Category Archives: USCG

Warship Wednesday 22 October 2025: Good in a Pinch

Posted on by Leave a comment

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 22 October 2025: Good in a Pinch

Photo provided courtesy of QM2 Robert C. Granger, USCGR, via MCPOCG R. Jay Lloyd, USCG (Ret.), USCG Historian’s Office

Above we see the USCG-manned Tacoma-class patrol frigate USS Annapolis (PF-15) later in her career, circa late 1945, as noted by the weather balloon shack on the quarterdeck.

A veteran of the Battle of the Atlantic during WWII, she was dispatched to the Pacific once that quieted down and, slated to wear a Red Banner in Stalin’s war against the Empire of Japan, was recalled at the last minute– just in time to save the day for an Alaskan port.

The Tacomas

One of the most generic convoy escorts ever designed was the River-class frigates of the Royal Navy and its sister Australian and Canadian services. Sturdy 301-foot/1,800-ton vessels, some 151 were built between May 1941 and April 1945.

Canadian River-class frigate HMCS Waskesiu (K330) with a bone in her mouth, 1944. Kodachrome via LAC

River Class – Booklet of General Plans, 1941, profile

Carrying a few QF 4″/40s, a suite of light AAA guns, and a huge array of ASW weapons with as many as 150 depth charges, they could make 20 knots and had extremely long range, pushing 7,000nm at a 15-knot cruising speed.

In a reverse Lend-Lease, two Canadian Vickers-built Rivers were transferred to the U.S. Navy in 1942: the planned HMS Adur (K296) and HMS Annan, which became the patrol gunboats —later patrol frigates —USS Asheville (PG-101/PF-1) and USS Natchez (PG-102/PF-2). Built at Montreal, Asheville, and Natchez were completed with standard U.S. armament and sensors, including three 3″/50s, two 40mm mounts, Oerlikons, and SC-5 and SG radar. Everything else, including the power plant, was British.

USS Asheville (PF-1) plans

With that, the New York naval architecture firm of Gibbs & Cox took the River class frigate plans and tweaked them gently to become the Tacoma-class frigates. Some 2,200 tons at full load, these 303-foot ships used two small tube express boilers and two  J. Hendy Iron Works VTE engines on twin screws to cough up 5,500shp, good for just over 20 knots with a 9,500nm range at 12 knots. Standard armament was a carbon copy of Asheville/Natchez: three 3″/50s, two twin 40mm mounts, nine Oerlikons, two stern depth charge racks, eight Y-gun depth charge throwers, a 24-cell Hedgehog Mk 10 ASWRL, and 100 ash cans. Radar was upgraded to the SA and SL series, while the hull-mounted sonar was a QGA set.

USS Albuquerque 1943 (PF-7), Tacoma class patrol frigate 200414-G-G0000-0003

These could be built at non-traditional commercial yards under Maritime Commission (MC Type T. S2-S2-AQ1) contracts, using an all-welded hull rather than the riveted hull of the British/Canadian Rivers. Many of these would be constructed on the Great Lakes, including by ASBC in Ohio (13 ships), Froemming (4), Walter Butler (12), Globe (8), and Leathem Smith (8) in Wisconsin. On the East Coast, Walsh-Kaiser in Rhode Island made 21, while on the West Coast, Kaiser Cargo and Consolidated Steel in California produced a combined 30 ships.

Using compartmentalized construction, they went together fast. No less than nine Tacomas were built in less than five months, 16 were built in less than six months, and 11 others were built in less than seven months. These times stack up well to the original River class built in British yards, where the best time recorded was 7.5 months. In Canada, the fastest time was just over 5 months.

The Tacomas cost about $2.3 million apiece, compared to $3.5 million for a Cannon-class destroyer escort, or $6 million for a Fletcher-class destroyer, in 1944 dollars.

Meet Annapolis

Our subject was the second Navy warship to carry the name of the Maryland location of the Naval Academy, with the first being the leader of a class of composite steel gunboats, PG-10, which had a lifespan that included service from 1897 through 1940.

Laid down as Hull 842, Maritime Commission No. 1481, at American Shipping Company, Lorain, on 20 May 1943 as PF-15, the second Annapolis was side launched into Lake Erie on Saturday, 16 October 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Belva Grace McCready.

The future USS Annapolis is preparing for launch with her glad rags flying.

The future USS Annapolis (PF-15) was launched at the American Shipbuilding Company shipyard, Lorain, Ohio, on 16 October 1943. NH 66293

The future USS Annapolis (PF-15) just after launch on 16 October 1943. NH 66190

Annapolis was then floated down the Mississippi River to Port Houston Iron Works in Houston, Texas, where she was completed. The Navy commissioned Annapolis at Galveston’s Pier 19 on 4 December 1944, her construction running just over 18 months.

