{{Short description|U.S. Coast Guard seagoing buoy tender}} {{Infobox ship |section1={{Infobox ship/image | image = MapleLeConteGlacier.jpg | image_caption = ''Maple'' in front of the LeConte Glacier }}
|section2={{Infobox ship/career | hide_header = | country = United States | flag = {{Shipboxflag|United States|coast guard}} | name = USCGC ''Maple'' (WLB-207) | namesake = | ordered = | awarded = | builder = Marinette Marine, Marinette, Wisconsin | original_cost = | yard_number = | way_number = | laid_down = | launched = December 16, 2000 | sponsor = | christened = | completed = | acquired = | commissioned = October 19, 2001 | decommissioned = | maiden_voyage = | in_service = | out_of_service = | renamed = | reclassified = | refit = | struck = | reinstated = | homeport = Atlantic Beach, North Carolina | identification = *{{IMO Number|9258208}} *{{MMSI Number|368857000}} *Callsign: NWBE | motto = *"Tender of the Capes" (formerly "Keeper of the Northern Lights"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tioh.army.mil/Catalog/Heraldry.aspx?HeraldryId=4920&CategoryId=2774&grp=3&menu=Uniformed%20Services |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241021193411/https://tioh.army.mil/Catalog/Heraldry.aspx?HeraldryId=4920&CategoryId=2774&grp=3&menu=Uniformed%20Services |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 21, 2024 |title=USCGC Maple (WLB 207) |website=The Institute of Heraldry |publisher=U.S. Army |access-date=27 November 2024}}</ref>) | nickname = | honors = | fate = | status = Active | notes = | badge = 150px }}
|section3={{Infobox ship/characteristics | hide_header = | header_caption = | class = ''Juniper''-class seagoing buoy tender | type = | tonnage = | displacement = 2,000 long tons (full load) | length = {{Convert|225|ft|m|abbr=on}} | beam = {{Convert|46|ft|abbr=on}} | height = | draft = {{Convert|13|ft|abbr=on}} | depth = | decks = | deck_clearance = | ice_class = | power = *2 × Caterpillar 3608 engines *{{convert|3100|shp|abbr=on|lk=in}} each | propulsion = single variable-pitch propeller | speed = {{Convert|15|kn|lk=in}} | range = | endurance = | boats = * 1 × {{Convert|22|ft|m|abbr=on}} RHIB * 1 × {{Convert|24|ft|m|abbr=on}} aluminum-hulled workboat | capacity = | complement = 7 officers, 46 enlisted | sensors = | EW = | armament = | armor = | notes = }} }} '''USCGC ''Maple'' (WLB-207)''' is a ''Juniper''-class seagoing buoy tender operated by the United States Coast Guard. She was based at Sitka, Alaska for 16 years and is currently homeported at Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. Her primary mission is maintaining aids to navigation, but she also supports search and rescue, law enforcement, oil spill response, and other Coast Guard missions.
