USCGC Frank Drew (WLM-557) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard.

Her primary mission is maintaining over 300 aids to navigation in lower Chesapeake Bay, the rivers that flow into it, and a portion of the North Carolina Coast.

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.

[2] The Coast Guard exercised options for the 5th through 10th ships of the class, including Frank Drew, in February 1997.

Keeper-class ships were the first Coast Guard cutters equipped with Z-drives, which markedly improved their maneuverability.

This gives Frank Drew the ability to hold position in the water even in heavy currents, winds, and swells.

[14] Frank Drew, 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.

[19] The Coast Guard took ownership of Frank Drew on 17 June 1999, and place her "in commission, special" status.

Aside from this routine maintenance, intense storms along the Atlantic coast create additional work for Frank Drew.

For instance, Hurricane Florence displaced nearly 200 buoys in North Carolina, and the ship was one of the Coast Guard vessels which reset them in their proper locations.

[22] The bulk of Frank Drew's year is spent at sea tending its buoys, or in port maintaining the ship.

[24] In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Frank Drew was dispatched to patrol sensitive areas in the Washington, D.C.

[25] In 2014 Frank Drew participated in training firefighters using simulated ship fires at the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Hampton Roads.

These included stops during the ship's 1999 transit from Marinette to its new homeport in Portsmouth, in Green Bay, Wisconsin,[27] and Charlevoix, Michigan[28]