Her plank owner skipper was a regular, CDR Montegue Frederick Garfield, USCG, who was one very interesting character.

Garfield had been born Henry Frederick Garcia at Morro Castle, Puerto Rico, in 1903, the son of Major Enrique Garcia of the Army’s QM Corps. He graduated, ironically, from the USNA at Annapolis in 1924 but, like his father, opted for a career in the Army, becoming a red leg in the field artillery. In 1928, at the height of the Army’s peacetime budget-cutting efforts, he opted to get his sea legs back and accepted an ensign’s commission in the USCG, becoming the service’s first Hispanic-American officer.

Henry Frederick Garcia/Garfield

After service on numerous CG destroyers on the East Coast during the tail end of Prohibition, he was assigned as engineering officer aboard USCGC Shoshone in the Pacific, which supported the doomed Earhart circumnavigation and the later search for the missing aviatrix. He then commanded USCGC Morris in Alaska in 1939, proving key in the evacuation of the fishing village of Perryville during the Mount Veniaminof eruption, then later saved the shipwrecked crew of the exploration schooner Pandora.

During the first part of WWII, Garcia served as XO of Base Charleston, where he participated in the seizure of the interned Italian cargo vessel Villaperosa, then served in Baltimore with the MSTS until being made Assistant Captain of the Port of Los Angeles, where he legally changed his name to Garfield.

Convoy runs

The newly commissioned Annapolis departed for a shakedown cruise to Bermuda on 13 December 1944 and arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, in early February 1945 after workups with the DD/DDE Task Group for post-shakedown availability.

Along the way, she came across the 9,830-ton Texaco oil tanker SS New York in the dark, which almost ended badly.

From her war diary:

Annapolis. USS J. Franklin Bell (APA 16) is on the left. Photo courtesy of QM2 Robert C. Granger, USCGR, via MCPOCG R. Jay Lloyd, USCG (Ret.) 200415-G-G0000-0010

Our frigate then made her first trans-Atlantic escort-of-convoy crossing, with U.S. to Gibraltar-bound UGS.75, leaving Hampton Roads on 17 February. Annapolis rode shotgun with five other escorts–USS Nelson (DD-623), Livermore (DD-429), Andres (DE-45), John M. Bermingham (DE-530), and Chase (DE-158)— over 55 merchant ships, arriving safely at Oran, Algeria, on 5 March 1945. She returned to New York with East-West Convoy GUS.89 on 30 March 1945.

After two weeks’ availability, Annapolis departed on exercises on 13 April 1945. She then left on her second escort-of-convoy crossing, with UGS.88 (the five escorts of CortDiv 42, along with 41 merchants) arriving at Gibraltar on 7 May 1945. Among the escorts she sailed with on this milk run, Annapolis had her ASBC-built sister USS Bangor (PF-16) alongside.

She was anchored at Mers el Kebir, Algeria, with Bangor, on 9 May 1945, and there received the news that Germany had surrendered while waiting to head back to the U.S. with Convoy GUS 90. On the ride back, Garcia/Garfield became commander of CortDiv 42.

At the same time, CDR Garcia/Garfield’s little brother, CDR (future RADM) Edmund Ernest García (USNA ’27), was commander of 58th Escort Division in the Atlantic Fleet, having earned a Bronze Star in fighting the destroyer escort USS Sloat (DE-245) across the Tunisian Coast in the face of Luftwaffe air attacks and seen action in the invasions of Africa, Sicily, and France.

Small world!

Annapolis and Bangor returned to Philadelphia from the ETO on 2 June 1945. After two weeks’ availability, they departed Philadelphia on 16 June 1945, bound for the west coast, as the Pacific War was still on. After passing through the Panama Canal– where they conducted ASW training for the new construction submarines of Subron3 for a month– they shifted station to Puget Sound Navy Yard outside Seattle to remove sensitive gear and refit for further service, with an all-new crew.

It seemed the sisters were slated to fly a red flag.

Russia-bound (?)

Annapolis and Bangor were to be the last two of 30 Tacomas transferred to the Soviet Navy at Cold Bay, Alaska, as part of  Project Hula. They were to have the Russian pennant numbers EK-23 and EK-24, respectively.

On 1 September, Annapolis took on five officers and 25 enlisted from the Red Navy, under the command of CDR VN Milhailav, from Seattle, and left with Bangor steaming in tandem for Cold Bay.

It was while underway from Seattle to Cold Bay that the twins received, almost back to back, the announcement of the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September, followed by the news that the U.S. had suspended all further transfers of ships to the Russkis.

