USCGC George Cobb (WLM-564) is a Keeper-class coastal buoy tender of the United States Coast Guard.

[5] The ship has two Caterpillar 3508 DITA (direct-injection, turbocharged, aftercooled) 8-cylinder Diesel engines which produce 1000 horsepower each.

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

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

[1] George Cobb, 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.

He had a long career tending a number of California lighthouses, but is best known for his service at the Oakland Harbor Light.

On 26 December 1896, a sailboat capsized in rain squalls near the light and Cobb rowed out and saved two men who clung to the keel.

[18] The bulk of George Cobb's year is spent at sea tending its buoys, or in port maintaining the ship.

[20] A Coast Guard C-130 Hercules collided in mid-air with a Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra helecopter near San Clemente Island on 29 October 2009.

A number of Coast Guard and Marine units were sent to the crash site to search for survivors, including George Cobb.

[22] Sixty members of FBI SWAT teams participated in boarding exercises aboard George Cobb in May 2007.

The animal had been rehabilitated by the Pacific Marine Mammal Center and was released back into the wild near San Clemente Island.

[24] In September 2011, the ship deployed the Vessel of Opportunity Skimming System in an oil spill training exercise.

[25] The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution developed an autonomous underwater vehicle to detect oil spills.

In 2019 George Cobb launched the vehicle in the Santa Barbara Channel as part of a joint exercise between the Institution, NOAA, and The Environmental Protection Agency.