Category Archives: homeland security

More Semper, More Paratis

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The crew of USCGC Resolute (WMEC 620) poses for a group photo during a drug offload at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, July 17, 2025. Resolute deployed in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South), an interagency and international task force that conducts counter-illicit trafficking and security cooperation operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Riley Perkofski)

The Coast Guard, after years of being in a doldrums of low personnel, staffing, recruiting, and retention that led to the inexcusable lay up of cutters and closing of stations and units in November 2023, it looks like the service is back, baby.

The Coast Guard announced last week that it exceeded its fiscal year 2025 (FY25) recruiting goals, achieving the highest accession numbers since 1991.

The Coast Guard accessed 5,204 active-duty enlisted service members in FY25, which was 121% of its FY25 target of 4,300. This success was the second year in a row that the Coast Guard met its active-duty enlisted recruiting goals after the Service brought in 4,422 new service members last year.

In addition to the success of the active-duty enlisted recruiting efforts, the Service commissioned 371 new officers to achieve 101% of the overall goal. This represents the largest officer target achieved in recorded history.

In the reserve component, the Coast Guard accessed 777 reservists, which was 104% of the official target of 750. This was the third year in a row that the Coast Guard met its recruiting goals for the Coast Guard Reserve.

The Coast Guard opened 7 new recruiting offices in FY25 and has been expanding its CGJROTC program, which is now at 14 units, with program-wide enrollment of over 1,200 cadets.

In conjunction with those numbers, the service, a few days ago, announced an RFI to identify prospective locations for an additional training center “that can be used to support projected service growth of up to 15,000 personnel.”

The authorized strength of the USCG is 44,500 active-duty members, and approximately 7,000 reservists, with another 8,577 civilian employees, and 21,000 volunteers in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

The center would need to have:

  • Lodging for 1,200 recruits
  • A dining facility capable of seating 400 personnel
  • A medical facility to support 1,000 personnel (minimum 200 medical encounters and 200 dental encounters per day)
  • 14 classrooms sized to accommodate 30-60 students
  • An auditorium with a capacity of 500+ students
  • A pool with 6 lanes, 25 yards in length, and a minimum depth of 4 feet
  • A multipurpose gymnasium/athletic/sports facility suitable for sitting 1,200 personnel
  • Office space for 400 staff members
  • A land area of 150-250 acres
  • Proximity to a small commercial service or larger airport within 30 miles.

Coast Guard Mobile Afloat Bases, a historical perspective

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Last week’s post about the USCGC Waesche (WMSL 751) serving as a Forward Afloat Staging Base off Alaska during NORTHCOM’s Exercise Arctic Edge 2025 reminded me of the service’s long-standing tradition of such operations.

It actually predates the Coast Guard itself.

City Point (1895-1913)

Due to the shifting waters near the falls of the Ohio River, the Louisville Lifeboat Station (Lifesaving Station No. 10), put into service in 1881, was afloat.

The Louisville Lifeboat Station

Successful, its 1902 replacement was of the same pattern as was its 1929 steel-hulled successor, and remained in USCG service in 1972. Today, it is preserved as the only surviving floating lifesaving station of the United States Life-Saving Service.

This sets the stage for the more blue water City Point Station.

The original USLSS City Point Station, circa 1896-1913, Nathaniel L. Stebbins photographic collection PC047.02.4110.16294

Dialing it back to 1895 (the USCG was formed in 1916), a U.S. Lifesaving Service station was originally described as a “floating station in Dorchester Bay, Boston Harbor,” was authorized as the region had suffered the loss of forty lives on the water, usually in the summer months, from 1890 to 1894. Congressman Michael J. McEttrick introduced a bill in Congress, which was finally passed, and the station was secured, and it was dubbed the “City Point Station.” 

From the USLSS 1895 Annual Report:

And duly installed, as noted from the service’s 1896 report:

The anchored wooden-hulled station, approximately 100 feet long and 33 feet abeam, was home to a 10-man crew and housed a pair of naphtha-powered launches, a dighny, and a heavy surfboat.

Equipped with a generator, they had electric wiring and a large searchlight and signal lights up top.

An innovative feature was an early well deck or “harbor room” in the stern.

As further detailed by The Toomey-Rankin History of South Boston, circa 1901:

An appropriation of $7,000 was made for the construction of the station itself, and in a short time the strange craft was growing under the hands of workmen at Palmer’s shipyard at Noank, Conn., and for 50 days the work progressed, at the end of which time the station was completed, and towed from Noank, Conn., to Boston, and on its arrival Sunday, August 3, 1896, was moored to Loring’s wharf to await fitting out.

It is needless to say that the station, being an innovation, attracted much attention. Visitors saw it as it is today, except for the doors, which were afterward cut on each side of the harbor room. Its form is that of a huge flat iron, the forward end, or bow, coming to a point, while the rear or stern is cut off short. It is 100 feet long,33 feet beam, 6 feet deep, and draws about two feet of water, and is a double-deck affair, the upper deck being about 15 feet above the waterline.

The feature of the station is the harbor at the stern, or what might be called the main entrance to the station. This harbor in which the two naphtha launches of the station are kept, is formed by having an opening 30 feet long and 17 feet wide, cut from the stern directly into the center of the station, leaving on three sides about eight feet of deck room, while the entire harbor is sheltered by the upper deck, which extends to the end of the station.

From the harbor, or launch room, a hallway extends the entire length of the station, off of which are several rooms; on the left is the kitchen, dining room and the crew’s quarters, and on the right the captain’s office, his bed room and the store room, the space at the bow being devoted to the windlass and anchors with which the station is held in position.

Leading from this hallway on the right is a small flight of stairs to the upper deck, and in addition to this are the two other flights, leading from the harbor room, one on the port and one on the starboard side. The upper deck is completely clear with the exception of a lookout, which sets about 30 feet from the bow in the center of the deck, with a flight of steps leading to it. It is surrounded by a railing and is connected with the launch room and the captain’s room by speaking tubes.

Rising from the deck is a flagpole, upon which the national emblem is displayed during the day and a lantern at night. At the stern, on huge davits, hangs the heavy surf boat, in a position to be lowered at an instant’s notice. Davits on the port and starboard sides hold smaller boats. In the harbor are the launches, one of which is 28 feet, with a speed of ten knots, and the other 25 feet in length, with a speed of eight knots.

Towed into position each April/May and then towed back to its winter berth near Chelsea Bridge in October/November, the station was manned by the same crew for the duration of the summer with no relief. The 10 men consisted of a station captain and nine surfmen (one of whom was also paid as a cook), with three of the latter on duty round the clock.

Completed too late to get much practical use in 1896, its first full season deployed was in 1897, where its crew helped 115 small craft in distress and rescued 23 persons, who were taken back to the station for care.

