Tuesday, October 2, 2012

the former U.S. Coast Guard polar icebreaker 'Staten Island'


The Staten Island was originally named Northwind and was transferred to the Soviet Union on 26 February 1944. The Soviets named her Severni Veter and later Admiral Makarov. She was returned to US control and commissioned as a U.S. Navy icebreaker in 1951 and was renamed Northwind. To avoid confusion with her Coast Guard sister ship, WAGB-282, the Navy renamed her Staten Island on 15 April 1952.

Staten Island was transferred to the Coast Guard and commissioned in the US's oldest sea service on 1 February 1965 after the Navy decided to cede all ice-breaking vessels and all icebreaking responsibilities to the Coast Guard in 1965-1966. She was decommissioned in 1974 and sold the next year.

Staten Island visited Wellington NZ at least once - in 1967 on the way to Operation Deep Freeze '67 in the Ross Sea area of the Antarctic.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was attached to IBSAC out of Mobile AL. Ship made it within 135 miles of North Pole in 1974.
Along the way while a seal team repaired detection devices, we drifted into Russia waters during the nite and was awoke to General Quarters right off the coast of Siberia.