New England Coast Guard Stories by Dyke Hendrickson

Author:Dyke Hendrickson [Hendrickson, Dyke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, State & Local, General
ISBN: 9781467140041
Google: e3PNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2020-03-16T03:33:34+00:00

Chapter 16

COMMANDING OFFICER OF BUOY TENDER OPERATES OUT OF RHODE ISLAND

One of the most important—if underappreciated—vessels in the Coast Guard fleet is the buoy tender. Lieutenant Commander Greg Batchelder is the commanding officer of the Juniper, a buoy tender berthed in Newport, Rhode Island. His vessel is 225 feet long and carries a crew of about forty-five.

The vessel replaces or repairs buoys and signals in U.S. waters. It is also equipped to help clean up after oil spills in New England waters, and it can serve as a search-and-rescue asset and as a law enforcement vessel if called into action.

“This is an important job, and it supports both commercial traffic and recreational boating,” said Batchelder, a Connecticut native. “Aids to navigation keep commerce flowing.

“We also help keep oil coming to New England states because we are an icebreaker in winter, making waterways navigable for tankers bringing in heating fuel.

“Regarding buoys and navigation, it seems like no one cares what we do unless something goes wrong. But this is an important function of the Coast Guard.”

When the new republic started upgrading coastal assets to improve trade in 1789–90, President George Washington and Congress appropriated money for buoys and lighthouses to reduce the number of shipping calamities. Or in the words of Coast Guard historians, “On Aug. 7, 1789, an act of Congress, the first to make any provisions for public works, created the Lighthouse Establishment, when it accepted title to, and joined jurisdiction over, the 12 lighthouses then in existence, and provided that ‘the necessary support, maintenance and repairs of all lighthouses, beacons, buoys and public piers erected, placed, or sunk before the passing of this act, at the entrance of, or within any bay, inlet, harbor, or port of the United States, for rendering the navigation thereof easy and safe, shall be defrayed out of the treasury of the United States.’”

Prior to this time, the buoys and lighthouses had been paid for, built and administered first by the colonies and then the states. In the modern era, the Coast Guard maintains about 4,800 buoys in the First Coast Guard District (New England, New York and northern New Jersey). That represents more than one-third of the national total of 12,600 buoys. The First District maintains six buoy tenders, the most of any of the service’s districts.

If a buoy is malfunctioning, the Juniper travels to the site and identifies the problem. The task of the buoy tender appears to require patience—and lifting power. When a buoy has to be removed, a heavy crane on deck pulls the whole apparatus on deck—and that includes the buoy’s anchor and connecting chains. Buoys that come out of New England waters are refurbished by private contractors in South Weymouth, Massachusetts.

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