1898 saw 19 persons rescued, 129 persons rendered assistance, and 58 boats saved.

The year 1899 set a new record of 33 persons saved and 183 assisted while coming to the rescue of 97 boats, the latter valued at $63,285, or nine times the initial outlay to build the station.

From a period Roland Libbey article on City Point in the Boston Globe

From a period Roland Libbey article on City Point in the Boston Globe

City Point had its naphtha-powered launches replaced by steam launches in 1900 and was extensively rebuilt in 1913 “to replace a structure that is old and unsuited to present-day needs.”

She would be joined by other bases in the 1920s.

A half dozen floating bases during Prohibition

Speaking of which…

In 1924, with the “Rum War” afoot and the now USCG with a serious need to push assets further offshore to intercept bootleggers speeding out to usually British or Canadian-flagged “blacks” (so named as they ran at night sans flags or lights) anchored just off the three-mile limit on “Rum Row,” the service acquired five new floating bases– Argus, Colfax, Moccasin, Pickering, and Wayanda.

Four of these new bases (Argus, Colfax, Pickering, and Wayanda) were concrete boats originally commissioned for the Army Quartermaster Service for troop and supply transport between Army bases along the coast. The Army had built 16 such flat-bottomed vessels, powered by twin gasoline (!) engines, then quickly disposed of them.

The Army QM Corps concrete riverboats, Colonel J. E. Sawyer and Major Archibald Butt, at a dock in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1920. 

The other two, the reconstructed City Point and the new Moccasin, had wooden hulls. All but City Point had propulsion plants.

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, circa 1916-1939 by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

All had extensive cabin structures topside and served as moored motherships for the service’s 36 and 38-foot picket boats, much closer to Rum Row than the coastal bases.

The 38-foot cabin picket boat. USCG Photo

The Boston-based City Point of the era was a wooden-hulled floating platform that was rebuilt in 1913 at Greenport, New York, and was 109′ 6″ by 33′ by 3′ 6″.

Colfax was the former Army QM vessel General Rufus Ingalls and was 150 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 13 feet deep.

Argus was originally the concrete-hulled Army QM vessel Major E. Pickett. Her dimensions were: 128′ 5″ x 28′ x 12′. Commissioned as Argus on 1 December 1924 at Rockaway Inlet, New York, and was moved to New London, Connecticut, in May of 1925, she was the flagship of the Coast Guard Destroyer Force.

Pickering was the former Army QM Brigadier General O. A. Allison, and was a concrete boat built to the same plan as Major E. Pickett/Argus in 1921 for the War Department. After her acquisition by the Coast Guard, she was stationed at Atlantic City, New Jersey, as of October 1924.

Wayanda was the former Army vessel Colonel William H. Baldwin, a 128-foot ‘crete boat like Pickering and Argus. She was purchased on 21 October 1924 from the John W. Sullivan Company in New York.  She was stationed at Greenport, New York, as of 26 November 1924.

Moccasin was the former wooden-hulled Liberator, 102′ 6″ by 47’9″ by 10′, that was built in 1921 at Lybeck, Florida.  She was purchased from Gibbs Gas Engineering Company on August 20, 1924, and commissioned on November 17, 1924. She served in Miami, Florida.

With Prohibition winding down, the Coast Guard started ridding itself of these floating bases by the late 1920s, and only the concrete Baldwin/Wayanda and the wooden-hulled City Point II outlived the Volstead Act.

Wayanda was last listed in Coast Guard records in 1934, while the second City Point only disappeared from the list of USCG stations after the 1939 season.

In the meantime, the cutter Yocana served as a mothership to clusters of picket boats during the 1937 floods on the Mississippi.

A dozen Coast Guard picket boats muster beside the former CGC Yocona on the Mississippi River during the Great Ohio, Mississippi River Valley Flood of 1937. U.S. Coast Guard photo. Yocona was a 182-foot Kankakee-class stern paddle wheelers built for the Coast Guard in 1919 and stationed at Vicksburg. Click to big up

Other examples

Of course, the service’s large blue water cutters have filled the role of offshore mothership several times since then, with its CGRON3 in Vietnam clocking in to feed, bunk, and refuel both USCG 83-foot patrol boats and Navy Brown water assets such as PBRs and PCFs, as well as the sustained offshore surveillance of Grenada in 1983-84 (Operation Island Breeze).

Point class refueling from USCGC Dallas in Vietnam 2

More recent mothership ops have been seen with the long-distance deployment of FRCs to the Persian Gulf in 2022 and in response to 2017’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

It seems the best way to kill a UAV is…with a UAV

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With the explosive rise in the use of cheap battlefield unmanned systems in the past several years, ballistic options are now the chief countermeasure.

While this has seen a resurgence of love for such simple items as shotguns with specialized ammunition— Benelli is even marketing and reportedly selling a dedicated M4 A.I. Drone Guardian model as fast as they can crank them out– and a whole new breed of SPAAGs of every stripe, it seems that drone-on-drone aerial combat is, in many cases, the most effective answer.

Ukraine began to use “kamikaze” explosive-laden drones to combat Russian UAVs at the front in early 2024 and has even advanced to the point of having shotgun-carrying drones that swat Russian Mavics in mid-air and electronic warfare jammer FPVs that zap the connectivity of enemy drones.

Now, whole new generations of interceptor drones such as the 22-pound Sting and the gently larger Bullet have been developed by outfits such as the Ukrainian non-profit organization Wild Hornets.

Simple to make with off-the-shelf parts and 3D printing, they are being assembled at blistering rates for a cost estimated as low as $1,000 a pop and can reach speeds of over 195 mph, enabling them to chase down enemy drones at anything under 10,000 feet and give them the hard goodbye.

Ukraine claims that Sting alone has killed 900 drones just in the past couple of months. Sure, it is a 1:1 kill rate, if not worse, but as the Russians are spending a reported $30K a pop on Shahed (Gerad) attack drones, the Ukrainians have the clear advantage in that equation

The Ukrainian military PAO recently released this video of the counter-UAV det of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade “Magura” killing Russian Lancet loitering munitions, Private (STC Orlan-10) UAVs, along with Molniya and Shahed attack drones in the Sumy Region. It’s not subtitled, but no translation is needed.

It is estimated that as many as 250,000 drones are built, acquired, or imported per month in the conflict.

Billy Mitchell would eat his hat.

Clocking in Jointly on a multi-mission Alaska Arctic patrol

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The USCGC Waesche (WMSL 751), one of four frigate-sized Legend-class national security cutters homeported in Alameda, returned home this week from a 105-day Arctic deployment spanning over 21,000 nautical miles.

