Name USCGC Paul Clark Acquired May 18, 2013 Homeport Miami, Florida Length 47 m | Namesake Paul Clark Commissioned August 24, 2013 Launched 13 January 2012 Endurance 5 days 0 hours | |
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Operator United States Coast Guard Builder Bollinger Shipyards, L.L.C. | ||
USCGC Paul Clark is the sixth Sentinel-class cutter. Like the previous five vessels she is homeported in Miami, Florida. She was delivered to the Coast Guard, for testing, on May 18, 2013.
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Operational history
On September 13, 2013 the vessel repatriated 66 Cuban migrants to Bahia de Cabañas. The migrants had been intercepted in four separate operations over the preceding days. Smaller vessels had intercepted four different migrant vessels. The Coast Guard Public Affairs Office asserted that their interception of the migrant vessels saved lives because navigation between Cuba and Florida is so dangerous. The migrants were transferred to Paul Clark for repatriation to Cuba.
Namesake
The vessel is named after Paul Leaman Clark, who served as a fireman in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. Clark was staffing a landing craft during a large assault on a beach in French North Africa when the craft's two other crew members were wounded by a Luftwaffe fighter. Clark took command of the craft, took the wounded crew members to a Navy ship for medical care and then returned to his duties as a beachmaster, directing disembarkation activity.