View source for USCGC General Greene

{{Other ships|USS General Greene}}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2014}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
| Ship image=USCGC General Greene WSC-140.jpg
| Ship caption= USCGC ''General Greene'', 1962
}}
{{Infobox ship career
| Hide header=
| Ship country= United States
| Ship flag= {{Shipboxflag|United States|coast guard}}
| Ship name= USCGC ''General Greene'' (WPC-140/WSC-140)
| Ship namesake= [[Nathanael Greene]], American Revolutionary War general<ref name=USCG01>"General Greene, 1927", Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard-Manned Army & Navy Vessels, U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office</ref>

| Ship ordered=
| Ship awarded=
| Ship builder=[[Brown, Boveri & Cie|American Brown Boveri Electric Corporation]], [[Camden, New Jersey]]
| Ship original cost=$90,000 USD<ref name="USCG01" /> 
| Ship yard number=
| Ship way number=
| Ship laid down=
| Ship launched=14 February 1927
| Ship sponsor=
| Ship christened=
| Ship completed=
| Ship acquired=
| Ship commissioned=7 April 1927
| Ship decommissioned=15 November 1968
| Ship in service=
| Ship out of service=
| Ship renamed=
| Ship reclassified=
| Ship refit=
| Ship struck=
| Ship reinstated=
| Ship homeport=
| Ship identification=
| Ship motto= 
| Ship nickname=
| Ship honors=
| Ship fate= Sold, 1976
| Ship notes=
| Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
| Hide header= 
| Header caption= 
| Ship type= [[Patrol boat]]
| Ship displacement= {{Convert|232|LT|t|0|lk=on|abbr=on}} 
| Ship length= {{Convert|125|ft|m|abbr=on}} 
| Ship beam= {{Convert|23|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} 
| Ship draft= {{Convert|7|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}} 
| Ship propulsion= 2 × 8-cylinder, 268A General Motors 850&nbsp;hp late 1950s to decommission{{Convert|300|hp|0|abbr=on}} engines
| Ship speed=*''1945''
*Maximum: {{Convert|13|kn|lk=in}}
*Cruise: {{Convert|8|kn|abbr=on}} 8-268A Max speed 19kn cruise 12.5kn  
| Ship range=*{{Convert|3500|nmi|abbr=on}}
*At max. speed: {{Convert|2500|nmi|abbr=on}}
| Ship complement= 3 officers, 17 men (1960)
| Ship sensors= 
| Ship EW= 
| Ship armament=* ''1927'': 
* 1 × 3"/27 caliber gun<ref name="Scheina(1982)45" />
* ''1941'': 
* 1 × [[3"/23 caliber gun]]
* 2 × [[depth charge]] tracks<ref name="Scheina(1982)45" />
* ''1945'':
* 1 × [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|40&nbsp;mm/80]] gun
* 2 × [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|20&nbsp;mm/80]] guns
* 2 × depth charge tracks
* 2 × [[Mousetrap (weapon)|Mousetrap]] [[Anti-submarine weapon|ASW]]<ref name="Scheina(1982)45" />
* ''1960'': 
* 1 × 40&nbsp;mm/60 gun<ref name=Scheina(1990)58>Scheina (1990), p 58</ref>

| Ship armor= 
| Ship aircraft= 
| Ship aircraft facilities=
| Ship notes= 
}}
|}

'''USCGC ''General Greene'' (WPC/WSC/WMEC-140)''', was a {{convert|125|ft|m|abbr=on}} [[United States Coast Guard]] {{sclass|Active|patrol boat}}, in commission from 1927 to 1968 and the fourth cutter to bear the name of the famous Revolutionary War general, [[Nathanael Greene]]. She served during the [[Rum Patrol]], [[World War II]] and into the 1960s performing defense, law enforcement, ice patrol, and search and rescue missions.<ref name="USCG01" />

==Construction and commissioning==
The ''General Greene'' was built by the [[Brown, Boveri & Cie|American Brown Boveri Electric Corp.]] of [[Camden, New Jersey]], at a cost of $90,000.{{#tag:ref|Scheina (1982) says $63,173 USD.<ref name=Scheina(1982)45>Scheina (1982), p 45</ref>|group=Note}} She was launched on 14 February 1927, and commissioned on 7 April 1927.<ref name="USCG01" /><ref name=RoM428>"Record of Movements, Vessels of the United States Coast Guard, 1790–December 31, 1933", U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Transportation, p 428</ref>

