Frederick Lee, 1927
WSC-139
Revenue Captain Frederick Lee was a noted Revenue officer who commanded the cutter Eagle during the War of 1812.
CLASS: Active Class Patrol Boat
BUILDER: American Brown Boveri Electric Corp., Camden, NJ
COMMISSIONED: 4 April 1927
LAUNCHED: 14 February 1927
DECOMMISSIONED: 15 December 1964 and sold 19 May 1966
DISPLACEMENT: 232 tons
PROPULSION: 2 x 6-cylinder, 300 hp engines
LENGTH: 125 feet
BEAM: 23 feet, 6 inches
DRAFT: 7 feet, 6 inches
PERFORMANCE:
Max speed: 13 knots, 1945, 2,500 mile range
Econ. speed: 8.0 knots, 3,500 mile range
COMPLEMENT: 3 officers, 17 men (1960)
ARMAMENT: 1927: 1x 3"/27
1941: 1 x 3"/23, 2 x depth charge tracks
1945: 1 x 40mm/80 (single), 2 x 20mm/80 (single), 2 x depth charge tracks, 2 x mousetraps
1960: 1 x 40mm/60
Class History:
This class of vessels was one of the most useful and long- lasting in Coast Guard service with 16 cutters still in use in the 1960’s. The last to be decommissioned from active service was the Morris in 1970; the last in actual service was the Cuyahoga, which sank after an accidental collision in 1978. They were designed for trailing the "mother ships" along the outer line of patrol during Prohibition. They were constructed at a cost of $63,173 each. They gained a reputation for durability that was only enhanced by their re-engining in the late 1930’s; their original 6-cylinder diesels were replaced by significantly more powerful 8-cylinder units that used the original engine beds and gave the vessels 3 additional knots. All served in World War II, but two, the Jackson and Bedloe, were lost in a storm in 1944. Ten were refitted as buoy tenders during the war and reverted to patrol work afterward.
Cutter History
This vessel was named for a Revenue Service captain who commanded the cutter EAGLE in the War of 1812. The CGC LEE was stationed at Boston, Massachusetts, through World War II on escort and weather duties as well as in the Greenland Patrol. She was at Chicago, Illinois from 1945 through 1951; New Bedford, Massachusetts from 1951 to 1963); and Freeport, Texas from 1963 to 1964.
Sources:
Cutter History File, Coast Guard Historian's Office.
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).