Annapolis and Bangor arrived at Cold Bay on 7 September, where they landed their Soviets and instead took aboard American personnel (five officers and 117 enlisted) requiring transportation to Kodiak, arriving on that far northern island on 9 September. Thus, Bangor and Annapolis were the only two frigates scheduled for transfer under Project Hula not delivered, with 28 sisters going on to serve with the Russians up until the eve of the Korean War.

Right place at the right time

Leaving Kodiak bound for Cold Harbor on 10 September, Annapolis received a distress call from the disabled fishing boat Sanak, which she found the next day and towed to Chignik Bay.

Arriving back at Cold Bay on the 12th, over the next two days, she took aboard U.S. personnel (nine officers and 155 men), then hauled them back to Kodiak alongside Bangor and the 110-foot SC-497 class submarine chaser, USS SC-1055, which had also been scheduled to be given to the Russians but was retained at the last minute. After landing those men, the three humble escorts were ordered to Seattle, with a stop at Ketchikan.

It was there on 22 September that the recently arrived frigates came to the aid of the Canadian-flagged Grand Trunk Pacific Railway liner SS Prince George (3,372 GRT), which had caught fire while tied up at Ketchikan’s Heckman Municipal Pier.

The liner Prince George had been built for GTPR in England in 1910. The 307-foot coaster was capable of carrying 236 passengers and light cargo at 18 knots and had been on the Vancouver to Southeast Alaskan run for 35 years, with a break in the Great War as a 200-bed hospital ship. (Walter E Frost – City of Vancouver Archives)

Notably, HMC Prince George was the first Great War Commonwealth hospital ship, converted at Esquimalt in 1914.

Smoke billows from the liner SS Prince George in Tongass Narrows on 22 September 1945. Ketchikan Museums: Tongass Historical Society Collection, THS 72.1.3.1

With Garcia/Garfield the senior officer present, he directed the frigates intermittently alongside the blazing Prince George using all available firefighting gear and saving 50 men stranded aboard the liner. To avoid having the stricken ship capsize at the dock, Annapolis effected a dead stick tow and beached the vessel on the shallow shores off Gravina Island to allow her to burn out quietly.

Look at all those depth charges. Official caption: “Smoking disaster at a Coast Guard base in Ketchikan, Alaska, the Coast Guard-manned frigate Annapolis maneuvers to tow the blazing liner Prince George downstream and away from the town. The ill-fated liner now lies, a blackened hulk, on nearby Gravina Island; only one of over 100 crew members has lost.” USCG photo. National Archives Identifier 205580274, Local Identifier 26-G-4818.

The fire raged for days, only dying out when the superstructure collapsed. Maritime Museum of British Columbia 010.036.0003j

Declared a total loss, the wreck was refloated and towed to Seattle for scrapping in 1949. Maritime Museum of British Columbia 010.036.0035

Their job done, Annapolis, Bangor, and SC-1055 shipped down from Ketchikan the next day via the inland passage through the Seymour Narrows, with Garcia/Garfield in charge of the small task force, arriving at Indian Head Ammo Depot outside of Seattle on the 25th. Annapolis then entered Puget Sound Navy Yard the next day for availability. Of note, the surplus SC-1055 was transferred to the Coast Guard as USCGC Air Sheldrake (WAVR 461) for continued service.

It was while at Puget Sound that Annapolis was refitted as a Weather and Plane Guard ship, landing much of her ASW gear and adding a weather balloon shack aft.

On 5 January 1946, she arrived at San Francisco then assumed Weather Station “E” until 5 April 1946.

Annapolis departed San Francisco on 16 April 1946, bound for Seattle, where she was decommissioned on 29 May 1946, her Coast Guard crew, mostly reservists enlisted for the duration, exiting Navy service.

Transfer, effected

With the Navy having no appetite for these slow little frigates at a time when they were mothballing brand new destroyers and DEs by the dozens, both Annapolis and Bangor were soon sold as surplus to Mexico. Annapolis became ARM General Vicente Guerrero, later ARM Rio Usumacinta, while Bangor was renamed ARM General José María Morelos, and later ARM Golfo de Tehuantepec. They were joined by Tacoma-class sisters ex-USS Hutchinson (as ARM California) and ex-Gladwyne (ARM Papaloapan), and, rated as “fragatas,” were all stationed on the Mexican Pacific Coast.

Annapolis in Mexican service

Jane’s 1960 listing of the four Mexican Navy Tacomas.

The four sisters remained in Mexican service until scrapped in 1964.

Epilogue

Little of PF-15 remains. Her war diaries are digitized in the National Archives.

As for Garcia/Garfield, after leaving Annapolis, he was made skipper of the famed USCGC Campbell (WPG-32), then was head of personnel for the Coast Guard’s Eighth District in New Orleans. He finished his career as a captain in 1956 after five years as the Chief of Intelligence of the 12th USCG District in San Francisco, then moved to San Diego and got into real estate. In all, he spent 35 years in uniform between the USNA, the Army, and the USCG. Capt. Garfield died 26 June 1966, and was buried in Section A-H, Site 52, in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, just west of San Diego.

