FEATURE ARTICLE

May 2005

Aging Fleet

Keeping Coast Guard Cutters Afloat a Full-time Chore

By Joe Pappalardo

As the Coast Guard looks forward to the acquisition of its new national security cutters, the job of keeping their current, aged fleet operational requires a lot of the crews’ attention.

Scheduled to begin replacements in 2007, the fleet of 378-foot cutters is maintaining its harsh schedule of deployments: a full span of missions including law enforcement, search and rescue and military.

There is a race under way among the retiring cutters; the last to be decommissioned will be seen as the winner. Crewmembers, especially engineers, are acutely aware of the approaching deadline, and this competition feeds into their work.

Such is the case on the USCG Mellon, which is regarded as one of the better-maintained cutters in service. Above and beneath the waterline, Mellon crewmembers daily fight the ravages of age and hard use to keep the ship fit for duty. A National Defense reporter recently saw firsthand some of the toil and sweat it takes to maintain the Mellon while on a counter narcotics patrol in Central America.

“The people keep it going,” says Capt. Mark Campbell, the Mellon’s commanding officer. As an automobile enthusiast, he’s the first to call his ship a classic. “I have a ’67 Corvette, that’s the same age of this ship,” he notes in an interview in his quarters. “It takes a certain level of (tender loving care). Getting parts is always difficult, if you can find them. The parts are expensive, and sometimes you have to fabricate them.”

The Mellon is entering the last phase of her four-decade career, but the demands are not slowing down. If anything, the old dog is learning new tricks in operating with armed helicopters and providing security.

Working in the choppy waters of Alaska or steaming through the Pacific takes a toll on the ship, whose history is one of hardship in war and peace. On top of steady duties of rescue missions and maritime law enforcement, the Mellon fought in Vietnam, conducted deep ocean scientific experiments and, in 1990, served as the only test bed for firing Harpoon missiles off a Coast Guard ship. That program was discontinued.

At the start of the January deployment to Central America, the emergency gas turbine gave up, which required late-night shipments of spare parts and many hours of extra work for the crew. Members work in rotating shifts, some with only a few hours of sleep. “Just normal stuff,” notes Cmdr. Matthew Gimple, the ship’s executive officer. Fuel lines for the helicopter involved more late night hours as the engineers re-circulated the fuel and isolated the problems in the lines. The method of checking fuel quality is placing fluid in glass jars and swirling them. Crew members check for contaminant particles.

From the engines to the weapons systems, most of the equipment on the Mellon is no longer manufactured. Technicians who qualify on modern technology must step back in time to master the systems they will be responsible for. Officers point out that the time it takes to repair and replace parts has been increasing. Avoiding these breakdowns takes constant vigilance from the officers and the crew. “What we have here is a ’67 Corvette, and up there they like to drive it 100 miles an hour,” says Lt. Cmdr. Greg Czerwonka, the Mellon’s engineering officer, referring to officers above him on the bridge.

Still, the Mellon is in much better shape than other ships of her class. It is one of the last 378-foot cutters slated to be replaced by the “national security cutter,” developed as part of the $20 billion Deepwater program.

In 2004, the Mellon performed without major problems in a mission with the Navy to Southeast Asia. On one wall of Campbell’s room is a map of that deployment. The cruise began at the cutter’s homeport in Seattle, through Alaska, and down to Singapore.

One reason for the ship’s endurance, Campbell says, is the shift from preventative to condition-based maintenance. Preventative maintenance required overhauls on timed schedules, even if the equipment is performing well. Campbell said that approach often introduced problems when none existed, and hampered operations by imposing limits on the equipment.

He also cites sensor technology as helping engineers stay on top of problems as they arise, including devices to alert them when machinery is out of alignment, or if there are impurities in the engine’s fluids. In an older machine, this information becomes critical in maintaining the ship.

The cutter’s power comes from a labyrinth of steam and diesel pipes in the engine room. She is one of the first naval vessels built with a combined diesel and gas turbine propulsion plant, with twin screws using up to 7,000 diesel shaft horsepower to make 20 knots, and a total of 36,000 gas turbine shaft horsepower to make 28 knots. The diesel engines are Fairbanks-Morse and are larger versions of those used in 1968 diesel locomotives.

The Mellon is one of the first American vessels to use jet aircraft-style turbines for propulsion. Her Pratt-Whitney gas turbine engines are similar to those installed in Boeing 707s, a relationship that becomes clear from the familiar high-pitched screaming when the Mellon’s turbines are on.

This twin design allows for a greater flexibility for endurance, power and fuel consumption. Unlike Navy ships, which often embark with the security of a nearby tanker, the Coast Guard must prepare for wholly independent operations. The turbines use a lot more gas. “We patrol on diesel and chase on turbines,” comments Ensign Ben Trask, auxiliary division officer.

In the engine room, temperatures of 120 degrees F are considered routine, which makes heat exhaustion and dehydration definite hazards. At all times, a crewmember is tasked with monitoring each station and advising crewmates to get cool air and water. The noise is so loud that ear protection is required, and engineers communicate via wireless radio headsets. The heat and noise tire the engineering crew and mistakes are both dangerous and time consuming.

The age of the Mellon is evident in her bowels. The devices that automatically clean the turbines are long defunct, requiring a crewmember to hose the turbine down while it slowly rotates. Creation of potable water relies on an old desalination system, one that is no longer used in favor of reverse osmosis systems. Gauges are of the metal and glass variety. The oil-water separator in the bilge is broken, and has been taken apart three times recently.