== Construction and characteristics == ''Maple'' was built by the Marinette Marine Corporation on the Menominee River in Wisconsin. She was launched on December 16, 2000. She was christened by Fran Ulmer, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska. She was the seventh of the fourteen ''Juniper''-class ships launched.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|date=December 21, 2000|title=Marine vessel launched|work=Manitowoc Herald-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/292409668/?terms=%22cutter%2Bmaple%22%2Blaunched}}</ref> Her original cost was reported as $30 million.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Clemen|first=George|date=July 15, 2001|title=Coast Guard shows off new class of boats|work=The Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/309479715/?terms=%22cutter%2Bmaple%22}}</ref>
''Maple's'' hull is constructed of welded steel plates. She is {{Convert|225|ft|m|abbr=}} long and has a beam of {{Convert|46|ft|m|abbr=}}. She is capable of maintaining a sustained speed of 15 knots. The ship has thirteen diesel fuel tanks capable of holding 74,498 gallons.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Desruisseau|first=Robert C.|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a369406.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401223823/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a369406.pdf|url-status=live|archive-date=April 1, 2022|title=Tactical Testing of the Juniper ClassSeagoing Buoy Tender|publisher=US Coast Guard|year=1999}}</ref> ''Maple'' has an unrefueled range of 6,000 miles at 12 knots.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=225-foot Juniper class > United States Coast Guard > Display|url=https://www.uscg.mil/Assets/Display/Article/1822406/225-foot-juniper-class/|website=www.uscg.mil|access-date=2020-05-11}}</ref>
''Maple'' has a single variable-pitch propeller that is powered by two Caterpillar 3608 Diesel engines, each with an indicated 3,100 shp. There are two electric maneuvering thrusters, the bow thruster producing 460 hp and the stern thruster producing 550 hp.<ref name=":0" /> The thrusters act as part of a dynamic positioning system that is capable of maintaining the ship within five meters of a fixed position on the sea in winds up to 30 knots and seas up to {{Convert|8|ft|m|abbr=}}. This allows the crew to work on buoys in difficult weather conditions.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.cusnc.navy.mil/Portals/17/Task%20Forces/CG_Cutters-Boats-Aircraft_2015-2016_.pdf?ver=2018-06-18-074838-497|title=THE CUTTERS, BOATS, AND AIRCRAFT OF THE U.S. COAST GUARD|publisher=US Coast Guard}}</ref>
The ship's crane extends to {{Convert|60|ft|m|abbr=}} and can lift {{Convert|40,000|lb|kg|abbr=}} onto her buoy deck, which is 2,875 square feet in area.<ref>{{Cite web|title=U.S. Coast Guard Seagoing Buoy Tender, USCGC Sycamore Arrives in Maryland for Midlife Maintenance Availability|url=https://defpost.com/u-s-coast-guard-seagoing-buoy-tender-uscgc-sycamore-arrives-in-maryland-for-midlife-maintenance-availability/|last=Writer|first=DP Staff|date=2019-04-08|website=DefPost|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-05-12}}</ref> This capability has allowed ''Maple'' to service NOAA's 6-meter NOMAD weather buoys, which weigh 25,000 pounds.<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 24, 2010|title=Back On Line|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-may-24-2010-p-1/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Coast Guard Cutter Maple completes two major missions in April « Coast Guard Alaska|url=https://alaska.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2011/04/coast-guard-cutter-maple-completes-two-major-missions-in-april/|access-date=2020-07-06|website=alaska.coastguard.dodlive.mil|archive-date=2020-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707063214/https://alaska.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2011/04/coast-guard-cutter-maple-completes-two-major-missions-in-april/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
''Maple'' is capable of light icebreaking. She can sail through ice {{Convert|14|in|cm|abbr=}} thick at three knots.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|date=July 13, 1998|title=U.S. Coast Guards Latest Cutter is just "bigger, faster, and better"|work=Post-Crescent|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/290792298/?terms=%22Coast%2Bguard%22%2Belm}}</ref>
''Maple'' is armed with two 50-caliber machine guns and a variety of small arms for boarding operations.<ref name=":1" />
Her complement is seven officers and forty-six enlisted personnel.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cutter Maple returns from Canada|url=https://alaska.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2010/11/cutter-maple-returns-from-canada/|access-date=2020-07-06|website=alaska.coastguard.dodlive.mil|archive-date=2020-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707024558/https://alaska.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2010/11/cutter-maple-returns-from-canada/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
''Maple'' and all but one of the ''Juniper''-class buoy tenders are named after trees. She is the third Coast Guard vessel of this name, after USLHT ''Maple'', launched in 1893, and USLHT/USCGC ''Maple'' (WAGL-234), launched in 1939.