His father, Maj. Garcia, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 1932 and was joined by his brother, Edmund, after the retired admiral died in 1971.

The Navy recycled the name for a third Annapolis, giving it to the reconfigured jeep carrier ex-USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107) when that WWII/Korean War vet was reclassified as a Major Communications Relay Ship (AGMR-1) on 1 June 1963. That floating antennae farm was disposed of in 1979.

USS Annapolis (AGMR-1) Underway at slow speed in New York Harbor, 12 June 1964, soon after completing conversion from USS Gilbert Islands (AKV-39, originally CVE-107). Staten Island ferryboats are in the left and center backgrounds. NH 106715

A fourth USS Annapolis, a Los Angeles-class submarine (SSN-760), was commissioned in 1992 and is currently part of the  Guam-based SubRon15, although she is slated to decommission in FY27.

ROCKINGHAM, Western Australia (March 10, 2024) – U.S. Navy Sailors assigned to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Annapolis (SSN 760) and HMAS Stirling Port Services crewmembers prepare the submarine to moor alongside Diamantina Pier at Fleet Base West in Rockingham, Western Australia, March 10, 2024.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

If you like this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

So long, Mighty U

Posted on by Leave a comment

Some 80 years ago today, one of the longest-serving yet oft-forgotten vessels in American maritime service was finally retired.

On 10 October 1945, the 190-foot Miami-class cruising cutter Unalga (WPG-53) was decommissioned, capping 33 years of unbroken service that began in 1912 with the old Revenue Cutter Service.

Serving with the Navy directly during the Great War, she went back to walking the beat and rejoined the Navy for WWII, first in conducting antisubmarine patrols under the auspices of the Commandant, 10th Naval District, then as a floating target ship for the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Training Center in Melville, Rhode Island.

Former crewman Merle L. Harbourt, in a 15 May 1992 letter to the USCG Historian’s Office, wrote about Unalga during the cutter’s second world war:

She never sank a submarine nor shot down a plane, but there is one old ship that I served in that should get some mention simply because she survived. The former Revenue Cutter Unalga, or ‘Mighty U’ as she was not too affectionately referred to by her crew, is a case study in unpreparedness.

As memory serves, the Unalga was commissioned in 1912 as a vessel of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. I joined her in June of 1941 when she was home ported in San Juan, P.R. She was powered by a four-cylinder triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, which Lt. L. M. Thayer (later to be RADM Thayer), our engineering officer, was intent upon her maintenance since she was forever snapping piston rings.

Shortly before the outbreak of WWII, we painted her gray and limbered up our armament, one three-inch twenty-three caliber mount on the fore deck. We were tied up in San Juan, at the still-existing buoy depot, when December 7th became a day of infamy.

We served as Harbor Entrance Control Vessel for San Juan for a period and then were pressed into service to haul aviation gasoline from Puerto Rico (Ponce) to Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, in 55-gallon drums stacked all over the main deck, to provide fuel for the Marine air station. The small tanker that had formerly provided that service was shelled and sunk by a sub earlier. Later, without the benefit of radar or sonar, we assisted in the escort of ships between Trinidad and Cuba, convoys that sometimes got away from us during darkness or heavy rains.

My humorous tales of life on that old ship are endless. Like the time when we thought we might be facing a German Q boat, or raider, and .30 caliber rifles were issued to a few crewmembers. And us with one snub-nose three-inch cannon! Or the time when, after sonar installation, we thought we had a sub contact, dropped a pattern of depth charges, and the main engine stopped. The vacuum had been lost. If we were in the vicinity of a sub, he probably thought we wouldn’t make it back to port anyway and didn’t waste a fish.”

She wasn’t quite finished, though.

Sold on 19 July 1946 for her value as floating scrap, she was renamed Ulua and then participated in the immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine, past the British naval blockade.

Blockade-runner Ulua (former Unalga) tied up pier side at Marseille, France, December 1946

Of Black Hulls, Buoys, and Grenades along the Mekong

Posted on by Leave a comment

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

Posted on by Leave a comment

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

***

If you like this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO, has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships, you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Newest U.S. Icebreaker Completes First Patrol

Posted on by Leave a comment

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.

USCG Gets Serious on drones as largest icebreaker finishes last (planned) overhaul

Posted on by Leave a comment

A slate of press releases from the Coast Guard has the service spending some big money, something in the area of $378 million, on bettering its aviation and drone/robot inventory.