The reduction gear is old. Removing the parts would require opening the hull in dry dock, tearing out the old systems and replacing them with modern versions.

“Working as an engineer for the Navy must be boring,” Trask quips. “After you get everything up and running, there must be nothing to do but sit around and chat.”

That attitude is part of what Campbell calls his crew’s “perverse pride” in working to keep the Mellon functioning.

“Sometimes, it can be a maintenance nightmare,” says Larry Wolford, the machine technician chief, senior, on board the Mellon.

Wolford has about 20 years working on cutters at sea. His institutional knowledge is invaluable in training young, inexperienced crew in ways to troubleshoot and solve complex problems. His first patrol was on the Hamilton, then a new ship.

“On the Hamilton, I learned how to use my imagination to fix things,” he says. “Each cutter is unique in its own way … Over the years, I’ve learned some tricks I try to pass along.”

Ideally, intermediate crewmembers with knowledge of the machinery would handle some of this training, but Wolford cites manpower shortages and retention problems as hurdles that need to be overcome.

Even though everyone in engineering is assigned to his or her own sections, the volume of work makes engine room maintenance a group effort.

Wolford describes a fleet struggling for parts, with an eye on swapping them for off-the-shelf replacements whenever possible.

The effort to replace old-fashioned temperature and pressure gauges illustrates the challenge, Wolford says. For starters, changing the fittings caused fluid leaks, and in the cramped confines of an older engine room, there is little space for the necessary electronic equipment. After trying it out on several ships, a comprehensive effort to install sensors was abandoned. It still takes sweaty people checking glass gauges to determine pressure and temperature.

One descriptor for parts engineers do not like to see in their reference manuals is “Coast Guard unique.” That signifies long delays in ordering parts, higher costs and long hours. If parts can’t be stripped from retired ships from the “mothball fleet,” orders must be placed with contractors.

Away from the engine room, much time is spent on upkeep. Maintaining the exposed parts of the Mellon is the work of the deck force, described by the Mellon’s chief warrant officer, Chris Smanse, as the “mariners of the ship.” Among other duties, they constantly scrub, wash, paint and polish. They also keep the ropes, pulleys, small boats and winches in order.

These tasks are vital parts of preventing breakdowns, and Smanse keeps a sharp eye on the work being done. Sloppy work creates more problems, and he says shortcuts abbreviate the life of systems, old or new.

This mantra exists among nearly all levels of authority on the ship. There is a tradition on board of monitoring the attitudes and effort of fellow crewmembers. Assessments are passed along back channels during meals or while having a cigarette on the fantail. Shirkers are identified not only by superiors but also by their fellow rates, who often have to take up their slack.

If there is one truism on board a ship, it is that there is always more work to be done. The pace wears some people down, and avoiding work becomes a temptation that peer pressure and the authority of rank must overcome.

This microcosm of effort has a place in the emerging role of Deepwater, as the Coast Guard headquarters tries to quicken the pace of its launch of the replacement national security cutters.

Stacked side by side, the replacement will outclass some major aspects of cutters such as the Mellon. The 421-foot boat will have more power. It will run on a twin-screw, diesel and gas propulsion engine. Its anti-missile system, the Mk Nulka decoy launcher, is a big step up from the Phalanx close-in weapons system on the Mellon. Its accommodations for helicopters will ease the burden off aviation mechanics. On a 378-foot cutter, bringing many rotary aircraft—such as the HH-68, used as a gun platform in counter-narcotics missions—into the retractable hangar means taking off the propellers entirely.

Another feature of the NSC will be a TALON landing system, which connects the helicopters with the deck via a probe, which will be able to roll the craft automatically into the hangar. The days of tie-down crews dashing under the spinning rotors to secure helicopters, as needs to be done with the HH-68s, will be gone.

A unique capability of the Mellon—one that will be lost with the introduction of the national security cutter—is a drop-down bow propulsion unit that can push the front of the ship for more delicate maneuvering. This means that in almost all circumstances, no tugboat is needed in ports.

This is a point of pride for the Mellon, as well as a financial saving. But when the safety of the ship and crew is at stake, tugs can be called.

Leaving San Diego, the Mellon is buffeted by a steady storm front that blows the ship back into the pier. The port is crowded, with Navy carriers and supply ships on either side. Tensions grow as the cutter maneuvers against the current and winds.

The wind and currents are too strong. A harbor tugboat appears, nudging the bow so the Mellon can make a straight reverse out of the slip. The ship clears the pier, swallows its pride and moves out, hoping for better weather. By the time the crew stops to top off fuel tanks, its last stop in San Diego before starting the southern patrol, patches of blue emerge from an otherwise bruised sky. Such is the life of a Coast Guard cutter, or any vessel at the whim of nature. Even the easy tasks are hard, and many hard tasks are expected to be done with ease.

Campbell says he is unsure whether the effort to reduce the crew size by replacing people with technology is the best approach. For him, there are few substitutes he can count on more than Coasties, themselves. For example, crewmembers must chop ice from the highest points on the Mellon to keep the ship’s balance in frigid weather.

Campbell also recalls the experience of the 270-foot, Famous class medium endurance cutters, which lacked adequate manpower. The NSC crew likewise “sounds light to me. Maybe the technology will overcome that. I don’t know.”

For the Mellon, there is a premium on human labor. Campbell credits a long line of conscientious engineering, executive and commanding officers for the relatively good condition of the aged Mellon. “This is something I inherited two years ago,” he says. Campbell says the effectiveness of the technology will always be dependent on the people. After all, he notes, “the future of Deepwater is in the deck force right now.”

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