==Patrol duties during the Depression==

''General Greene'' had been designed specifically for prohibition enforcement service and assumed [[Rum Patrol]] duty 15 May 1927 with a home-port of [[Boston, Massachusetts]]<ref name="RoM428" /> Her routine consisted of picketing liquor laden "mother ships" and preventing them from offloading prohibited cargo to smaller contact boats that were used to deliver liquor to shore.<ref name=Johnson80>Johnson, p 80</ref> On 15 March 1931 she departed Boston bound for [[St. John's, Newfoundland]] to join the [[International Ice Patrol]] for the first time. At the end of the patrol season she would return to Boston and resume Rum Patrol duties; this pattern would continue through the end of the 1933 Ice Patrol season.<ref name="RoM428" />  With the end of prohibition in 1933, ''General Greene'' assumed a more traditional role of a Coast Guard cutter, that of search and rescue, law enforcement, merchant vessel inspection, and defense training.{{#tag:ref|The repeal of Prohibition was accomplished with the ratification of the [[Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-first Amendment]] on 5 December 1933.|group=Note}}<ref name=Canneyxiii>Canney, p xiii</ref> In 1941 she conducted an oceanographic survey off the coast of Newfoundland and while on the survey in May 1941, she was ordered to search for survivors from two British freighters torpedoed off the coast of [[Greenland]]. She recovered 39 survivors from the [[SS Marconi|SS ''Marconi'']], and observed part of the [[Royal Navy]] task force engaging the {{Ship|German battleship|Bismarck||2|up=yes}}.<ref name="USCG01" />

==World War II service==
In early 1942 she was re-designated '''WSC-140''', and assigned to search and rescue and convoy escort duties. On 25 May 1942 she engaged a German [[U-boat]] with depth charges in a dense fog off [[Nantucket Shoals]] while rescuing survivors from the British freighter SS ''Peisander''.

==Post-war service==
In 1946 she returned to her station at Woods Hole, and from 1947 until her decommissioning in 1968 was based at [[Gloucester, Massachusetts|Gloucester]], [[Massachusetts]].<ref name="USCG01" />

[[File:USCGC General Greene (WPC-140) aground March 1960.PNG|thumb|''General Greene'' aground on Spring Hill Beach at [[East Sandwich, Massachusetts|East Sandwich]], [[Massachusetts]], sometime between 4 and 8 March 1960. [[Bulldozer]]s are creating a trough for use in refloating her at high tide.]]While attempting to assist a [[Tugboat|tug]] in distress, ''General Greene'' was swept ashore on Spring Hill Beach at [[East Sandwich, Massachusetts|East Sandwich]], Massachusetts, by [[hurricane]]-force winds and {{convert|40|ft|adj=on}} waves on 4 March 1960. All hands were rescued and the ship was refloated on 8 March 1960.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=tevYlVohh_gC&dq=%22General+Greene%22+Massachusetts+Coast+Guard+Sandwich+March+7+1960&pg=PA114 ''Mariners Weather Log'', Vol. 4, No. 4, United States Weather Bureau, July 1960, p. 114.]</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=http://wreckhunter.net/DataPages/generalgreene-dat.htm |title=General Greene | publisher=Hunting New England Shipwrecks |accessdate=8 February 2021 }}</ref><!--Wreckhunter.net incorrectly places date of grounding on 6 March 1960. Various sources erroneously place the event on 7 March 1960.-->

After her decommissioning, ''General Greene'' was transferred to [[Newburyport, Massachusetts|Newburyport]], Massachusetts, for use as a [[museum ship]], but she was returned to the Coast Guard in 1976 and sold. In 1979, renamed ''Belmont'' and under the flag of [[Guatemala]], she was seized by the Coast Guard for [[drug smuggling]].<ref name="USCG01" />

==Awards==
*[[American Defense Service Medal]] with "A" device
*[[American Campaign Medal]]
*[[World War II Victory Medal]]
*[[National Defense Service Medal]] with star

==See also==
[[Rum Patrol]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=Note}}

==Citations==
{{reflist|}}

==References==
* {{cite book|last=Canney|first=Donald L.|title=U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790–1935|year=1995|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-1-55750-101-1}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Flynn |first1=Jim |last2=Lortz |first2=Ed |last3=Lukas |first3=Holger |title=Answer 39/48 |journal=Warship International |date=March 2018 |volume=LV |issue=January 2018 |pages=23–25 |issn=0043-0374}}
* {{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Robert Irwin|year=1987|title=Guardians of the Sea, History of the United States Coast Guard, 1915 to the Present|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-0-87021-720-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/guardiansofseahi00john}}
* {{cite book|last=Scheina|first=Robert L.|year=1982|title=U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-0-87021-717-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Scheina|first=Robert L.|year=1990|title=U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946–1990|publisher=Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland|isbn=978-0-87021-719-7}}

===Websites===
* {{cite web|title=General Greene, 1927|url=https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Water/All/Article/2474896/general-greene-1927-wmec-140/|work=Cutters, Craft & U.S. Coast Guard-Manned Army & Navy Vessels|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office|access-date=3 February 2014|format=asp}}
* {{cite web|title=Record of Movements, Vessels of the United States Coast Guard, 1790–December 31, 1933|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Transportation|url=http://www.uscg.mil/history/articles/RecordofMovements.pdf|access-date=3 February 2014}}

{{Active class patrol boat}}
{{1960 shipwrecks}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:General Greene (Wsc-140)}}
[[Category:Active-class patrol boats]]
[[Category:1927 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in Camden, New Jersey]]
[[Category:World War II patrol vessels of the United States]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1960]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of the Massachusetts coast]]
[[Category:Brown, Boveri & Cie]]

{{USCG-stub}}