Those updates, part of the giant OBBBA Homeland Security outlay, will buy, in part:

  • $4.8 million to procure 16 VideoRay Defender remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to replace Deployable Specialized Forces’ aging fleet. These will be used for waterfront and pier inspections, hull assessments, subsurface infrastructure surveys, disaster response, and search and rescue missions.
  • $2 million to procure six Qinetiq Squad Packable Utility Robot (SPUR) and 12 mini-SPUR robots to replace outdated unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) at Strike Teams to access and sample air in confined spaces aboard commercial vessels.
  • $4.3 million to purchase 125 SkyDio X10D [a type that is getting much love from the Department of War lately] short-range unmanned aircraft systems (SR-UAS). The SR-UAS will support operations including infrastructure inspections, environmental observation, pollution response, post-storm surveys, ice surveys, and communications.
  • $14.3 million order for the delivery of 13 new General Electric T700 engines for its growing MH-60 helicopter fleet. The USCG plans to go to an all-MH-60T rotary wing fleet with 127 new aircraft, replacing older MH-65 Dolphins altogether.
  • $13.9 million for three AN/APY-11 multi-mode radar systems to be installed on future HC-130Js during the Minotaur missionization process.

Roll that beautiful drone footage sizzle reel, including a good look at 161-pound Shield AI MQ-35A V-BAT, which is currently part of a $198 million contract.

 

USCGC Polar Star Returns to Seattle after 308 days

After 308 days away from its Seattle home port, the 49-year-old U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) and crew returned home last Tuesday. Of that, 175 days were spent refirbing the 13,500-ton, 399-foot icebreaker, which first took to the water in 1976.

After 308 days away from its Seattle home port, the 49-year-old U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) and crew returned home, Sept. 23, 2025. Upon completing Operation Deep Freeze 2025, Polar Star returned directly to Mare Island Dry Dock in Vallejo, Calif., to complete the final year of a five-year Service Life Extension Program prior to returning to Seattle. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Annika Hirschler.

The crew of the USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10) poses for a group photo underneath the cutter’s stern while in dry dock in Vallejo, Calif., Aug. 1, 2025. 250801-G-G0200-1001

The rudder of the USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10) is being removed while in a Vallejo, Calif., dry dock, April 1, 2025. The maintenance work completed over the past five years recapitalized integral systems, including propulsion, communication, and machinery control systems. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Nestor Molina)

Upon completing Operation Deep Freeze (ODF) 2025, Polar Star returned directly to Mare Island Dry Dock in Vallejo, Calif., to complete the final year of a five-year Service Life Extension Program (SLEP).

The maintenance work completed over the past five years recapitalized integral systems, including propulsion, communication, and machinery control systems. These efforts are designed to extend the cutter’s service life as the Coast Guard begins construction of its first Polar Security Cutter. Until PSCs becomes operational, Polar Star will remain the only U.S. icebreaker capable of completing the annual breakout of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, in support of the U.S. Antarctic program (USAP).

Greyhound and pups

Posted on by Leave a comment

How about this great, and very diverse, image released this week as part of Operation Pacific Viper, a joint DOW/DHS operation run through Southern Command that has bagged a reported 75,000 pounds of cocaine in the Eastern Pacific Ocean since early August, averaging over 1,800 pounds interdicted daily.

You have one Navy and three different Coast Guard blue water classes represented in profile. A rare shot.

(U.S. Navy Photo by Naval Aircrewman (Tactical Helicopter) 2nd Class Teague Bullard)

The include, from left to right, the 270-foot Legend (Bear) class USCGC Seneca (WMEC 906), the ancient 210-foot Reliance-class USCGC Venturous (WMEC 625), the 509-foot Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102), and the frigate-sized 418-foot National Security Cutter USCGC Stone (WMSL 758).

While Sampson was commissioned in 2007, and Stone in 2021, Seneca dates to 1987, while the Ohio-born Venturous, one of just eight of her 16 sisters still in active service, was commissioned in 1968.

Another head-on shot, with an HC-130J overhead, but in a different formation with Sampson and Stone on the outside and the smaller boys in the middle. While they look high speed, the group can’t be going over 16 knots, which is the 210’s top speed these days.

Coast Guard and partner agencies support Operation Pacific Viper in the Eastern Pacific Ocean in August 2025. Operation Pacific Viper is a counter-drug operation focused on interdicting, seizing, and disrupting transshipments of cocaine and other bulk illicit drugs. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

Nonetheless, they have all been very busy, across 20 interdictions that also netted 59 individuals suspected of narco-trafficking. And you know what happens to narco boats in the Eastern Pacific once the evidence has been documented and suspects removed.

They get deep-sixed.