Besides close surveillance on several interloping Chinese government-owned research ships in the greater Alaskan sea frontier, the 413-foot Waesche got in lots of multi-national and multi-service joint ops with USAF HH-60 Pave Hawks during NORTHCOM’s Exercise Arctic Edge 2025, where the cutter served as a Forward Afloat Staging Base, executing a complex, multi-agency assault of a mock target of interest. The operation showcased seamless integration between Waesche, Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team West, U.S. Navy SEALs, and the Alaska Air National Guard to rapidly respond to domestic threats.”

Members of Coast Guard Maritime Security Response Team West, USCGC Waesche (751), and Special Operations Forces transit on an Over the Horizon cutter boat during Arctic Edge 2025 near Nome, Alaska, Aug. 10, 2025. AE25 is a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command-led homeland defense exercise designed to improve readiness, demonstrate capabilities, and enhance Joint and Allied Force interoperability in the Arctic. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Snell)

A member of the Navy Seals converges with Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) and Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters during Arctic Edge 2025 near Nome, Alaska, Aug. 10, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo 250810-G-CY518-1003 by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Snell)

Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) and Special Operations Force crews transit on Over the Horizon cutter boats in the Bering Sea, August 10, 2025.  (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Snell)

Of note, the mock seizure seems to be on the Alaska-based NOAAS Fairweather (S 220), a 231-foot survey ship, which surely isn’t a message to the Chinese research ships in the region.

An Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter crew simulates a hoist above the Fairweather during Arctic Edge 2025 in the Bering Sea, Aug. 10, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Snell)

The cutter also did steaming and gunnery drills (both 57mm and CIWS) with the Canadian frigate HMCS Regina (FFH 334) in the Bering Sea during Operation Latitude including “passenger exchange, a mock boarding, cross-deck hoist operations with Regina’s CH-148 Cyclone helicopter, air support from a U.S. Coast Guard C-130J Hercules fixed wing aircraft from Air Station Kodiak and a Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora [P-3 Orion].”

 

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL-751) and Royal Canadian Navy His Majesty’s Canadian Ship Regina, sail alongside each other as a USCG Air Station Kodiak HC-130 and Royal Canadian Air Force CP-140 Aurora fly overhead during Operation Latitude in the Bering Sea, Alaska, Aug. 25, 2025. Canadian-led Operation Latitude, in conjunction with Alaskan Command and U.S. Northern Command, and U.S. Coast Guard Arctic District, focused on increasing domain awareness in the High North and enhancing interoperability between Canada and the United States. (Courtesy photo 250825-O-EZ530-2080 by Canadian Armed Forces Master Corporal William Gosse)

Besides working with Regina, Waesche also worked separately with the Canadian OPV HMCS Max Bernays and successfully conducted “the Coast Guard’s first-ever fueling at sea in the Alaskan theater with the Royal Canadian Navy replenishment oiler MV Asterix – accomplished in 6-8 foot seas with sustained 30-knot winds.”

United States Coast Guard Cutter Waesche receiving fuel during a Replenishment At Sea with Naval Replenishment Unit Asterix during Operation Latitude on 9 September 2025. Photo: S3 Owen Davis, Canadian Armed Forces.

In all, a very robust patrol it would seem.

Quite a collection

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How about this super unusual photoex captured recently of allies steaming during the Division Tactics (DIVTACS) serial for Exercise Sama Sama 2025 in the South China Sea.

“A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon soars overhead, while naval power from the Philippines, Japan, Canada, and the U.S. sail in formation: USS Cincinnati (LCS 20), BRP Antonio Luna (FF 151), BRP Jose Andrada (PC 370), JS Onami (DD 111), BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16), and HMCS Max Bernays (AOPV 432).”

A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon, attached to Commander, Task Force 72, flies overhead while the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati (LCS 20), Philippine Navy Jose Rizal-class guided missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna (FF 151), and Jose Andrada-class coastal patrol boat BRP Jose Andrada (PC 370), Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Takanami-class destroyer JS Onami (DD 111), and Royal Canadian Navy Harry Dewolf-class offshore patrol vessel HMCS Max Bernays (AOPV 432). Photo by PAO DESRON Seven

The U.S. Navy Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati (LCS 20), Philippine Navy Jose Rizal-class guided missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna (FF 151), Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Takanami-class destroyer JS Onami (DD 111), and Royal Canadian Navy Harry Dewolf-class offshore patrol vessel HMCS Max Bernays (AOPV 432) sail in formation in the South China Sea during Exercise Sama Sama 2025, Oct. 13, 2025. Photo by PAO DESRON Seven 

The U.S. Navy Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati (LCS 20), Philippine Navy Jose Rizal-class guided missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna (FF 151), Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Takanami-class destroyer JS Onami (DD 111), and Royal Canadian Navy Harry Dewolf-class offshore patrol vessel HMCS Max Bernays (AOPV 432) sail in formation in the South China Sea during Exercise Sama Sama 2025, Oct. 13, 2025. Photo by PAO DESRON Seven

The photoex was also joined by a French Falcon-50 aircraft, and the 95-ton Philippine Acero-class patrol gunboat BRP Lolinato To-ong (PG-902), giving them seven ships at play under the tropical sun.

PN official photos:

While Alcaraz/Dallas (ex-USCGC Dallas) and Cincinnati are well known– I went to the latter’s commissioning back in 2019— Luna is more unusual to American eyes. The second ship of the Korean-built Jose Rizal class (modified ROKN Incheon class) of guided missile frigates in service with the Philippine Navy, Luna is one of the most powerful PN warships afloat, with the 2,600-ton/352-foot FF carrying ROK-designed antiship cruise missiles, a 76mm/62 OTO, Blue Shark ASW torpedoes, and a AW159 Wildcat helicopter along with a decent sensor suite to include EW/ECM and active/passive sonar.

Meanwhile, Andrada is a Trinity, New Orleans-built patrol boat of 78 feet, and has been in service since 1990.

The 6,300-ton Onami, a Takanami-class destroyer, was commissioned in 2003 and is the most powerful of the little surface action group, carrying 32 MK 41 VLS cells and an Otobreda 127/54 main gun.

As for Max Bernays, the 6,600-ton Harry DeWolf-class offshore patrol vessel is almost brand new, having joined the Canadian fleet last May. Designed to patrol the frozen far north, she recently achieved the farthest north position that any RCN ship has sailed, crossing the 81st parallel during the well-named Operation Latitude. Interesting that the RCN is using her for overseas work in the South China Sea. I guess that’s what they get for scrapping the Kingstons. 

HMCS Max Bernays on Operation Latitude Photo credit: S1 Jordan Schilstra, Canadian Armed Forces.

