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~USCG 83 FOOT SAILORS~ and Their Cutters The Iron Sailors of the Last Wooden Patrol Boat (WPB)
Take a look around -- the coffee pot is on. This site is for and about the Iron Sailors of the last wooden patrol boat and to provide a repository for data about these cutters. You will learn about: our history, what we did and who we are ~ along with a sea story or two. Take a tour of the cutter, look at pictures, and former 83' sailors are encouraged sign in and to post on the Forum Page.
~The 83 Footer Mission ~
After the war, sixty-one of the 83 footer fleet was utilized by the Coast Guard for Search and Rescue. During the cold war, most were assigned to Harbor Entrance Patrol duty. The last 83 footer, the WPB-83484, was decommissioned on April 15, 1963
The days of these wooden cutters have passed, but those boats and crews that gave them life and personality are remembered as threads in the intricate fabric that makes up our maritime heritage. Iron sailors never die, they just Sail Away!
This page was last updated on 07/06/11
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The 83 footer story began in 1940
when the first of 230 cutters was built for the USCG. The wooden cutters
were used for convoy duty in the Gulf and ASW patrol off the east coast of
the U.S. Sixty cutters participated in the Normandy
invasion as RESFLO 1 where they rescued 1,437 men and one women (a nurse).
They were also known as the Matchbox Fleet. Fifty-four cutters were sent
to the South Pacific for various duties and as rescue craft for the
invasion of Japan - scheduled for November 1, 1945 . The
surrender of the last Japanese bastion in the Marianas took place on the
deck of the 83525 when the Japanese formally surrendered the island of
Aquijan.
