USS DOYLE returns to Gloucester for Schooner Festival
More than 250 Sailors from the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Doyle (FFG 39) will arrive Friday morning in Gloucester to participate in the 22nd Annual Schooner Festival over the Labor Day weekend. The Doyle last visited Gloucester for St. Peter’s Fiesta in June.
The Schooner Festival is the city’s major maritime event with sailing vessels of all descriptions participating in a variety of activities culminating in the Mayor’s Race on Sunday, September 3. Over a dozen large schooners are expected to compete for the Esperanto Cup. For more information about the Festival, visit their website at www.CapeAnnVacations.com/schooner.
Doyle Sailors will participate in a variety of activities while in Gloucester including a community relations project. The ship’s color guard will also participate in the National Anthem at Sunday afternoon’s Red Sox/Kansas City Royals game at Fenway Park.
During the port visit the ship will be open for free public tours on Friday, noon- 4p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ‘ 4 p.m.; and Monday 10 a.m. ‘ 4 p.m. The tours will depart by motor vessel from the Gloucester Redevelopment Pier located next to the Gloucester House restaurant on Main Street (RT 127) on roughly an hourly basis.
Tours are on a first come first-served basis, no reservations will be accepted. All passengers are subject to search. No weapons, bags of any kind or drinking containers will be allowed. Small purses and cameras will be permitted. Minimum age requirement is 6 years old and all adults must have a photo ID. The ship is not handicapped accessible.
All visitors to the ship will be screened and are subject to search. No weapons, bags of any kind, or drinking containers will be allowed. Small purses and cameras will be permitted.
The ship is not handicapped accessible. Due to the number of steep ladders required to tour the ship and because of her limited emergency medical capabilities, people with heart conditions, breathing difficulties or other medical conditions will not be permitted to board.
The Doyle, home ported in Mayport, Florida, was built at the Todd Pacific Shipyards Corp., Seattle Division, and was commissioned on May 15, 1982. Her mission is to provide local area protection to battle groups, underway replenishment groups, amphibious forces, military and merchant shipping, and to conduct anti-submarine operations to protect our sea lanes of communication.
The 4,100-ton warship is 454 feet long and 45 feet wide and is powered by two General Electric Gas Turbine engines producing a top speed in excess of 28 knots. Sleek, responsive, and versatile, Doyle is equipped with Standard surface-to-air missiles; Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles; a rapid fire, dual purpose 76mm gun; a Close-In-
Weapon System (CIWS) gatling gun with a rate of fire in excess of 3,000 rounds per minute; anti-submarine torpedoes; and two SH-60B LAMPS MK III helicopters designed to conduct successful sustained operations in a multi-threat environment.
The ship is named after Vice Admiral Henry Doyle, who as Commander of Amphibious Group One during the Korean War was personally responsible for the flawless execution of the amphibious phase of the invasion of Inchon in 1950. Later in the war he commanded the Hungnam withdrawal safely evacuating the 1st Marine Division, 3rd and 7th Infantry Divisions, and 100,000 civilians while under heavy sweeping enemy gunfire without a single casualty. Commander Michael Elliott is the ship’s commanding officer.