Bollinger Shipyards Delivers 46th FRC Ahead of Schedule Despite Hurricane Ida Hit

LOCKPORT, La. — Bollinger Shipyards LLC  has delivered the newest Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter (FRC), the USCGC John Scheuerman, to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Florida, nearly a week ahead of schedule despite a three-week shutdown due to the significant damage sustained to Bollinger’s facilities during Hurricane Ida, the company said Oct. 21.

The storm made landfall in late August near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, as a powerful Category 4 storm. Bollinger’s facilities in Port Fourchon, Lockport, Houma and Larose suffered significant damage as a result of Hurricane Ida, which tied with last year’s Hurricane Laura and the Last Island Hurricane of 1856 as the strongest on record in Louisiana. 

“While every delivery is meaningful, being able to deliver this vessel nearly a week early despite everything our crew has faced over the past month is nothing short of remarkable,” said Bollinger President & CEO Ben Bordelon. “We had folks who lost everything in that storm. Our yard where we build the FRCs took a beating and was shuttered for three weeks while we rebuilt. This vessel and this delivery is a win our folks really needed and it reflects the resilience, commitment and tenacity of the 650 skilled men and women that built it.” 

On Sept. 24, following an extensive multi‐week recovery and rebuilding effort, Bollinger welcomed employees back to all 11 of its facilities across Louisiana. USCGC John Scheuerman departed Lockport Oct. 11 for Bollinger’s Fourchon facility, where it performed a shakedown exercise before dry docking for final inspection in preparation of its delivery. The cutter departed Fourchon for Key West Oct. 17.

The USCGC John Scheuerman is the 169th vessel Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 46th FRC delivered under the current program. The USCGC John Scheuerman is the fifth of six FRCs to be home-ported in Manama, Bahrain, which will replace the aging 110-foot Island-class patrol boats, built by Bollinger Shipyards 30 years ago, supporting the Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA), the U.S. Coast Guard’s largest overseas presence outside the United States. 

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz has previously lauded the “enhanced seakeeping capabilities” of the PATFORSWA-bound FRCs, saying the ships are going to be “game changing” in their new theater of operations. Last week, at the commissioning ceremony for the USCGC Emlen Tunnell — another Bahrain-based FRC — Schultz said these ships will “conduct maritime security operations, theater cooperation efforts, and strengthen partner nations’ maritime capabilities to promote security and stability in the region, as well as thwart the increasingly aggressive and dangerous maritime activities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.”