US Coast Guard decommissions patrol boat Shearwater

The US Coast Guard decommissioned the patrol boat Shearwater during a ceremony at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, New Jersey, on Thursday, April 15.

Shearwater was one of the coast guard’s 70 remaining 27-metre Marine Protector-class patrol boats. Commissioned in 2002 following completion at Bollinger Shipyards, it was the 49th of 73 coastal patrol boats built for search and rescue (SAR), ports and coastal security, living marine resource enforcement, marine safety, and marine environmental protection.

The vessel was originally homeported at Coast Guard Base Portsmouth, Virginia. It relocated to Cape May in 2018.