ICEBREAKERS

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star

Photo: Oregon Historical Society

U.S. Revenue Cutter Lincoln

The U.S. Coast Guard has been busting ice since 1867 when its predecessor, the Revenue Cutter Service, dispatched the cutter Lincoln to survey Alaska.

Early missions also enforced sealing and whaling laws in the new territory.

Today, the Coast Guard operates a heavy oceangoing icebreaker, a medium oceangoing  breaker and a Great Lakes breaker - identified by their red hulls. The service also operates "black hull" tugs capable of breaking river ice.

A new generation of icebreakers is in the works through the Polar Security cutter program.


POLAR STAR

 

Photos: U.S. Coast Guard Crew of cutter Polar Star WAGB-10 posing with Adelie penguin in 2015. The vessel is the only operating heavy icebreaker in the Coast Guard fleet. The 13,000-tonner was launched in 1976. It can break through ice up to 21 feet thick by backing and ramming, and steam through 6 feet of ice at three knots. Polar Star travels to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, each year as part of "Operation Deep Freeze." In 2021, the Coast Guard announced its intention to assign four Auxiliary culinary assistants to the 2022 mission.


HEALY

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Cutter Healy WAGB-20 is classified as a medium ice breaker. It is the Coast Guard's largest vessel. On Sept. 5, 2015, Healy became the first unaccompanied U.S. ship to reach the North Pole, according to Wikipedia.

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Two Coast Guardsmen and a scientist assigned to Healy to conduct an ice survey on Oct. 2, 2018, about 715 miles north of Barrow, Alaska.

POLAR SEA

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Cutter Star's sister ship, Polar Sea WAGB-11, has been docked in Seattle for more than a decade after it was deemed too expensive to repair its ailing mechanical plant. Parts from Polar Sea are used to keep Polar Star seaworthy.


MACKINAW

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Cutter Mackinaw WLBB-30 is a 240-foot icebreaker assigned to the Great Lakes employing modern technology. The cutter is propelled and steered by thrusters, eliminating the need for a rudder and wheel. Launched in 2005, Mackinaw can also perform as a seagoing buoy tender.


NORTHWIND

Photo: U.S. Air Force

Cutter Northwind WAGB-282 breaking ice during a joint U.S.-Denmark operation to relocate musk oxen in 1986. Northwind was decommissioned in 1989 and sent to the shipbreakers. Northwind was a member of the Wind-class line of diesel-electric icebreakers. It served in the Coast Guard for 44  years.


WESTWIND

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

Cutter Westwind WAGB-281 approaching LORAN Station at Cape Atholl, Greenland, perhaps in 1950s or 1960s . Scenic fjords and rugged mountains loom in the background. 


EASTWIND

Photos: U.S. Coast Guard

Icebreaker Eastwind WAGB-279, a veteran of World War Two, was struck by the tanker SS Gulfstream off Cape May, New Jersey, on Jan. 19, 1949, killing 12 Coast Guardsmen. The cutter was repaired and served until 1968. During the war, it ferried an Army force to Greenland that captured a clandestine German weather station.