Pour 12 out for the ever-maligned yet everlasting Kingstons

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Over the past several years, I have made no bones about my admiration for the 12 humble yet effective Kingston-class Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels (MCDV) of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Kingston-class MCDVs HMCS Glace Bay (MM 701) and HMCS Shawinigan (MM 704)

For the bottom line of $750 million (in 1995 Canadian dollars), Ottawa bought 12 ships, including design, construction, outfitting, equipment (85 percent of Canadian origin), and 22 sets of remote training equipment for inland reserve centers.

These 181-foot ships were designed to commercial standards and intended “to conduct coastal patrols, minesweeping, law enforcement, pollution surveillance and response as well as search and rescue duties,” able to pinch-hit between these wildly diverse assignments via modular mission payloads in the same way that the littoral combat ships would later try.

Canadian Kingston-class coastal defence vessel HMCS Saskatoon MM 709 note 40mm gun forward MCDV

Manned with hybrid reserve/active crews in a model similar to the U.S. Navy’s NRF frigate program, their availability suffered, much like the Navy’s now-canceled NRF frigate program. This usually consisted of two active rates– one engineering, one electrical– and 30 or so drilling reservists per hull. Designed to operate with a crew of 24 for coastal surveillance missions with accommodation for up to 37 for mine warfare or training, the complement was housed in staterooms with no more than three souls per compartment.

With 12 ships, six were maintained on each coast in squadrons, with one or two “alert” ships fully manned and/or deployed at a time, and one or two in extended maintenance/overhaul.

Intended to have a 15-year service life, these 970-ton ships have almost doubled that. These shoestring surface combatants were pushed into spaces and places no one could have foreseen, and they have pulled off a lot– often overseas, despite their official “type” and original intention.

Northern Lights shimmer above HMCS GLACE BAY during Operation NANOOK 2020 on August 18, 2020. CPL DAVID VELDMAN, CAF PHOTO

However, all good things come to an end, and the Kingstons are slated for a long-overdue retirement this year.

The class in retrospect:

A Great Idea, Perhaps Horribly Implemented

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As you may have heard, President Trump and Finnish Prime Minister Keir Starmer had a 45-minute public post-NATO joining hug fest at the White House on Thursday. A big result, of importance to us, is an announcement that a wild consortium of folks who should know how to make icebreakers has been selected for the $9 billion design and construction of six Arctic Security Cutters (ASC) for the USCG to a basically existing design.

Eighty percent of the world’s icebreakers are designed in Finland, and 60 percent of them are built there.

The group is made up of Bollinger Shipyards, in partnership with Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions (Rauma) and Aker Arctic Technology Inc. (Aker Arctic), along with Canada’s Seaspan Shipyards (Seaspan).

At first glance, this should be a good thing as Bollinger has been aces when it comes to making Dutch Damen-designed patrol boats in their Louisiana yards for the USCG going back to the 1980s, including the 110-foot Islands, the 87-foot Marine Protector, and the 158-foot Sentinel classes. In fact, Bollinger has delivered 186 vessels to the Coast Guard– that work– in the past 40 years. However, their three planned 23,000-ton USCG Polar Security Cutter heavy polar icebreakers, inherited when they bought Halter in Mississippi, have been plagued with issues.

Rauma delivered three well-made and successful 10,000-ton multi-purpose icebreakers in the 1990s to Arctia Oy, the state-owned company responsible for operating the Finnish icebreaker fleet. This was followed by the 24,000 icebreaking passenger ferry Aurora Botnia in 2021. Further, they have four Pohjanmaa-class multi-purpose frigates currently under construction for the Finnish Navy that are to be capable of operating in ice.

Aker is a Finnish firm that has spent the past 20 years designing icebreakers to the most modern standards.

Vancouver-based Seaspan has been around since 1970 and has produced dozens of commercial tugs and ferries, and as of late has pulled down several RCN/CCG contracts, including for the 20,000-ton Protecteur class AOEs (based on a successful design used by the German Navy) and the 26,000-ton icebreaker CCGS Arpatuuq. Both of the latter contracts have suffered from considerable delays. Speaking of delays, Seaspan just started sea trials on the ice-capable oceanographic ship CCGS Naalak Nappaaluk whose budget jumped more than tenfold from CAD$109 million to CAD$1.47 billion (not a misprint), has dragged out way past the expected delivery date, and has been under construction for the past 10 years.

The Seaspan-built CCGS Naalak Nappaaluk was ordered in 2015 and only recently began sea trials, at 10X the original budget.

Seaspan has also pulled down the Canadian Coast Guard contract for up to 16 Aker-designed 8,987-ton, 327-foot multi-purpose icebreakers (MPI), which are intended to revitalize the CCG’s fleet. Capable of icebreaking (polar class 4), SAR, sovereignty patrols, fishery patrol, and ATON, the project is estimated to cost $14.2 billion, but the first vessel isn’t to be delivered until 2030.

The Seaspan MPIs for the CCG have a large forward crane and cargo hold with excess deck capacity, a helicopter hangar, two utility craft, and the capability to operate RHIBs. Capable of 16 knots with a diesel-electric suite that allows for a 12,000nm/60-day endurance, they only need a 50-person crew.

The CCG MPIs:

What the USCG is supposed to be getting…

So, the agreement this week is for six Arctic Security Cutters, based on the Seaspan-Aker MPI design for the CCG. The first three vessels will be built simultaneously by Rauma in Finland and Bollinger in the U.S. (likely at the old Halter yard in Mississippi), with production of the remaining three vessels to be built in the U.S., while Seaspan and Aker will assist.

Delivery of the first three vessels is expected within 36 months of the contract award. That means they are expected before the first Canadian-built MPI, which they are based on, will be delivered. Now that is putting a lot of faith in Rauma and Bollinger.

The difference between the CCG MPI and the images of the planned Bollinger-Rauma ASC seems few, with the large crane deleted, an MK 38 Mod 2/3 gun forward, four M2 .50 cals on the bridge wings, and an MH-60T on the helicopter deck.

Keep in mind the forward cargo deck is to be left open to allow for eight 40-foot ISO cargo containers, which could host the Mk 70 Mod 1 Payload Delivery System– the Typhon SMRF— which holds four strike-length VLS launchers on an internal erector. While the ASC doesn’t have the radars and fire control to push a SM-6 (unlessed linked to a DDG/CG), she could theoretically carry a mix of up to 32 vertical launch ASROC (cued by MH60 LAMPS), TLAMs, or anti-ship Tomahawks in such launchers.

That’s interesting.

Of course, I would like a 57mm Mk 110 (or even a 5-incher) forward, and at least a CIWS or Sea-Ram aft, in addition to the Mk 70 possibilities, but that’s just me.

I hope it all works out.

