Manitowoc Launches Coast Guard Cutter

Manitowoc Launches Coast Guard Cutter The Manitowoc Company, Inc. has launched the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock, the fourteenth 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.

“HOLLYHOCK and her sister cutters are highly sophisticated vessels that will enable the U.S. Coast Guard to effectively perform a wide variety of missions,” said Terry D. Growcock, Manitowoc’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We are proud that the Coast Guard has chosen us to build these vessels, which will operate along America’s coastlines and be an integral part of our nation’s homeland security initiative.”

The launch ceremony, which took place on January 25, featured Rear Admiral Ronald F. Silva, Commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District as the keynote speaker, with Beverly Ann Silva, the admiral’s wife and sponsor of the ship, performing the traditional christening ceremony. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Hollyhock will operate from Port Huron, Michigan, under the command of Lt. Michael McBrady, who will oversee its crew of six officers and 34 enlisted personnel. Hollyhock and her sister cutters now operating in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are equipped to perform search and rescue, law enforcement, pollution response, and domestic icebreaking missions, as well as servicing aids to navigation. The USCGC Hollyhock is named after a previous Coast Guard cutter with the same name that served the United States from 1937 through 1982. The original Hollyhock was launch-ed at DeFoe Boat and Motorworks in Bay City, Michigan, and was initially commissioned as part of the fleet operated by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. When this government agency became part of the Coast Guard in 1939, Hollyhock provided 43 additional years of distinguished service before it was decommissioned from the Coast Guard’s fleet on March 31, 1982.