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Across the Table of Contents Chapter 1...... 4 top of the Chapter 2...... 7 Chapter 3: The War’s Impact...... 9 Chapter 4...... 11 The U.S. ’s 1957 Chapter 5...... 14 Expedition Chapter 6...... 19 Written for the 50th anniversary Chapter 7: The Skippers...... 23 of the expedition and the occasion Chapter 8: The Cutters...... 25 of the decommissioning Bibliography...... 30 of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis By Senior Chief Petty P.J. Capelotti, Ph.D., USCGR USCG Historian’s Office 2100 2nd St. SW., Washington D.C., 20593 (202) 372-4651/53 Layout and Design by PA2 Mike Lutz 2007 and PA1 David Mosley Chapter 1 “We shall never cease from And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.” -T. S. Eliot (1888 - 1965)

n the morning of Sept. 6, 1957, with the Coast Guard Storis and the U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender Spar’s sister buoy tender Bramble. Depart- Spar reached the eastern side ing together from on July 1, 1957, of . Lt. Charles V. the three cutters traveled through Unimak Cowing, Spar’s young skipper, Pass on their way to , , hadO a moment to write a special entry into the where they began their attempt to break vessel’s log. through the historic Northwest Passage. On 1320: Arrived eastern point Bellot Strait Sept. 4, as they passed through a series of having completed transit of Bellot Strait and straits and gulfs named for Norwegian and the Northwest Passage in company with CGC British explorers and royalty, they reached Storis (WAG 38) and CGC Bramble (WAGL the western edge of Bellot Strait, named for a 402) and the HMCS . 109 days out French naval officer. There they met with the of , Rhode . Canadian icebreaker HMCS Labrador. On the Perhaps at this moment Cowing also took morning of Sept. 6, the four vessels transited the opportunity to enjoy a deep breath. He the 17-mile strait. had brought his buoy tender safely through a mythical passage the pursuit of which had killed scores of sailors and destroyed some of the most famous vessels in the history of 1320: Arrived eastern point exploration. In dry geographic terms, the Bellot Strait having completed narrow of Bellot Strait separates the northernmost point of the Ameri- transit of Bellot Strait and the can with Somerset Island in the Northwest Passage in company with Canadian . But in terms of human longing, since the time of this CGC Storis (WAG 38) and Northwest Passage had been imagined as a CGC Bramble (WAGL 402) shortcut to the riches of the , as a pathway to scientific achievement, as the and the HMCS Labrador. 109 glory road of , and as the days out of Bristol, Rhode Island. first line of defense for the continent of . Spar’s voyage had begun on May 19, 1957, The passage was clear of and took only in Narragansett Bay. In little more than two hours. Once on the eastern edge of the three , the buoy tender had visited strait, the cutters steamed for Lancaster Kingston, ; Balboa, Canal Sound and as they crossed the Zone; Acapulco, Mexico; and Long Beach, heading homeward on Sept. 12, congratula- Calif., before joining in Seattle on 28 tory telegrams rained down on the Coast 4 Guard cutters from admirals and department back in Seattle. ingly sought new routes to . secretaries. In addition to their triple feat of circum- For a century after Prince Henry the Eighteen days later, when Spar docked , the three Coast Guard vessels of the Northwest Passage Navigator founded an institute of geographic The Northwest Passage is actually several alongside its home pier in Bristol as the achieved several other firsts during their research at Sagres, , both Portuguese passageways through the complex archi- first American vessel ever to circle the entire historic expedition. They became the first and Spanish explorers fanned out across the pelago of the Canadian Arctic. According North American continent, another telegram American vessels to make the transit of southern Atlantic, eventually rounding both to K. Headland of the Scott Polar arrived from Dwight D. Eisenhower, the the Northwest Passage; the first vessels the in southern and Research Institute in Cambridge, , president of the . Within days, to accomplish a convoy through the at the southern tip of South Ameri- seven different routes connect the Atlantic Bramble returned to its homeport in passage; and Bramble and Spar became ca. As and Portugal appropriated these and Pacific oceans via these ice-clogged . as the second American vessel around the the first buoy tenders (and the only southern routes to the Spice of Asia, In the century since the Norwegian explorer continent. Storis completed the expedition American buoy tenders) to make the other European nations looked north for new accomplished the complete — and became the third — when it moored Arctic voyage. maritime routes to these same riches. transit during 1903-1906 more than 100 voy- The first explorer after the to ages have been made through