== Operating history == left|thumb|USCGC ''Maple'' servicing a NOAA weather buoy in 2010|alt= After her launch, ''Maple'' sailed down the Great Lakes and out into the Atlantic through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. During the trip she stopped in Ogdensburg, New York the former homeport of her predecessor, ''Maple'' (WAGL-234).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Etulain|first=Troy|date=September 5, 2002|title=Maple Sailing into Post-Sept. 11 Waters|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-sep-05-2002-p-1/}}</ref> This ''Maple'' arrived in Sitka, Alaska, her first homeport, on September 29, 2001. She was commissioned there on October 19, 2001, with her sponsor, Lieutenant Governor Fran Ulmer, speaking again.<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 22, 2001|title=Maple Commissioning|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-oct-22-2001-p-1/}}</ref> The ship replaced USCGC ''Woodrush'' at that station.<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 28, 2001|title=Coast Guard Cutter Maple Arttives in Sitka|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-sep-28-2001-p-4/}}</ref> Her primary mission was servicing aids to navigation. The diversity of activities within this mission is suggested by a six-day patrol in October 2008. She recovered a buoy that was adrift in Peril Strait, decommissioned 18 seasonal buoys in Prince William Sound, repaired a light in Tenakee Inlet on Chichicoff Island, and saved a fishing boat from going aground.<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 28, 2008|title=C.G. Cutter Maple Nabs Buoy|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-oct-28-2008-p-3/}}</ref> In addition to maintaining navigation buoys, ''Maple'' partnered with NOAA to service offshore weather buoys.<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 8, 2010|title=USCGC Maple Helps Out In Oil Spill Effort|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-sep-08-2010-p-4/}}</ref> In 2013 she partnered with USGS to deploy ocean-bottom seismometers to study earthquake behavior in Southeast Alaska.<ref>{{Cite news|date=November 20, 2013|title=Earthquakes Topic of Seminar|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-nov-20-2013-p-5/}}</ref>
''Maple'' also supported search and rescue missions. In May 2004 the ferry ''LeConte'' went aground on Cozian Reef on her way to Sitka. ''Maple'' and USCGC ''Anacapa'' responded to the scene.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Joling|first=Dan|date=May 14, 2004|title=Fuel being pumped from stricken vessel|work=Whitehorse Daily Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/579156285/?terms=%22cutter%2Bmaple%22}}</ref> In September 2004 ''Maple'' was dispatched as part of a large, unsuccessful effort to find an aircraft that was lost with five people aboard. A light oil sheen was found on Peril Strait and it was hoped that ''Maple's'' side-scan sonar might locate the wreck on the sea bottom.<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 27, 2004|title=Searchers Fail to Find Sign of Missing Plane|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-sep-1/}}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> Aircraft spotted a drifting barge 60 miles southeast of the Kenai Peninsula in September 2006. ''Maple'' intercepted the craft, which was {{Convert|200|ft|m|abbr=}} long, and found that it was abandoned and empty, with no identifying marks as to its origin.<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 21, 2006|title=Mysterious Barge|work=Fairbanks Daily News Miner|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/fairbanks-daily-news-miner-sep-21-2006-p-3/}}</ref>
On July 12, 2017 ''Maple'' left Sitka for the last time. She sailed for a mid-life overhaul at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland via the Northwest Passage across the top of Alaska and Canada.<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 6, 2018|title=Filling In|work=Sitka Daily Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/sitka-daily-sentinel-mar-06-2018-p-1/}}</ref> She was only the sixth Coast Guard vessel ever to have completed the transit. She was accompanied over much of the route by Canadian icebreakers and research ships including CCGS ''Sir Wilfrid Laurier'', CCGS ''Amundson'', and CCGS ''Terry Fox''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Woolsey|first=Robert|date=2018-02-02|title=USCG Maple's 'tense' voyage through icy NW Passage|url=https://www.kcaw.org/2018/02/01/uscg-maples-tense-voyage-icy-nw-passage/|access-date=2020-07-05|website=KCAW|language=en-US}}</ref> While the scheduled overhaul was the driver of the trip, scientific objectives were met along the way. ''Maple'' hosted a scientist from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on the passage.