USCG photo 250918-G-IV660-1003

Vale, McLane

Posted on by Leave a comment

The fourth cutter to bear the name McLane (after vessels commissioned in 1832, 1845, and 1865) was commissioned in 1927 as WSC-146 (later WMEC-146).

A 125-foot “Buck and a Quarter,” she was built to take on rumrunners during Prohibition.

Five 125-foot cutters at Charleston Navy Yard, Boston, late 1920s. Boston Public Library Leslie Jones Collection.

Five 125-foot cutters at the Charleston Navy Yard, Boston, in the late 1920s, including, from the outside, the USCGC Fredrick Lee, General Green, and Jackson. Boston Public Library Leslie Jones Collection.

Painted haze grey and with her armament significantly stepped up, she served on the Bering Sea Patrol during WWII.

Heavily occupied with convoy escort work, anti-submarine patrols, screening duties, and rescuing both vessels and aircraft in distress, the McLane and her crew are often credited with sinking the Japanese submarine Ro-32 (or possibly the Soviet sub Shch-138!) in July 1942 and a multiple-person rescue of a downed Lockheed Electra in February 1943, among several other notable actions.

Original caption: Coast Guard Lieut. Ralph Burns (right) of Ketchikan, Alaska, is presented the Legion of Merit Medal by Coast Guard Capt. F.A. Zeusler (left), commanding officer of the Alaskan Coast Guard District, in ceremonies at Ketchikan. Coast Guard Commander G.F. Hicks (center), Ketchikan base commander, witnessed the presentation. The award was made by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox on behalf of the President. The medal was awarded for “exceptionally meritorious conduct” during an action in North Pacific waters in which the U.S. Coast Guard cutter McLane, with Lieutenant Burns in command, eliminated a Japanese submarine with depth charges. It was the first Japanese sub sunk in Alaskan waters.” National Archives Identifier 205588237

McLane was awarded one Battle Star for her World War II service.

125 ft. Active-class “Buck and a Quarters,” via 1946 Janes

Switching back to her white and buff scheme post-war, she was based in California until decommissioned in December 1968, capping 41 years in the service.

125-foot “buck and a quarter” USCGC McLane (W146) in her post-WWII scheme. Note her 40mm Bofors, circa 1962

Mothballed at the US Coast Guard Yard for less than a year, the McLane was sold to the Marine Navigation and Training Association of Chicago in November 1969, who operated her as a school and instruction ship for Sea Scouts on the waters of Lake Michigan into the early 1990s. She was then acquired by the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum in 1993 (now known as the USS Silversides Submarine Museum) and began her third career as a museum ship in Muskegon.

That final chapter has now closed, and with her 98-year-old hull increasingly unstable, the museum has “de-assessed” McLane, towing her off to the breakers last week.

As noted by the museum:

The vessel, which had been closed to the public since spring 2025 due to ongoing maintenance concerns, was towed away with the support of dedicated community partners. After nearly a century of service in both salt and fresh water, the McLane’s condition had deteriorated to the point of being inaccessible for public touring and beyond the scope of feasible preservation.

Despite efforts to explore alternative preservation options, the museum ultimately determined that continued stewardship of the McLane was no longer sustainable. With the cold season approaching, the combination of time, weather, and structural decline made timely action necessary to ensure the safety of the vessel and the surrounding environment.

One of 33 Active-class cutters, McLane’s only remaining sister afloat, the former USCGC Morris (WPC-147/WSC-147/WMEC-147), was saved from the scrappers by the Vietnam War Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas, in 2021 and is being restored to sailing condition.

Two of the class, USCGC Jackson (WSC-142) and Bedloe (WSC-128), capsized going to the aid of a torpedoed freighter in the Great Atlantic Hurricane of September 1944.

USCG Ups 154-foot Cutter Buy to 77 Hulls, PSU Boat Raiders, and HITRON Marks 1,000 ‘kills’

Posted on by Leave a comment

The Coast Guard’s 2004 Program of Record for its planned Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter (FRC) program was “24 to 36 hulls.”

That was then.

Envisioned to replace 49 aging 110-foot 1980-90s vintage Island class patrol cutters (WPBs), 12 of which had been ruined in a botched lengthening modification, the new ships would be 30 percent longer, at 154-feet, and nearly twice the tonnage.

110-foot Island class cutters compared to the new 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class FRCs

Powered by two 5,800 shp MTU diesels (double the plant of the 110s), the FRCs also had 50 percent greater unrefueled range (2,900nm vs 1,882nm), a much better cutter boat (a stern dock launched jet drive 26-footer vs a davit deployed 18-footer with an outboard), better habitability, sensors, commo, and better guns (a gyro-stabilized remote fired Mk 38 Mod 2/3 25mm with an EO/IR sensor system and 4-6 M2s/Mk19s vs an unstabilized eyeball-trained Mk 38 Mod 0 and two M2s).