Of Black Hulls, Buoys, and Grenades along the Mekong

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While we’ve covered the Vietnam-era deployments of the U.S. Coast Guard’s 26 Point-class patrol boats (CGRON One) and the follow-on rotating mission of 31 blue water cutters with CGRON Three (the latter of which steamed 1.2 million miles, inspected 69,517 vessels and fired 77,036 5-inch shells ashore), there was a third series of unsung USCG deployments that still saw a good bit of action.

Between 1966 and 1972, at least four WWII-era 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders (USCGC Planetree, Ironwood, Basswood, and Blackhaw) were moved to Sangley Point, Philippines, from where they rotated to the waters around South Vietnam in 3-to-7-week stints, establishing a modern aids-to-navigation (ATON) system and training a motley collection of locals to keep tending them moving forward.

The Coast Guard Cutter Basswood works a buoy as busy Vietnamese fishermen travel to the open sea and their fishing grounds from Vung Tau harbor during her 1967 deployment. The cutter battled monsoon weather for a 30-day tour to establish and reservice sea aids-to-navigation dotting the 1,000-mile South Vietnamese coastline. USCG Historian’s Office photo

The 180-foot buoy tender USCGC Blackhaw (W390) in 1960, still with her circa 1943 3-inch mount behind her stack.

Blackhaw tending aids to navigation off Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam in September 1970, with RVN lighthouse service personnel aboard. Blackhaw spent 11 stints in Vietnamese waters while staged from the Philippines: 13 March- 6 May 1968; 24June-18JuIy 1968; 9 September-11 October 1968; 16 January- 4 March 1969; 16 April-3 May 1969; 16 June-3 July 1969; 24 October-7 December 1969; 23 April-18 May 1970; 24 October-10 November 1970; 13 January-7 March 1971; 25 April-17 May 1971.

While they carried a 3″/50 DP mount, Oerlikons, and depth charges when built, most of the 180s landed their topside armament during the 1950s, as it generally wasn’t needed to go that heavy while tending navigational aids stateside at the time.

This changed for the Southeast Asia-bound tenders, who added a pair of topside M2 .50 cal Brownings (later raised to eight!), as many as four M60 machine guns, and a serious small arms locker that included M1 Garands, M16s, M1911s, shotguns, spam cans of 10-gauge Very flares, depth charge markers, and grenades.

Lots of grenades.

Check out this 1970 ordnance draw from Sangley Point by Blackhaw:

The 7,000 rounds of .22LR are likely for recreational use, with the tender probably having a couple of rimfire pistols and rifles aboard for downtime target practice.

Working in the Vietnamese littoral, they came under enemy fire regularly and returned said fire. For example, in one incident in 1970, Blackhaw’s crew expended 132 grenades (!), 3,360 rounds of 5.56/.30 cal for rifles, 2,300 7.62 rounds for light machine guns, and 3,535 rounds .50 cal for heavy machine guns reacting to combat. Heady stuff for navigational aids guys!

Check out this deck log from a rocket encounter on Blackhaw while operating in conjunction with Navy Seawolf helicopters and PCFs.

Also, when anchored overnight within distance of shore, rifle-armed topside sentries typically dropped a grenade over the side every 20 minutes or so and/or fired off a Very signal to discourage enemy sappers from swimming out with limpet mines. Hence, the need for a pallet of hand grenades on a buoy tender.

More details on Blackhaw’s work, via a 1970 Proceedings article by LCDR Robert C. Powers, U. S. Navy, Former Logistics Plans and Requirements Officer, Staff, U. S. Naval Forces, Vietnam:

The basic plan was for the United States to provide material, technical advice, and funds to the Directorate of Navigation, who would provide buoy tender services. A staff study by Commander Coast Guard Activities Vietnam in April 1967 concluded that greater U. S. assistance was necessary in completing the desired improvements, and recommended full time use of a large buoy tender in Vietnam. USAID was to continue upgrading the Directorate of Navigation so that they could completely take over the aids to navigation mission by January 1969.

Coast Guard buoy tenders in the Pacific were reassigned, and the USCGC Blackhaw, (WLB-390) a 180-foot buoy tender, was employed full time for this task in January 1968. Her homeport was changed from Honolulu to Sangley Point in the Philippines. One officer and 14 enlisted men were added to the normal ship’s complement of six officers and 43 men. Six additional .50-caliber machine guns were installed, giving her a total of eight. Two 7.62-mm. machine guns were also added. The Blackhaw’s schedule was planned to provide about 40 days in-country per quarter, with no duties except for the job of Vietnam aids to navigation. In July 1968, the Joint Chiefs of Staff formalized this employment.

The Coast Guard has now installed and is operating 55 lighted buoys, 50 unlighted buoys, and 33 lighted structures in Vietnam. A small Coast Guard buoy depot has been established at Cam Ranh Bay, for in-country storage and maintenance of NavAid equipment. The Directorate of Navigation continues to operate those aids which were in place before Coast Guard involvement, but is not yet capable of relieving the Coast Guard in the maintenance of U. S. installed aids.

The aids to navigation detail remains in Saigon, attached to the Coast Guard Southeast Asia section. They schedule work for the Blackhaw and also repair light outages when the Blackhaw is not in the area.

Operation of a system of maritime aids to navigation in Vietnam is not the same as operating systems in the United States. Charts, for example, are poor, and accurately charted landmarks that may be used for buoy positioning are scarce. The channels, whether natural or dredged, are notoriously unstable. An example of this is the Cua Viet Entrance Channel Buoy 6. Established in 30 feet of water in October 1968, six months later the buoy became a shore light—high and dry. Enemy sappers have also been discovered and shot in the areas of moored buoy tenders. Viet Cong have stolen batteries from range lights. In Tan My, for instance, 50 batteries were lost in two months.

Several buoys are run down each month, usually resulting in a loss of lighting equipment. Within a representative four-month period, 40% of all unlighted buoys received damage as a result of collision, gunfire, and weather, and 70% of all lighted aids required extensive repair, recharge, and re-positioning. Before working on any buoy, a diver thoroughly inspects each buoy mooring for explosive charges.

Since active Coast Guard involvement in this task began, the maritime aids to navigation system in Vietnam has continued to improve. Harbormasters and pilots in all ports are happy with these improvements. Vietnamese personnel are on board the Blackhaw, while she is in-country, to become familiar with the system and maintenance methods.

The USCG turned over the ATON duties in South Vietnam to the locals on 31 December 1972, capping a forgotten footnote in the service’s history. As far as I can tell, none of the four tenders suffered any official combat casualties during their Vietnam service (with Agent Orange exposure being another matter).

Blackhaw earned a U.S. Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation as well as more Combat Ribbons than any other cutter.

