POINT ELLIS, 1962
WPB 82330
Builder: Coast Guard Yard, Curtis Bay, MD
Commissioned: 28 February 1962
Decommissioned: 9 December 1969
Disposition: Transferred to South Vietnam as HQ 705 on 9 December 1969
Length: 82’10” oa, 78’ bp
Navigation Draft: 5’11” max (1960)
Beam: 17’7” max
Displacement: 69 fl; 60 light (1960)
Main Engines: 2 Cummins diesel (see class history)
BHP: 1,200
Performance, Maximum Sustained: 14.5 kts, 577-mi radius (1,200 hp, 1960)
Performance, Economic: 10.7 kts, 1,271-mi radius (1,200 hp, 1960)
Maximum Speed: 16.8 kts (1960)
Fuel Capacity: 1,840 gal
Complement: 8 men (1960), 2 officers, 8 men (1965)
Electronics:
Radar: SPN-11, CR-103 (1960), or SPS-64
Armament: 1 x 20mm (1960), 5 x .50 cal mg, 1 x 81 mm mortar (Vietnam service)
Class history—The 82-foot patrol boats have mild steel hulls and aluminum superstructures. Longitudinally framed construction was used to save weight.
These boats were completed with a variety of power plants. 82301 through 82313, 82315 through 82317, and 82319 through 82331 were powered by two Cummins 600-hp diesels. Boats 82318 and 82332 through 82379 received two Cummins 800-hp diesels. The 82314 was fitted with two 1,000-hp gas turbines and controllable-pitch propellers. The purpose of this installation was to permit the service to evaluate the propulsion equipment. All units were eventually fitted with the 800-hp diesels. Units remaining in 1990 were re-equipped with Caterpillar diesels.
WPB 82301 through 82344 were commissioned without names; at that time the Coast Guard did not name patrol craft shorter than 100 feet. In January 1964 they were assigned names.
Ship's history:
The Point Ellis was stationed at Port Townsend, Washington, from 1962 to 1965. She was used for law enforcement and SAR.
She was assigned to CG Squadron One, Division 12, Vietnam, from July 1965 to December 1969. On 14 March 1967, she detected an enemy steel-hulled trawler and forced it to beach. The enemy was forced to scuttle the trawler and destroy its cargo of mortars, small arms, uniforms and other contraband, and lost a large quantity of much needed war material. In May of the same year the cutter's Vietnamese liaison officer and a crewman from the Point Ellis went into the water to recover a sailor lost overboard from the USS Princeton.
She was decommissioned on 9 December 1969 and was then transferred to South Vietnam as Le Ngoc Thanh (HQ 705) that same day.
Sources:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
"The 82-Foot Class Patrol Boat." U.S. Coast Guard Engineer's Digest No. 133 (Mar-Apr 1962), pp. 2-5.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946-1990. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.