Diligence, 1927
WSC-135
Diligence: persistent application to one's work: assiduous effort.
Builder: American Brown Boveri Electric Corporation, Camden, New Jersey
Length: 125’
Beam: 23’ 6”
Draft: 7’ 6”
Displacement: 232 tons
Cost: $63,173
Launched: 27 January 1927
Commissioned: 22 February 1927
Decommissioned: 30 September 1961
Disposition: Sold
Machinery: 2 x 6-cylinder diesel, 300 HP (as launched); 2 x 8-cylinder General Motors diesels, 800 HP
Performance:
Max speed: 13 knots, 1945, 2,500 mile range
Econ. speed: 8.0 knots, 3,500 mile range
Complement: 20 (1930)
Armament:
1927: 1x 3"/27
1941: 1 x 3"/23, 2 x depth charge tracks
1945: 1 x 40mm/80 (single), 2 x 20mm/80 (single), 2 x depth charge tracks, 2 x mousetraps.
1960: 1 x 40mm/60
Class History:
This class of vessels was one of the most useful and long-lasting in Coast Guard service with 16 cutters still in use in the 1960s. The last to be decommissioned from active service was the Morris in 1970; the last in actual service was the Cuyahoga, which sank after an accidental collision in 1978. They were designed for trailing the mother ships along the outer line of patrol during Prohibition. They were constructed at a cost of $63,173 each. They gained a reputation for durability that was only enhanced by their re-engining in the late 1930s; their original 6-cylinder diesels were replaced by significantly more powerful 8-cylinder units that used the original engine beds and gave the vessels 3 additional knots. All served in World War II but two, the Jackson and Bedloe, were lost in a storm in 1944. Ten were refitted as buoy tenders during the war and most reverted to patrol work afterward.
Cutter History:
First assigned to New York City, Diligence was transferred to Stapleton, New York in December, 1929. She transferred to the Great Lakes in March, 1936 and was home-ported in Cleveland, Ohio. She was at Two Harbors, Minnesota, from April, 1937 until November, 1940. At that time her permanent station became Boston, Massachusetts. She transferred to San Pedro, California, on 2 September 1941 and she remained at that station until 1961. Prior to her transfer to the West Coast, she was converted for use as a buoy tender.
On 30 September 1961 Diligence was decommissioned and placed in storage at the Coast Guard Base, Terminal Island, California. She was sold to Illman Jones, Inc., on 30 January 1963 for $7,270.60.
Sources:
Cutter History File, Coast Guard Historian's Office
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).