12 • January 2021
BOAT OF THE MONTH
Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast
Coast River Business Journal
By Emily Lindblom
Coast River Business Journal • elindblom@crbizjournal.com
Vessel: Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast,
WMEC 623
Length: 210 feet and 6 inches
Beam: 34 feet
Navigational draft: 18 feet
Displacement: 1,127 tons
Speed, maximum sustained: 18 knots
Stopping distance from 18 knots: 220
yards, 44 seconds
Shaft horsepower: 5,000 horsepower
Fuel capacity:
Diesel: 50,913 gallons
JP-5 (Aviation Fuel): 4,929 gallons
Water: 11,694 gal
Main propulsion: Twin Screw, Controllable
Pitch Propeller
Engines: 2 ALCO 16 Cylinder
Turbocharged Diesel
EMILY LINDBLOM
The Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast at its homeport in Astoria.
Propellers: 2 four blade controllable
pitch. 7’6” diameter
Armament: One mounted 25mm gun and
two .50 caliber machine guns
Aircraft capability: HH-65A Dolphin
helicopter
Personnel allowance:
Commissioned officers — 11
Commissioned warrant officers — 1
Chief Petty officers — 6
Enlisted — 59
Total on board — 77
COURTESY OF SCOTT REDD
COURTESY OF THE U.S. COAST GUARD
The Steadfast has been in service since 1968. Here, it motors
past Cape Disappointment.
The Steadfast has completed over 340 search and rescue cas-
es as of December.
Coast River Business Journal
The Steadfast has served in the U.S. Coast Guard for over five
decades. Steadfast was homeported in St. Petersburg, Florida for her
first 24 years of service starting in 1968. The Steadfast was decom-
missioned in 1992 for major maintenance availability to extend its
service another 25 years. In February 1994, Steadfast was recom-
missioned and homeported in Astoria.
• Throughout its career, the Steadfast has completed over 340
search and rescue cases, interdicted more than 1.6 million pounds of
marijuana and 169,000 pounds of cocaine, seized over 90 vessels,
and stopped more than 3,500 undocumented migrants from enter-
ing the U.S.
• Steadfast was the first, and is one of two cutters, awarded
the gold marijuana leaf for having seized one million pounds of
marijuana.
• Caribbean drug smugglers in the 1970’s named the Steadfast
“El Tiburon Blanco” (Spanish for “The White Shark”) because it
intercepted their drug operations. The crew continues to use the
symbol of “El Tiburon Blanco” as one of their logos.
• Steadfast is a multi-mission platform and is under the opera-
tional command of the Coast Guard Pacific Area Commander.
• Steadfast works in Coast Guard districts 11 and 13 as well as
Joint Inter-Agency Task Force South (JIATF-S).
• The Steadfast patrols along the western seaboard of the U.S.,
Mexico and North and Central America conducting search and res-
cue, maritime law enforcement, living marine resource protection
and homeland defense operations.
• Over its 52 years, the ship has been awarded the Coast Guard
Special Operations Service Ribbons for Campaign Caper Focus and
for Operation Martillo, eight Coast Guard Excellence Ribbons, five
Coast Guard Unit Commendation Awards, and four Coast Guard
Meritorious Unit Commendations. In July 2019, Steadfast broke the
record for the most cocaine seized during a single deployment for
cutters of its class and size.
REINER RHONDA MS CIV USA
Caribbean drug smug-
glers in the 1970s named
the Steadfast “El Tiburon
Blanco,” Spanish for “The
White Shark,” for inter-
cepting their drug oper-
ations. The symbol of “El
Tiburon Blanco” continues
to be one of the Steadfast’s
logos today. The Stead-
fast was awarded the gold
marijuana leaf, symboliz-
ing one million pounds of
marijuana seized.