U.S. Coast Guard commissions fast response cutter USCGC Joseph Doyle WPC-1133.

The Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Doyle (WPC-1133) was commissioned into service Saturday, June 8, 2019, during a ceremony at U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Doyle (WPC-1133) brings the cutter to life during the ship’s commissioning ceremony held at Coast Guard Sector San Juan June 8, 2019. (Picture source U.S. DoD)

The Joseph Doyle is the thirty-third Fast Response Cutter FRC to be commissioned in the Coast Guard and the seventh to be assigned to Sector San Juan and homeported in Puerto Rico.

The Sentinel Class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs) are designed to conduct maritime drug interdiction, alien migrant interdiction, search and rescue, national defense, homeland security, living marine resource protection and other Coast Guard missions. This class of patrol boat is capable of deploying independently to execute Coast Guard missions and prevent potential threats from approaching that nation’s shores and offers vastly improved capabilities over the aging 110-foot Island-class patrol boats it replaces.

The FRC is part of the Coast Guard’s layered approach to maritime security that includes the National Security Cutter and the Offshore Patrol Cutter. The FRC’s are 154-feet long with a beam of 25 feet and they can transit at a maximum sustained speed of 28 knots. They are armed with a stabilized 25mm machine-gun mount and four .50-caliber machine guns.

Each FRC is named for a Coast Guard hero who distinguished him or herself in the line of duty. The namesake of today’s commissioned cutter is Coast Guard hero Captain Joseph O. Doyle. Doyle was born in 1836. On July 11, 1878, he was appointed keeper of the Charlotte, New York Life Saving Station. During 1878, he achieved two impressive rescues. The first was the wreck of the schooner B.P. Dorr of Chicago, which was discovered September 11, 1878. At 9:30 p.m. the ship stranded about one mile west of Doyle’s station. The vessel was visible by the flare of a strong torch on board despite the rain. With the six men and the women on board, the vessel safely and swiftly was returned to the beach under the steady oar of the keeper. The second rescue in which Doyle showed his great skill and bravery involved the wreck of the schooner Star of Millpoint, Ontario Canada on Oct. 23, 1878.

Captain Doyle was awarded the Gold Life Saving Medal for his heroic actions in the conduct of both rescues.