SVG Coast Guard to recommission ex-HMJS Middlesex

The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Coast Guard will commission into service a patrol boat that had originally sailed under the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

The vessel formerly operated as HMJS Middlesex, one of three County-class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) ordered by the JDF Coast Guard from Damen Group and delivered in 2006.

Middlesex has been renamed Captain Hugh Mulzac in honour of SVG-born Hugh Mulzac who became the first African-American commercial ship captain in 1942.

The vessel has a length of 42 metres, making it the largest in the SVG Coast Guard’s six-vessel fleet. It also has a crew of 19, an X-band radar with a range of 96 nautical miles, and a speed of 26 knots.

Captain Hugh Mulzac was delivered by Damen to SVG in December 2018 following a period of refit and training for its assigned crew. An additional six weeks of acceptance trials were then conducted upon arrival in SVG.