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jones|first=Joshua M.|url=http://cetus.ucsd.edu/Publications/Reports/JonesMPLTM624-2018.pdf|title=Research Cruise Report: USCGC Maple, July 20 – August 21, 2017 Northwest Passage Transit|publisher=Scripps Institution of Oceanography|archive-date=July 6, 2020|access-date=July 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706134112/http://cetus.ucsd.edu/Publications/Reports/JonesMPLTM624-2018.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The ship arrived in Baltimore on August 28, 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Imagery release: Cutter Maple completes Northwest Passage voyage|url=https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/1b3e832|access-date=2020-07-05|website=U.S. Coast Guard|language=en}}</ref>
After ''Maple'' reached the Coast Guard Yard, her crew was transferred to USCGC ''Kukui'', which had just completed her mid-life overhaul. They sailed their new vessel back from Baltimore to Sitka via the Panama Canal, completing a circumnavigation of North America, in July 2018. ''Kukui'' replaced ''Maple'' at Sitka on a permanent basis.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stolpe|first=Klas|date=January 10, 2019|title=Coast Guard Reports Eventful Year In Sitka|work=Daily Sitka Sentinel|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/daily-sitka-sentinel-jan-10-2019-p-1/}}</ref> thumb|USCGC ''Maple'' practices vertical replenishment in 2004 ''Maple'' was the fourth ''Juniper''-class cutter to receive her mid-life overhaul under of the Coast Guard's In-Service Vessel Sustainment program. The goal of the work was to extend the ship's life for another 15 years. During her upgrade much of her deck equipment, machinery control, propeller, and HVAC systems were overhauled. Corroded steel was replaced. ''Maple'' left the Coast Guard Yard on November 7, 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Renovation Completed On Fourth 225-Foot Seagoing Buoy Tender|url=https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/Assistant-Commandant-for-Acquisitions-CG-9/Newsroom/Latest-Acquisition-News/Article/1687232/renovation-completed-on-fourth-225-foot-seagoing-buoy-tender/|access-date=2020-07-05|website=United States Coast Guard|language=en-US}}</ref>
She arrived at her new homeport, Atlantic Beach, North Carolina in November 2018. She replaced USCGC ''Elm'' at this station. Her primary mission is maintaining over 200 aids to navigation along the Atlantic Coast from Shark River, New Jersey to the North Carolina-South Carolina border.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A new breath of life: Cutter Maple moves to homeport in Atlantic Beach, NC « Coast Guard Mid Atlantic|url=https://midatlantic.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2018/11/a-new-breath-of-life-cutter-maple-moves-to-homeport-in-atlantic-beach-nc/|access-date=2020-07-05|website=midatlantic.coastguard.dodlive.mil|archive-date=2019-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819201319/https://midatlantic.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2018/11/a-new-breath-of-life-cutter-maple-moves-to-homeport-in-atlantic-beach-nc/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In 2019 ''Maple'' assisted NASA in testing the Crew Module Uprighting System of the Orion spacecraft, which is planned to land on water.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-05-14|title=The CorvidEYE: Maple turnover|url=https://www.kcaw.org/2019/05/14/maple-turnover/|access-date=2020-07-05|website=KCAW|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=NASA, USCG test capsule off coast|url=https://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/article_c6c2c950-472f-11e9-b612-b3215c436883.html|access-date=2020-07-05|website=Carolina Coast Online|language=en}}</ref>
''Maple'' has earned four Coast Guard E ribbons and the Special Operations Service Ribbon during her career.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://media.defense.gov/2017/Mar/29/2001723556/-1/-1/0/CIM_1650_25E.PDF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904105203/https://media.defense.gov/2017/Mar/29/2001723556/-1/-1/0/CIM_1650_25E.PDF|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 4, 2017|title=Coast Guard Military Medals and Awards Manual|publisher=U.S. Coast Guard|year=2016|location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} * {{Marinette Marine|state=autocollapse}} {{Juniper class cutter}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maple (WLB-207)}} Category:Juniper-class seagoing buoy tenders Category:2001 ships Category:Ships built by Marinette Marine USCGC Maple (WLB-207)