EM Edwards, WYP-357, 1943
ex-Wilbert A. Edwards
Builder: M. M. Davis and Son, Solomons, Maryland
Commissioned: 1912 (commercial) 24 June 1943 Coast Guard
Decommissioned: 2 March 1944, returned to owner 13 March 1944
Length: 143' 4"
Navigation Draft: 11' 6"
Beam: 24"
Displacement: 550 tons full
Propulsion: diesel, single screw
Shaft Power: 600 BHP
Maximum Speed: 8 knots
Economical Speed: NA
Fuel Capacity: NA
Water Capacity: NA
Endurance: NA
Complement: 30 men (commercial)
Armament: Depth Charges
Vessel History:
A former fishing boat. The EM in front of the name stood for Emergency Manning. Coast Guard records usually kept the EM before the name of the vessel. The Coast Guard chartered this vessel for patrol duty for $500 a month. The conversion costs were $108,142.
From 1943 to March 1944 she was assigned to the CARIBSEAFRON and was stationed at San Juan, Puerto Rico and used for patrol duty.
Andy Stellhorn, the son of a former EM Edwards crewman noted that “My dad was quartermaster and signalman on commissioning crew and I possess his letter with info regarding its performance. . .He writes the ship made 8 knots top speed and was armed with depth charges. The speed was so slow the shock from the detonation damaged electronics on board and so the ship was returned to private ownership.”
Sources:
Cutter History File, U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office
Scheina, Robert. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946-1990. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.