Today, the Coast Guard will commission a new, larger, high-tech Hollyhock cutter in a morning ceremony with music and speeches.

At 2,000 tons and with more than 50,000 moving parts to help it navigate, "it's a little more complicated than a Chevy," Lt. Cmdr. Mike McBrady, said Thursday at a rehearsal for the commissioning.

The new ship has a 52-member crew. Older ones usually require about 30 more people, said Coast Guardsman Jim Jurczak.

"There's a lot of new stuff to learn so it makes it a little bit hard, but on the other hand, it makes it a lot easier to do your job," Jurczak said.

This is the first ship the 22-year-old Florida native has been assigned to since he joined the Coast Guard in June.

The paint is fresh. The deck is spacious. The Coast Guardsmen are in good spirits.

At the rehearsal, Coast Guardsmen who are assigned to other cutters told him the Hollyhock will be a nice place to start.

Almost every four years there's a complete cutter crew turnover, said Lt. (j.g.) Zach Ford of Grand Rapids, who is helping coordinate the Hollyhock's commissioning.

The 14th vessel in the Juniper Class, the Port Huron-based Hollyhock is the first of its class to be stationed in the Great Lakes.

The responsibilities of the Hollyhock and other ships in Juniper include breaking through 3-foot-thick ice, and picking up buoys before they get frozen in and returning them before spring so commercial boats can navigate safely. The vessel can also be used for search and rescue, maritime homeland security, law enforcement and pollution response.

This ship is an upgraded replacement to the Bramble, which the Coast Guard gave to the Port Huron Historical Society following its decommission in May 2003.

The former Hollyhock won service stars during World War II and sailed in the Korean War. The 175-foot-long ship was decommissioned in 1982. It was sunk off the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., coast in 1990 and is now a popular diving attraction.

The new cutter is expected to travel along upstate New York to Wisconsin, McBradysaid. It has navigated lakes since the Coast Guard received it Oct. 15, 2003.