The U.S. Revenue Cutter Pickering–– named for Washington’s wartime Quartermaster General and later Secretary of War– has one of the most stirring sea tales seldom told.
The 77-foot Jackass Brig, built in 1798 at Newburyport, Massachusetts, was one of six large cutters constructed as a sort of insurance plan that year as war with France loomed.
She not only looked rakish but she proved fast and maneuverable. That, coupled with the fact she could still glide along in only nine feet of water when fully loaded, meant she could hide from proper warships in coves and shallows.
NHHC NH 85146 via Naval Documents (of) the Quasi-War. . ., vol. 1, p. 328.
While most early cutters only mounted a single light swivel gun or two, Pickering had her broadside pierced with 10 gun ports on each side of her gundeck and, when the Quasi-War began, was packed with 14 guns, albeit puny Gribeauval four-pounders with a range of 700 yards (half that if using canister). Shipping out with but a 70-man crew, and seeing that each piece needed eight gunners (but could get it done in a pinch with six), Pickering was forced to have her gun crews run back and forth from port to starboard as needed.
During the Quasi-War, eight Revenue Cutters (a sloop, five schooners, and two brigs) haunted the Caribbean, and made their mark against the French by capturing 18 of the 22 prizes collected by the U.S. between 1798 and 1799– and assisted in the capture of two others!
Of these 18, Pickering alone accounted for 10 prizes.
The toughest of these was the big (250 men) and well-armed (28 guns, all of at least 6 pounds) L’Egypte Conquise after a grueling nine-hour sea battle that is the stuff of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower. Her skipper at the time? LT (later Commodore) Edward Preble.
Pickering was later permanently transferred to the Navy and disappeared at sea in the summer of 1800 while traveling from Newcastle, Delaware to join the squadron of Commodore Thomas Truxton on the Guadeloupe Station.
The USCG, who retains the lineage of the old USRCS, recycled Pickering’s name only once: for a fast picket boat mothership stationed off Atlantic City during Prohibition to allow the little cutters to interdict rum runners headed from shore to booze-laden “blacks” floating on “Rum Row” out past the three-mile limit.
The third Pickering (WSMM 919), the Coast Guard’s fifth new Heritage-class 360-foot Offshore Patrol Cutter, has begun construction.
A plasma cutter at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala. cuts steel plates to be used to produce the Coast Guard’s fifth offshore patrol cutter, Pickering. Photo courtesy of Austal USA.
Pickering is the first of up to 11 cutters that will be delivered to the Coast Guard through the $3.3 billion Stage 2 contract with Austal USA in Mobile, where the company is transitioning from building Indy class LCSs (the final hull, the future USS Pierre, launched last month).
The newest Pickering will be delivered to the Coast Guard in late 2027.
The OPCs are set to replace the service’s circa 1980s 270-foot Bear-class and even older 210-foot Reliance-class medium endurance cutters.
OPC will provide the majority of the Coast Guard’s offshore presence conducting a variety of missions including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction, and search and rescue. With a range of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance period, each OPC will be capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups, serving as a mobile command and control platform for surge operations such as hurricane response, mass migration incidents and other events. The cutters will also support Arctic objectives by helping regulate and protect emerging commerce and energy exploration in Alaska.
The ceremony: