Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2020)

Back to the Drawing Board

A Titanium USS Enterprise (NCC-1701 that is)

By Rik van Hemmen ennis Bryant provided a link to a story loath to deviate too much.

about the USCG Cutter Bear in his March Instead of steam, I would ft internal combustion engines, but 18, 2020 newsletter. It is a great story probably work out a more complex hybrid diesel electric ar- about a great ship with a great Captain rangement. I would not install a huge amount of power. (Her

D (Michael Healy) and a great crew. It shows original propulsion power was only 300 IHP.) I would ft her that the right combination of ship and crew with a sturdy CPP. With her electric drive she could be rigged can perform miracles. for free running, sail charging or even some boost power to

This one ship, its Captain (and his wife who often shipped drive through ice. And she would be air-conditioned.

with him), and its crew did so many things so well that it has I would keep her brigantine rig, but rigged with more mod- become the stuff of legends. I will not further discuss these ern sails and maybe a Dynarig (Maltese Falcon) style square adventures; some can be found in the article and the rest can rigged foremast. My biggest dilemma would be to decide be easily Googled. Instead I want to draw attention to the love- whether to keep her stack. There would be no need for that tall ly photo of the vessel in the article. I was awestruck by her stack and I could rig more sail, but, my God, what a gorgeous beauty. Not the come hither style of beauty (even though in stack! Then come the boats. I’d have a few RIBs (electric out- that category she is well endowed too). Rather I was struck by board powered), but undoubtedly also two much lower speed her functional beauty. This ship is the best looking Swiss army electric launches with simple galley and bunks and auxiliary knife I have ever seen. sail on freestanding masts that can function as independent ex-

If somebody were to tell me that I would be sent “on a fve- ploration/research vessels.

year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new At one stage the Bear was ftted with a seaplane, but drones life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone will perform that work today. A manned submarine would be before!” this would be the vessel I would pick, even today. sexy, but I think it would make more sense to use ROV’s.

OK, I may do a little technological upgrade, after all I am an She would be ftted with excellent awnings, there is nothing engineer, but this would be the starting point and I would be better than shade when working on deck.

Revenue Capt. Michael A. Healy, commanding offcer of

The original Bear was a steam barkentine. cutters Chandler, Corwin, Bear, McCulloch and Thetis.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard 20 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • May 2020