Fourth New England-based Fast Response Cutter to be commissioned in Portland

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Aug. 8, 2023

Fourth New England-based Fast Response Cutter to be commissioned in Portland

PORTLAND, Me. — The Coast Guard Cutter John Patterson (WPC-1153) is scheduled to be commissioned during a ceremony Thursday at 10 a.m.

The Coast Guard’s newest cutter was accepted by the Coast Guard on May 11, 2023 and will be the fourth of six Fast Response Cutters homeported in Boston.

The Sentinel-class fast response cutter (FRC) is designed for multiple missions, including drug and migrant interdiction; ports, waterways and coastal security; fishery patrols; search and rescue; and national defense. The Coast Guard has ordered a total of 65 FRCs to replace the 1980s-era Island-class 110-foot patrol boats. The FRCs feature advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment; over-the-horizon cutter boat deployment to reach vessels of interest; and improved habitability and seakeeping.

John C. Patterson was born in 1834 to a local farm couple in Howell, New Jersey. Patterson volunteered as a private in New Jersey’s 14th Militia Regiment during the Civil War. He demonstrated superior leadership under pressure and quickly promoted into the officer grades where he rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general. After the war, in 1870, Patterson signed on as a surfman at the U.S. Life Saving Station in Sandy Hook, New Jersey. John Patterson served a total of 16 years in the Life-Saving Service, starting as junior-most surfman and rising to the rank of keeper. He was a keeper at two different stations and a member of the Life-Saving Service’s Advisory Board. Even after his 1886 retirement from the Service, Patterson continued to serve his community of Ocean Grove until his death.