New Coast Guard Cutter Arrives In Ft. Lauderdale

FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A new U.S. Coast Guard cutter which will call South Florida its home port arrived in Port Everglades on Monday.

The Coast Guard Cutter Richard Etheridge is a Sentinel Class patrol boat which are designed for everything from drug and migrant interdiction to search and rescues.

The Etheridge is 154 feet long and can run at maximum sustained speeds of more than 28 knots.

The cutter is armed with a stabilized 25mm machine-gun mount and four .50-caliber machine guns.

The cutter is named after Richard Etheridge, the first African-American to command a life-saving station. Etheridge led the Pea Island crew of six in a daring rescue operation that saved the entire crew of the schooner E.S. Newman, which had become grounded in a treacherous storm in 1896.

The cutter Etheridge will be officially commissioned into service August 3rd and will be stationed in Miami.