She served in California waters until decommissioning in February 1993. Ship breakers stripped the former cutter of her valuable equipment, and the hulk was sunk as a target vessel. Nonetheless, she endures on the silver screen as she appears in the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October as a Soviet icebreaker trailing the titular Typhoon-class SSBN during the opening sequence.

 

Warship Wednesday, October 8, 2025: Everlasting

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday, October 8, 2025: Everlasting

Library of Congress Call Number HAER CONN,6-NEWLO.V,1–1

Above, we see the camouflaged 180-foot Balsam/Cactus class sea-going buoy tender USCGC Evergreen (WAGL-295) during World War II while fighting the “Weather War” against the Germans on the Greenland Patrol. Note her SLa radar set on her mast and covered 3″/50 DP mount behind her stack. Harder to make out are her 20mm Oerlikons, depth charge tracks, Mousetraps, Y-guns, and WEA-2 series sonar set.

To be sure, she was a war baby, built in Duluth for an economical $871,946, but would go on to put in nearly a half-century of dedicated service to the country. She really set the bar for the term “multi-role.”

The 180s

In 1916, the Revenue Cutter Service and Lifesaving Service were merged to form the Coast Guard, to which the Bureau of Lighthouses was added on 1 July 1939, and as such, all U.S. lighthouses, tenders, and lightships became USCG installations and ships. The thing is, the lighthouse and buoy tender fleet was a hodgepodge of antiquated single-use vessels to which the Bureau had been looking to replace with a new series of 177-foot lighthouse tenders modeled after the USLHT Juniper, the last vessel designed by the Bureau.

Taking these plans, the Coast Guard made some changes and produced a 180-foot/950-ton single-screw steel-hulled ship that incorporated some new features that the USLHS never needed (an ice-strengthened bow, search and rescue equipment and mission, allowance for armament, etc. al). The first of these, USCGC Cactus (WAGL-270), was appropriated for $782,381 on 20 Jan 1941 and laid down at Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, Minnesota, on 31 March.

Almost all of these hardy ships were built either at Marine or at Duluth’s Zenith Dredge Company very rapidly in three subclasses: the “A” or “Cactus” class, “B” or “Mesquite” class, and “C” or “Iris” class (with all named for trees and bushes). All ships of the three subclasses have the same general characteristics, but with slight differences (e.g., the “A/Cactus” class tenders may be differentiated from the other two classes of 180-foot tenders by their unique “A” frame main boom support forward and their large 30,000 gal fuel tanks that allowed an economical 17,000nm cruising range on their gentle diesel suite.)

The last to come off the ways was USCGC Woodbrush (WAGL-407), which commissioned 22 Sept. 1944. The building process entailed an average of 192,018 hours of labor per vessel.

USCGC Basswood through the Straits of Mackinac- 12 May 1944, a good example of the “180s.” Note the 3″/50 behind her wheelhouse facing over the stern as well as her 20mm mounts. ASW weapons, firefighting gear, and buoy-tending equipment were also shoehorned into these ships. Further, as shown above, they could break light ice, a feature that was to serve the units headed to the Pacific well!

Meet Evergreen

Our subject was laid down as hull number CG-102 at Duluth’s Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Company on 15 April 1942.

Laying the keel of USCGC Evergreen at the Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Yard, Duluth, MN, 15 April 1942 (USCG photo)

The future USCGC Evergreen under construction, 30 April 1942 (USCG photo)

She was launched just ten weeks later on the day before Independence Day.

USCGC Evergreen prior to her launching on 3 July 1942. This view shows the notched or cutaway forefoot that made the 180s suitable for icebreaking. (USCG photo)

USCGC Evergreen in Duluth – April 1943 (USCG photo)

Evergreen commissioned on 17 March 1943, LT John E. Klang, USCG, commanding. Her construction took but 336 days. The new tender spent her first month in service tending AtoN and breaking ice on the Great Lakes before heading to the Atlantic to get into the “Big Show.”

Weather War

Following a short shake down and availability at the Coast Guard Yard, Evergreen embarked four civilian U.S. Weather Bureau personnel, set off on 18 August 1943 from Boston bound for a spot between the Davis and Denmark Straits off Greenland dubbed Weather Station No. 2, a location she would rotate with the identical but geographically distant Weather Station No.1 off and on over the next ten months other than trips back to Boston or Argentia, Newfoundland when relived. She alternated this duty with sisters USCGC Sorrel and Conifer, each typically clocking in for three-week stints.

Official wartime caption: “The latest U.S. Coast Guard armed buoy tender is shown slogging into a head sea during an Atlantic storm in this oil painting by USCG Combat Artist Hunter Wood. This type carries heavy guns in case it runs upon a U-boat.” Released February 11, 1944. National Archives Identifier 205575897

Officially there to steam in a 100-square-mile area to provide weather and position reports to transatlantic flights as an aid to the Army planes flying over the Northern Route (from Newfoundland, Labrador, and Iceland to Britain), this was not “cake” duty as one cutter, Muskeget, was sunk on Weather Station by a U-boat in 1942, taking her entire crew and her Weather Bureau met detachment to the bottom.

Evergreen chased a few submerged sonar targets on her days in the box and bumped into wayward Allied shipping but came away unharmed.

Her weather patrol duty came to a close in July 1944, when she was transferred to the Greenland Patrol, leaving Argentia in the company of the 125-foot patrol boat USCGC Frederick Lee (WSC-139) to escort the merchant ships SS Biscaya and SS Aragon to the frozen Danish territory, firing 16 rounds from her Hedgehog on a suspicious sonar contact along the way.

She would remain part of the Greenland Patrol through 30 September 1945, heavily involved in cargo runs, icebreaking to keep harbors open, shuttling Navy and Army personnel around the region, coming to the assistance of the icebound cutter USCGC Northland, and handing over four German prisoners of war to the Provost Marshal at Narsarssuak on Halloween 1944.

Permafrost

Post-war, Evergreen was homeported in Boston and reverted to her original task: tending buoys. Her guns, depth charges, and Hedgehogs landed; she took on the more traditional black hull and buff superstructure livery of a USCG working boat.

In 1948, Evergreen began service as the International Ice Patrol’s unofficial oceanographic vessel, continuing the work of mapping the ocean currents near the Grand Banks and surveilling bergs during the season. Sheep-dipped Aerographers Mates (AG) and Sonarmen (SO) performed the task of carrying out oceanographic observations.

Evergreen served in this capacity off and on until 1982.

USCGC Evergreen in heavy seas on the International Ice Patrol in 1951. (USCG photo)

Evergreen circa 1950s with black hull and buff superstructure. Via the UW-Madison State of Wisconsin Collection call no. ANSIY6CLATV43H9A

The 180s, via the 1960 edition of Janes.

