USCG commissions second new Galveston-based cutter

The US Coast Guard (USCG) held a commissioning ceremony for the cutter Edgar Culbertson (WPC 1137), the service’s 37th fast response cutter (FRC), at Sector Field Office Galveston, Texas, on 11 June.

Built by Bollinger Shipyards, the USCGC Edgar Culbertson was delivered to the navy in early February 2020. It is the second of three fast response cutters to be homeported in Galveston.

The 154-foot Sentinel-class FRC has a speed of 28 knots, advanced command, control, communications and computer technology, and a stern launch system for the vessel’s 26-foot cutter boat. 

The newbuild’s patrol area will encompass 900 miles of coastline for the Coast Guard’s Eighth District, from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas.

Fast response cutters are named after USCG enlisted heroes and will replace the service’s 110-foot patrol boats.

Edgar Culbertson, the cutter’s namesake, was a Coast Guard petty officer 1st class and Coast Guard Medal recipient who died April 30, 1967, while attempting the rescue of three brothers during a storm in Duluth, Minnesota. He was a 31-year-old native of Ferndale, Michigan, a veteran of the Korean War and had served in the Coast Guard since 1952.