The U.S. Coast Guard's Newest Ship

The Bertholf is the flagship of the Coast Guard fleet and the first of a new class of high-tech vessels.
(Lance Iversen / The Chronicle)

High-Tech Alameda Cutter Prepares For Duty
-- San Francisco Chronicle

Alongside a pier at the Coast Guard Base in Alameda, nearly ready for sea duty, is the cutter Bertholf, the newest, most powerful and most sophisticated vessel in the Coast Guard.

The Bertholf steamed through the Golden Gate for the first time in July and was commissioned on the Coast Guard's 218th birthday in August at the ship's home port in Alameda. The vessel is as big as a Navy frigate, sleek as a shark and crammed with advanced technology.

The Bertholf is the flagship of the Coast Guard fleet, first of a new class of vessels the service calls "a giant leap forward in capability."

"It's the Cadillac of cutters,"' said Ensign Josiah Toepfer, 23, one of the ship's engineering officers.

The Bertholf is the first of eight new National Security Cutters, designed to replace a fleet of 12 aging long-range cutters that sail the high seas hunting drug smugglers and performing missions from the far Pacific to the Arctic.

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My Comment: This is an expensive ship. Let's us find out in the next few years if it is worth it.