Ramona Adams
Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Ingalls Shipbuilding division held a keel-authentication ceremony for the U.S. Coast Guard‘s eighth Legend-class national security cutter Midgett.
HII said Friday the vessel is named after John Allen Midgett, who received the silver cup from the U.K. Board of Trade in 1918 for his rescue of 42 British sailors aboard a tanker that was torpedoed by a German U-boat.
Midgett was a senior enlisted member of the U.S. Lifesaving Service when it merged with the U.S. Lighthouse Service and U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to form the Coast Guard in 1915.
Midgett’s granddaughter Jazania O’Neal served as the ship’s sponsor and her initials were welded onto a keel plate, the company noted.
HII has rolled out six NSCs for the Coast Guard to date and was awarded a $486 million contract in December 2016 to build the ninth cutter.
The company is scheduled to deliver the seventh NSC named Kimball in 2018.
Legend-class NSCs are designed to support maritime homeland security, law enforcement and national security missions.
