NEW LONDON — The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday inaugurated a new multi-mission ship, the Melvin Bell, named for a World War II veteran who radioed the first alarms after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Held at the Coast Guard Academy in a tent sheltered from steady rain, the commissioning included remarks by the commanding officer of the 154-foot-long cutter, Stonington native Lt. Patrick Kelly, and Robert Bell, son of the ship's namesake, who described his father as a proud native Hawaiian and “fierce American patriot.”
The $45 million fast-response cutter (FRC) was built by workers at Bollinger Shipyards in Lockport, Louisiana. The Bell is designed for drug and migrant interdiction, coastal security, fisheries enforcement, search and rescue, and national defense. She is the 55th of 65 such Sentinel-class ships that the Coast Guard has ordered to replace 1980s-era 110-foot patrol boats.
The Bell is to be moored in Boston, the sixth and final Sentinel-class cutter to be stationed in the city harbor. Kelly said the crew is to sail on its first mission in mid-April. He told the audience packed into the tent that the steeple of the Old North Church is visible from the ship's mooring, reminding him that the Bell is named for a man in the mold of an original American alarm raiser, Paul Revere, who arranged for a signal in the church bell tower and alerted fellow patriots that British soldiers were headed to Lexington and Concord.
Melvin…