Plus, they had larger crews, at 4 officers, 4 POs, and 16 ratings, vs 2/2/12, which meant more hands could be sent away on landing details.

This meant they would be rated as WPCs instead of WPBs, akin to the Navy’s similar 170-foot Cyclone-class PCs.

MIAMI — The Coast Guard Cutter Webber, the Coast Guard’s first Sentinel Class patrol boat, arrives at Coast Guard Sector Miami Feb. 9, 2012. The 154-foot Webber is a Fast Response Cutter capable of independently deploying to conduct missions such as ports, waterways, and coastal security, fishery patrols, drug and illegal migrant law enforcement, search and rescue, and national defense along the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Caribbean. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Sabrina Elgammal.

The lead FRC delivered, USCGC Bernard C. Webber (WPC-1101), commissioned in April 2012, while the last 110s to leave Coast Guard service did so this summer, at which point the FRCs, which have proven extremely handy, even on long-ranging blue water cruises in the Pacific, had 58 hulls in service with another nine under contract.

A big jump from 24-36!

The truth is, the USCG is pressing these new 154-footers into the gap left by their aging 210-270-foot blue-water medium-endurance cutter fleet. Mission whackamole.

Classmember USCGC Oliver Berry (WPC-1124) completed a nearly 9,300-nautical-mile, 45-day round-trip patrol from Hawaii to Guam in 2020 and followed it up with a 46-day patrol in 2024. At the same time, several of these hulls are self-deploying 7,700 miles from Key West to new home ports in Alaska.

There have been repeated calls for the Navy to purchase members of the class for use in littoral operations, as the cutter has sufficient weight and space to mount a Naval Strike Missile box launcher with four tubes at the stern.

Now, the CG has upped the $65 million per-cutter Sentinel class program to 77 hulls, with a 10-ship buy announced this week.

“Since its introduction to the fleet in 2012 as the successor to the 110-foot Island class patrol boat, the Fast Response Cutter has consistently proven its capabilities, adaptability, and effectiveness in a wide range of maritime environments and Coast Guard missions,” said RADM Mike Campbell, the Coast Guard’s Director of Systems Integration and Chief Acquisition Officer.

PSU Boat Raiders!

As part of Arctic Edge 2025, an element of 3rd Bn, 4th Marines, 1st MARDIV teamed up with Long Beach, California-based USCGR Port Security Unit 311 to use their 32-foot Transportable Port Security Boats to conduct a boat raid on a “simulated enemy port” at Port Mackenzie, Alaska.

A sort of budget SWCC/SEAL kind of arrangement.

The SWCC we have at home, if you will.

U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, depart after conducting an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)

U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, conduct an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. The raid was conducted to demonstrate joint-service interoperability in an austere environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)

U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, conduct an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. The raid was conducted to demonstrate joint-service interoperability in an austere environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)

U.S. Coast Guardsmen with Port Security Unit 311, and U.S. Marines with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, conduct an amphibious raid on a simulated enemy port during ARCTIC EDGE 2025 (AE25) at Port Mackenzie, Alaska, Aug. 13, 2025. The raid was conducted to demonstrate joint-service interoperability in an austere environment. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Earik Barton)

Keep in mind that something like this could be in the toolbox in a future conflict.

Capable of 45 knots on a pair of inboard diesels, the TPSBs carry two .50 cals and two M240B GPMGs. Girded with ballistic panels, they have shock-mitigating seats and can carry as many as eight passengers in addition to a four-man crew. It looks like each carried a half-squad or so of Marines. Each PSU has six TPSBs, allowing a theoretical raid force of 72, exclusive of crews.

The boats have an over-the-horizon capability and range of 238nm, meaning they can be used as an easily deployable blocking/interdiction force in a littoral if needed.

HITRON hits 1K

Finally, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Jacksonville-based Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) achieved a significant milestone in its counter-drug mission, completing its 1,000th interdiction of suspected narco-trafficking vessels on 25 August.

Since its founding in 1999, HITRON has interdicted $33.2 billion in illicit drugs during operations in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, and over the past 26 years, it has averaged one interdiction every nine days.

Not bad numbers for less than 200 Coasties, including reservists and auxiliaries, and a dozen MH-65E Dolphins, whose base airframes are 40 years old!