Evergreen was held up as a shining example of the IIP’s success on the occasion of the Patrol’s unofficial 50th anniversary in 1962, having been founded in the aftermath of the 1912 loss of the RMS Titanic.

An attached USCG PAO and camera crew dutifully captured her patrol that year and reported back on the USCG’s experimental efforts to read the tea leaves of ocean currents in the region, then mark and, if needed, destroy dangerous bergs headed for the sea lanes.

January 1962. Original caption: “The 180-ft. Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen passes a mammoth iceberg conducting an oceanographic survey for the International Ice Patrol.” NARA 26-G-5965

January 1962. Original caption: “Seen here being lowered into the water from the Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen is one of the three experimental oceanographic buoys which the 1962 Ice Patrol will use to delve into the secrets of the Labrador Current. This current carries icebergs farthermost south along the eastern slopes of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, where they menace North Atlantic shipping. The buoy carries oceanographic instruments that automatically record the direction and volume of current and sea temperature, among other important data, and detect fluctuations and changes in the current. Information collected over long periods by the buoys will enable oceanographers to forecast more accurately the severity of the approaching ice season.” NARA 26-G-5967

January 1962. Original caption: “Personnel aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen, oceanographic vessel for the International Ice Patrol, are reading and recording temperatures of water samples collected in Nansen bottles during an oceanographic survey in the Grand Banks. Temperatures read to a thousandth of a degree. The Nansan bottles are numbered and represent various depths of the sea that have been tapped and measured. From 20 to 25 bottles spaced about 100 ft. apart on a cable are lowered into the sea from the current at one time with the aid of a winch. In some places, the sea floor is touched. An average survey depth is one mile, however. From information on temperature, salinity, surface and sub-surface currents collected from oceanographic research, the drift of icebergs may be predicted, and subsequently the most efficient use is made of the searching unit of the Ice Patrol.” NARA 26-G-5963

January 1962. Original caption: “A crew member takes a bearing on an iceberg in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland from the bridge of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen during a recent International Ice Patrol. From the beginning of the U.S. Coast Guard’s formal undertaking of International Ice Patrol operations in 1914 until World War II, the tracking of icebergs and warning of ships passing through the dangerous ice zone in the North Atlantic was performed solely by Coast Guard cutters. Since 1946, the operation has relied mainly on aerial reconnaissance flights of Coast Guard planes operating out of Argentia, Nfld. Cutters still play a role in the Ice Patrol operations; however, in emergencies, when icebergs drift too near the shipping lanes, and require constant monitoring. Also, when the patrol places are grounded because of dense fog or foul weather. Another exception is the cutter Evergreen, which has performed much of the Ice Patrol’s oceanographic surveys during every patrol season.” NARA 26-G-6057

January 1962. Original caption: “Ignited thermite spews skyward a geyser of ice, steam, and smoke from a cave behind the 180 ft pinnacle of a mined iceberg 325 ft. long in Cape Bonavista Bay, Nfld. The charges were electronically detonated by Ice Patrol men from the Ice Patrol Cutter Evergreen after an unsuccessful try from a rubber raft. It was the second and final demolition test on this iceberg in which twenty 28-lb. charges of thermite were ignited. Thirteen 28-lb. thermite charges were tried the day before. Neither blast had any marked effect on the berg. The ice patrol followed as a basis for its iceberg thermite demolition tests, a theory of the late Professor H.T. Barnes of McGill University, Canada, who experimented with thermite in icebergs. His theory holds that the thermite’s high-temperature explosion would produce a thermal shock wave that could rupture an iceberg along its planes of natural stress, causing it to crumble and melt faster than normally.” NARA 26-G-5905

January 1962. Original caption: “Lieutenant (jg) Thomas F. Budinger, USCGR, last of the Ice Patrol iceberg lamp blacking party to abandon target, make a run for the lifeboat from the oceanographic vessel USCG Evergreen. One-half of this 75-ft. wide, 150-ft. long tabular iceberg in Cape Bonavista bay, Nfld., has been covered with 100 lbs. of carbon by three U.S. Coast Guard officers. The berg will be watched from the Cutter Evergreen for 12 hours, and the effects of the carbon will be evaluated. The theory of this test is based on the carbon’s potential capacity for holding the heat from sun rays, which can penetrate the iceberg and hasten its melting. Several days before this test, the Ice Patrol tried mining and igniting thermite incendiary charges on this same berg. There was no marked demolishing effect.” NARA 26-G-5907

In 1963, Evergreen was redesignated as the Coast Guard’s first dedicated oceanographic vessel, WAGO-295.

She soon received the first computer installed aboard a government-operated oceanographic research vessel. She also transformed her livery for the third time, earning an all-white scheme, replacing the black and buff that she had carried since the late 1940s. The hard-to-keep-clean livery and her frequent deployments earned her several nicknames during her far-flung service, including “Evergone,” “Cutter Neverseen,” “Never Clean,” and just “The Green.”

180-ft. U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen (WAGO-295), oceanographic vessel for the International Ice Patrol and other missions, shown here in new white paint coat. The cutter was formerly black.”; USCG Photo No. 1CGD1025631; 25 October 1963; photo by ENS John C. Goodman, USCGR.

USCGC Evergreen in Boston Harbor on 7 January 1964 (USCG photo).

Nonetheless, she had an impact.

As noted by a USCG Oceanography publication:

By 1965, Evergreen’s computer and lab had enabled much more rapid evaluations of berg data, in turn allowing for rapid warnings of the ice patrol. In 1966, Evergreen was sent on an oceanographic cruise of the tropical Atlantic off the coast of Brazil, where routine temperature, salinity, and oxygen measurements were made.

Evergreen’s work transformed how the Coast Guard addressed oceanography, and her sea-going lab was replicated on all 35 high-endurance cutters by 1968. An oceanographer’s mate rating was established for the service the same year, with an eight-week school set up on Governor’s Island.

After NOAA was created in 1970, Evergreen’s oceanographic role decreased but did not go away entirely, at least not for another decade.

Evergreen, late 1960s, now with the familiar racing stripe, which was adopted after 1967

USCGC Evergreen, between 1967 and 1968. 

In 1979, the IIP began using satellite-tracked oceanographic drifters to determine the currents and no longer had a need for an oceanographic vessel to conduct surveys in support of operations.

By this time, Evergreen had moved on to other duties anyway.

Walking the beat

Evergreen had survived an engine room fire and flooding in 1968 that sent her to the Coast Guard Yard for an extended period.

She took on the appearance quite different from the rest of her class, with a new superstructure, no buoy tending gear, a bow thruster (exotic for the 1970s), and improved electronics.

