View source for USCGC Dexter (1925)

{{other ships|USCGC Dexter}}
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|Ship country=United States
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|Ship name=''Dexter''
|Ship namesake=[[Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Samuel Dexter]] (1761-1816)
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|Ship builder=[[Defoe Shipbuilding Company|Defoe Boat and Motor Works]], [[Bay City, Michigan|Bay City]], [[Michigan]]
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|Ship commissioned=1925
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|Ship fate=Transferred to [[United States Navy]] 1936
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|Ship class=[[100-foot patrol boat]]
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|Ship displacement=210 tons
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|Ship power=300 [[Horsepower#Brake horsepower|bhp]] (0.22 MW)
|Ship propulsion=Two [[Grey Marine]] [[diesel engines]]; twin [[propeller]]s
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'''USCGC ''Dexter''''', was a [[steel]]-[[Hull (watercraft)|hulled]] [[patrol boat]] of the [[United States Coast Guard]] in commission from 1925 to 1936. She was the third ship of the [[United States Revenue Cutter Service]] and [[United States Coast Guard]] to bear the name.

''Dexter'' was built by the [[Defoe Shipbuilding Company|Defoe Boat and Motor Works]] at [[Bay City, Michigan|Bay City]], [[Michigan]]. She was [[Ship commissioning|commissioned]] into the Coast Guard in 1925.

''Dexter'' was stationed at [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], from 1925 until 1927. She was then transferred to [[Pascagoula, Mississippi|Pascagoula]], [[Mississippi]] late in 1927. By 1935 she had been transferred to [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], [[New York (state)|New York]].

''Dexter'' was [[Ship decommissioning|decommissioned]] in 1936. She was then transferred to the [[United States Navy]].

On June 19, 2010 ''Dexter'' (known as  ''Buccaneer'') was sunk in Lake Michigan as an [[artificial reef]].

''Dexter'' is also a ship of some historical significance. During her tenure as a revenue cutter she sank the Canadian rum running sloop ''[[I'm Alone]]'' in the Gulf of Mexico, in 1929. While ''I'm Alone'' had allegedly been sighted within U.S. territorial waters, the actual sinking occurred in international waters, 200 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. One crew member from the sloop was killed during the sinking, he was a French national. This created quite an international incident{{clarify|date=June 2016}} involving Canada, Britain and France. The resulting lawsuit was settled in 1936.

After being stricken from the U.S. Coast Guard rolls in 1936, the Dexter was turned over to the U.S. Navy, in Buffalo New York, and renamed YP-63.  She saw action during World War II patrolling in the Caribbean, based out of Trinidad, on the Atlantic Sea Frontier.  She is officially cited in the "Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II".  On June 16, 1942, YP-63 (ex-USCGC ''Dexter'') and the coastal yacht ''Opal'' rescued 91 survivors from three successive merchant ships sunk by the German U boats: ''U-126'', ''U-161'' and ''U-502''.

After the war she was acquired by various private interests. She saw service as a recreational fishing vessel off Boston, an oil drilling services vessel off Louisiana and finally ended up in Chicago, as a pirate themed party boat. It is ironic that this vessel, originally created to enforce prohibition, became the MV ''Buccaneer'', dedicated to providing quantities of booze to her willing customers.

For three years ''Buccaneer'' was at a marina on the Little Calumet River being prepared for sinking in Lake Michigan as a dive attraction. She was finally sunk in Lake Michigan on June 18, 2010. She now rests as an artificial reef in 74&nbsp;ft. of water about eight miles off the coast of Chicago.

==References==
*[http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/Dexter1925.asp United States Coast Guard Historian's Office: ''Dexter'', 1925]

{{1929 shipwrecks}}

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[[Category:Patrol vessels of the United States]]
[[Category:Ships built in Bay City, Michigan]]
[[Category:Ships of the United States Coast Guard]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1929]]