation Training Center Mobile and Air Station New Orleans. The Coast Guard suspended the search on November 17 after covering 1,400 square miles (3,600 km2) in more than 32 hours.

In January 2014 Pelican searched for a 25-year-old crewman reported missing from the 598-foot (182 m) Hong Kong-flagged crude oil tanker Rainbow Quest near Southwest Pass. Aircraft, helicopters and two response boats from Station Venice also took part. The search was suspended on January 8 after 44 hours and 1,179 square miles (3,050 km2) searched.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Commissioning Ceremony of CGC Pelican". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. January 8, 2001. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Commissioning Ceremony of CGC Pelican". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. January 8, 2001. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Our Tenants". Abbeville Harbor and Terminal District. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "CGC Pelican COC". Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. June 11, 2010. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  5. 1 2 "Coast Guard medevacs 17 victims from offshore rig blaze" (Press release). United States Coast Guard. April 22, 2010. Retrieved November 12, 2026 – via Professional Mariner.
  6. 1 2 "Coast Guard Suspends Search for Missing Crewmember" (Press release). United States Coast Guard. November 17, 2012. Retrieved November 12, 2026 – via Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
  7. ↑ "Bollinger Shipyards Celebrates Success". MarineLink. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  8. ↑ "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 12, 2026.
  9. ↑ "USCG Suspends Search for Missing Tanker Crewman". MarineLink. January 9, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Coast Guard suspends search for missing Indian tanker crewman". WorkBoat. January 9, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2026.