CGC Evergreen (WAGO-295) Oceanographic Conversion. 1971 plans NARA 301094596

Evergreen, 28 Feb 1973, with her much different “wide” superstructure without bridge wings and very little open deck space forward. 

Following her repair, she shifted homeport from Boston to the Yard, from where she still made ice surveys during the season but also engaged in other oceanographic and SAR research.

In 1974, the cutter’s homeport was changed to New London, Connecticut. She roamed from Labrador to the South Atlantic Bight in 1976, conducting current surveys.

Evergreen with an iceberg in February 1976 off the Grand Banks

Three of the 180s, Evergreen and sisters USCGC Citrus (WLB-300) and Clover (WLB-292) were eventually redesignated as Medium Endurance cutters (WMEC) to combat the rising drug trade and replace smaller 143-foot Sotoyomo-class fleet tugs that had been transferred from the Navy in the 1950s. Citrus was redesignated WMEC-300 in June 1979 to replace USCGC Modoc (WMEC-194, ex-Bagaduce), while Clover became WMEC-292 in February 1980 to replace the old tug Comanche (WMEC-202, ex-Wampanoag).

Citrus and Clover looked very much like Evergreen’s 1967-68 scheme.

USCGC Citrus in 1984 as WMEC

USCGC Clover at anchor, no date, in the 1980s WMEC arrangement.

Evergreen had her designation changed in May 1983 after the service’s oceanography program was all but shuttered.

These “white hulled” conversions entailed the removal of their remaining buoy handling gear and reassignment to predominantly LE and SAR patrol duties.

Armament was the provision to mount two M2 heavy and two M60 GPMGs (not always carried) as well as the cutters’ own small arms lockers. This was later augmented by two 40mm Mk 19 grenade launchers in the mid-1980s. They also picked up SPS-64(v)1 navigational radars.

Some of Evergreen’s more noteworthy drug seizures included that of FV Glenda Lynn off Long Island with 27 tons of marijuana on board in May 1983 and the 25 September 1984 seizure of the yacht Margie 150 mi SE of Nantucket Island carrying 4 tons of marijuana.

Bridge of USCGC Evergreen- 22 February 1983 (USCG photo)

End game

Starting in 1972 with the USCGC Redbud, which was decommissioned and transferred to the Philippines, the Coast Guard began whittling down the 180s. Before the end of the decade, four further 180s, all from the earliest Cactus variants (Balsam, Cowslip, Woodbine, and Tupelo), were taken out of service and disposed of.

Three of the 180s were lost in accidents.

  • Cactus ran hard aground in 1971, and the damage was so extensive that the government decided to decommission the vessel rather than repair her– nearly 30 years into her service career.
  • In January 1980, USCGC Blackthorn collided with a commercial tanker in Tampa Bay, Florida, and capsized the buoy tender, taking 23 members of her crew to the bottom.
  • In December 1989, USCGC Mesquite grounded on a rock pinnacle jutting from the bottom of Lake Superior, which damaged her so severely that the USCG decided to decommission the old gal, and she was scuttled by a commercial salvage company in 1990.

With the service moving to commission the new and much more capable 225-foot Juniper class of ocean-going buoy tenders, the writing was on the wall for the remaining 180s. Evergreen decommissioned on 26 June 1990 and was turned over to the Navy at Patuxent River two months later.

She wound up in deeper waters than the Titanic off the coast of North Carolina after giving up the ghost to Navy shelling and target practice during a fleet exercise on 25 November 1992.

She only narrowly avoided a coup de grâce from the brand-new USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51), which found her, and then soon after lost her, before the destroyer’s 5-inch gun could be brought to bear.

As detailed by a former Burke crewman in CIC, the conversation went something like this:

“Bridge, Combat: Surface target lost by radar. Last bearing zero-zero-zero relative, range 6,000 yards.”

Followed shortly by:

“Bridge, Sonar: Underwater target acquired, bearing zero-zero-zero relative, range 6,000 yards, depth increasing.”

Evergreen earned the Unit Commendation twice, the Meritorious Unit Commendation three times, and almost too many Arctic Service Medals to count.

Epilogue

Little remains of Evergreen that I can find.

She has a few of her logs and war diaries, along with her 1971 plans, which have been digitized in the National Archives.

The Coast Guard Art Program has memorialized her in at least two paintings.

Midwatch Sighting by Terence Maley. Illumination flares show the looming 300-feet-high, quarter-mile-long iceberg directly in front of the Evergreen, a former Coast Guard cutter converted into an oceanographic research vessel, patrolling off the Grand Banks.

Evergreen at New London by Peter Eagleton. The Coast Guard Cutter Evergreen, launched in 1942, rests amid ice floes at New London, CT. This is her post-1971 configuration. 

Today, the Marine Science Technician (MST) rating, established in 1970 during the time of Evergreen’s service, carries on the legacy of the Oceanography Mate.

For more information about the 180s in general, the MARAD has a great 73-page PDF report on them here, while the LOC has a great series of images from the Planetree, a Mesquite subclass sister.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Newest U.S. Icebreaker Completes First Patrol

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The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis (WAGB 21) uses dynamic positioning to maintain its position near the Johns Hopkins Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska, Aug. 5, 2025. The Storis is equipped with Dynamic Positioning Class 2 capabilities, which provide redundancy and ensure station-keeping even with the failure of a critical component, such as a generator or thruster. (U.S. Coast Guard photo 250805-G-GX036-1007 by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ashly Murphy)

The Seattle-based USCGC Storis (WAGB 21), the third-hand 360-foot former oilfield support vessel M/V Aiviq, is officially a U.S. government-flagged medium polar icebreaker. She just wrapped her 112-day inaugural patrol, which included keeping tabs on a series of five Chinese research ships bopping along over the extended U.S. shelf.

She also visited Juneau, where she was commissioned on 10 August, which will eventually be her home, the first time a government-owned icebreaker was forward based in Alaska since her namesake, the original WWII-era USCGC Storis (WMEC-38), was retired in 2007.

As detailed by USCG PAO: 

Storis departed Pascagoula, Mississippi, on June 1, transited the Panama Canal, and the Pacific Ocean enroute to conduct its first Arctic patrol operating north of the Bering Strait to control, secure, and defend the northern U.S. border and maritime approaches.

Storis operated under the Coast Guard Arctic District, supporting Operation Frontier Sentinel to counter foreign malign influences in or near Alaskan and U.S. Arctic waters.

In early September, Storis entered the ice for the first time as a Coast Guard cutter to relieve Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) and monitor the Chinese-flagged research vessels Jidi and Xue Long 2.

Upon returning to Seattle, Storis will enter a six-week training period where the ship and the crew will undergo major training evolutions, system and program recapitalization, and a two-week underway phase with scheduled engagements in Victoria, Canada.

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