USCGC Abbie Burgess (WLM-553) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard.

Secondary missions include marine environmental protection, light icebreaking, search and rescue, and security.

[1] On 22 June 1993 the Coast Guard awarded the contract for the Keeper-class vessels to Marinette Marine Corporation in the form of a firm order for the lead ship and options for thirteen more.

In 1999 stainless steel cages were added around Abbie Burgess' propellers to reduce the number of lobster pot lines they fouled.

[14]Abbie Burgess, as all Keeper-class ships, has a strengthened "ice belt" along the waterline so that she can work on aids to navigation in ice-infested waters.

Higher grades of steel were used for hull plating in the ice belt to prevent cracking in cold temperatures.

The bad weather prevented her father's return, leaving 17-year-old Abbie to maintain the lights for a month during one of the worst storms of the century.

[13] After her launch and builder's trials, the Coast Guard accepted the ship and placed her in commission-special status on 19 September 1997.

The coast of northern New England is prone to difficult weather that requires extra maintenance of the buoys that are assigned to Abbie Burgess.

[19] A strong nor'easter in April 2007 damaged or displaced 70 aids to navigation which Abbie Burgess, and USCGC Marcus Hanna were dispatched to repair.

[21][22] The bulk of Abbie Burgess' year is spent at sea tending her buoys, or in port maintaining the ship.

In April 2005, Abbie Burgess set four NOAA current monitoring stations in the river to learn more about these potentially dangerous flows.

[19] Later in 2005, Abbie Burgess participated in a joint U.S.-Canada oil spill exercise, with the cutter deploying in Frenchman Bay, Maine.

[24] Abbie Burgess served as a dive platform for an archeological survey of the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, which was destroyed in a storm in 1851.

In 2007, Coast Guard divers from the Maritime Safety and Security team searched the sea floor for evidence of the lighthouse.

[25] In July 2000, Abbie Burgess provided security for the parade of tall ships at OpSail 2000 Connecticut on the Thames River.

[27] Along with US and Canadian naval units, Abbie Burgess participated in a homeland security exercise called Frontier Sentinel in 2008.