Manitowoc Launches New Cutter

The Manitowoc Company, Inc. has launched the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter SEQUOIA, the 15th ship in a series of 16 seagoing buoy tenders being built at Manitowoc's Marinette Marine subsidiary. This 225-foot, Juniper-class vessel is part of a series of contracts that were awarded to Marinette in 1993 and 1998. "SEQUOIA joins her sophisticated sister cutters in helping the U.S. Coast Guard to successfully complete a variety of important missions," said Terry D. Growcock, Manitowoc's chairman and chief executive officer. "As we near the end of this project for the Coast Guard, we are very proud to have been chosen to provide ships that help protect our national security." The launch ceremony, which took place on August 23, featured The Honorable Gordon England, Deputy Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security as the keynote speaker, with Dorothy England, the secretary's wife and sponsor of the ship, performing the traditional christening ceremony. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter SEQUOIA will operate from Guam, under the command of Captain R. A. "Mac" McCullough, who will oversee its crew of six officers and 34 enlisted personnel. SEQUOIA and her sister cutters operate in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and are equipped to perform missions that include servicing aids to navigation, marine environmental protection, search and rescue operations and domestic ice breaking. The USCGC SEQUOIA is named after a previous Coast Guard cutter that served the United States between 1908 and 1946. The original SEQUOIA was a lighthouse tender built by New York Shipbuilding Company in Camden, New Jersey, and was the first major class of tenders built to a standard design for the United States Lighthouse Service. In addition to the Juniper-class buoy tenders being built for the U.S. Coast Guard, Marinette Marine is constructing three 310-foot passenger ferries for New York City's Department of Transportation. The company was recently awarded a $40.5-million contract by the U.S. Navy to build the Improved Navy Lighterage System (INLS), and in October 2001, the company was awarded an $82.4-million contract to build a new Great Lakes icebreaker that will replace the USCGC MACKINAW.