Coast Guard crews from the Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron, Coast Guard Tactical Law Enforcement Team – South, Coast Guard Cutter Midgett (WMSL 757), helicopter tie-down members, and unmanned aerial vehicle personnel pose for a group photo aboard Midgett from behind three bullet-damaged outboard engine cowlings while underway in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Aug. 28, 2025. On Aug. 25, HITRON used airborne use of force to stop the non-compliant vessel, marking the unit’s 1,000th drug interdiction since the unit’s inception in 1999, which resulted in Midgett crew members seizing approximately 3,606 pounds of suspected cocaine worth an estimated $46 million and apprehending six suspected narco-traffickers. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

Coast Guard orders more Offshore Patrol Cutters as Canada’s CG Gets (Kinda) Militarized

Posted on by One comment

After Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City ruined the proverbial sheets on its four building Heritage (Argus) class Offshore Patrol Cutters for the Coast Guard, Austal of Mobile swooped in and picked up basically an emergency contract for two OPC, augmented with long lead time materials funding for a third granted in August.

Now, with the future USCGC Pickering (WMSM-919) and Icarus (920) under construction, and Active (921) planning to cut steel, Austal was just approved for $314 million in LLM funding for the 4th, 5th, and 6th cutters on their schedule.

“With a range of 10,200 nautical miles at 14 knots and a 60-day endurance period, each OPC will be capable of deploying independently or as part of task groups, serving as a mobile command and control platform for surge operations such as hurricane response, mass migration incidents, and other events. The cutters will also support Arctic objectives by helping regulate and protect emerging commerce and energy exploration in Alaska.”

The program of record for the OPC is an ambitious 25 hulls, the USCG’s largest shipbuilding program in history. Every single hull will be needed to replace the 13-ship 270-foot Bear class cutters and the 16 ships of the now 50+ year old 210-foot Reliance class cutters, as well as the elderly USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39), which entered service with the Navy in 1971 as USS Edenton (ATS-1).

And with that, how about this interesting USNI op-ed from LCDR Keith Blevins, USCG, on how the Navy can best get to its fleet number goal by keeping the Coast Guard’s production lines open for grey hulls.

He has a point in that the Navy is sleeping on the possibility of grey-hulled National Security Cutters with frigate capabilities and 158-foot WPCs becoming a new class of Navy PCs, back-filling the much-used 170-foot Cyclones, which were retired without replacement.

Meanwhile in Canada…

In further news, the 6,700-strong quasi-military (wears uniforms and has ranks and epaulettes, plus has a few small arms in lockers) Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and “key employees” from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) have been shifted to the Canadian Ministry of National Defence.

The Canadian Coast Guard already has a good history of joint operations with NATO-allied Arctic CGs and Navies.

Formed in 1962 from a variety of services that date to 1867, the CGC has 119 vessels of varying sizes and 23 helicopters. This includes two large (25,000-ton) polar-class icebreakers under construction, the old 15,000-ton polar icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, eight medium (~5,000-ton) icebreakers, seven 4,700-ton “multi-tasked vessels,” 15 blue water offshore patrol vessels, and a whole catalog of smaller fisheries research vessels, lifeboats, and buoy tenders.

The 15,324-ton icebreaker and flagship of the Canadian Coast Guard, CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent under way in Halifax Harbor, escorted by CFAV Glenside in the foreground. Commissioned in 1969, she carries two helicopters and is slated to be replaced by 2030 by breakers being built in Finland. (Wiki commons)

The 4,737-ton Martha L. Black class “high endurance multi-tasked vessel” CCGS George. R. Pearkes (left) and the 2,080-ton fishery patrol vessel CCGS Leonard J. Cowley (right) in St. John’s Harbour, NL, Canada, August 2008. Wiki commons

The CGC also has 16 light-lift Bell 429 (seen above) and 7 medium-lift Bell 412EPI helicopters, along with several DHC-6/7/8s, King Air 200s owned and operated by Transport Canada or contractors on behalf of CCG.

The service has over 100 bases, stations, and centers, including the Canadian Coast Guard Academy and four-year Canadian Coast Guard College, the latter with about 300 officer cadets enrolled.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has some 600 armed green-uniformed officers with Smith & Wesson 5946s, rifles, and shotguns who conduct boardings from CCG ships, but there are no official figures available for how many have been transferred to the DND. The DFO had 1,908 active firearms on its latest audit.

In Canadian fashion, the change in “ownership” to DND (not the Canadian Armed Forces outright) doesn’t (necessarily) mean a more militaristic CGC. As noted by Minister of National Defense David McGuinty:

The CCG will remain a civilian Special Operating Agency. There are no plans to arm CCG personnel or assets, or to incorporate an additional enforcement role in the organization. The CCG will continue to deliver the essential services on which Canadians rely, including search and rescue, icebreaking, environmental conservation and protection, safe navigation, and supporting ocean science.

The superb silver lining for Canada is that the $2.392 billion (for 2024-25) budget for the CCG will now be counted towards the country’s long-lapsed NATO target of 2 percent of GDP in defense, which is currently only at a meager 1.37 percent. Talk about Trudeau-level L party bait and switch…

« Older Entries Recent Entries »