these passages search in this northerly direction was Italian by vessels from 18 different nations. navigator Giovani Caboto, who sailed from Even to reach the entrance to the North- Bristol, England, in May 1497 under the name west Passage requires a difficult and danger- John Cabot. After 35 days at sea searching ous feat of navigation. From the east, the way for a Northwest Passage to , Cabot found is challenged by thousands of enormous ice- his way blocked by the Canadian coastline. No bergs. These bergs, broken from the contemporary sources have survived from his of in the east and in voyage, but it is thought that he spent about a the west and reaching 300 feet in height, drift along the coast of northeastern North southward through . From the America before returning to England. west, vessels reach the passage through the Cabot tried again a year later, but he and , where the mass of the polar ice most of his fleet vanished from the seas and cap leans its bulk on the north coast of Alaska from history. By the time his son Sebastian and blocks any passage for much of the year. Cabot tried unsuccessfully to locate the pas- sage 10 years later, it had become clear that a new and enormous continent lay between Pursuit of the Northwest Passage The Icelandic record that a Norseman and Asia. For the next hundred years, named , banished from navigators like , , by criminal troubles, sailed with 25 , and Henry Hud- from Iceland to the southwest coast of - son all probed the straits and bays that now in 985 a.d. There he and the crews of are named for them. the 14 ships that survived the journey made Often the price they paid for this lasting a new home near the present-day airfield at was shipwreck, mutiny and death. Narsarssuak. From this small colony, Erik’s , an avid colonizer and son made the first exploratory expedi- half-brother of Sir , wrote a tions along the northeast coast of North book on the mythical passage, then drowned America. Over the next five centuries, Norse in 1583 returning to England after trying to mariners would probe along the coasts of find it himself. When Hudson’s Bay proved present-day and perhaps as far south to be an ice-filled trap rather than a passage as New England, New York and New in to the east, himself, his young search of timber and new waterways to take son, and seven crew members were set adrift them even further west. during a 1611 mutiny. When William Baffin’s It is not known how much knowledge of convinced him that no northern these early voyages survived into the world of passage to the east existed, interest in the the . But in the mercantile world arctic waned for nearly two centuries. Ironi- of the late 1400s and early 1500s, after the cally, Baffin’s of conquest of the Middle East by the Ottoman would become the main portal to the North- Turks had closed overland trade routes from west Passage, and one the U.S. Coast Guard 5 Europe to Asia, European nations increas- would use 350 years later. 6 Franklin’s wife Jane. Unsuccessful in find- Freed from the ice in July 1941, Larsen ing any trace of Franklin, Bellot instead eventually sailed to Gjøa Haven on King Wil- discovered and traced a narrow channel of liam Island and continued eastward against that separated — the thickening ice. Trapped again at Pasley Bay, Chapter 2 northernmost point of land in North America St. Roch grounded on a submerged shoal and and the place where the Royal located barely escaped from being crushed. Reaching the in 1831 — with Som- what he thought would be the safety of Bellot “Make voyages! erset Island. The leader of the Prince Albert Strait in summer 1942, Larsen found his expedition, William Kennedy, named this nearly crushed again by ice racing through - Attempt them! strait after Bellot. the narrow strait. Reaching Halifax, Nova One explorer who read the story of Frank- , that October, Larsen wrote laconically: - there’s nothing else...” lin closely was the Norwegian Roald Amund- “It had not been an easy trip.” sen. Determined to avoid what he saw as As if to prove the point that ice conditions -Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983), Franklin’s mistakes, Amundsen in 1903 were never the same from one to an- chose for his Northwest Passage expedition a other, Larsen doubled back on the Northwest shallow-, 65- auxiliary Passage in 1944, sailing east to west. Navi- Camino Real by the name of Gjøa. In this small vessel, gating St. Roch on a more northerly course, wo centuries after Baffin, and retary John Barrow ordered two ships, HMS Amundsen and his crew entered Lancaster Larsen reached in less than three after the defeat of Napoleon, Dorothea and HMS Trent, to find a passage Sound and , then turned south months. an idled turned its through the ice surrounding the into and the uncharted of attention to the problem of an and then to sail through the Bering Strait Franklin, Ross, and Rae straits. Arctic sea route to connect the into the . The two ships, led by After spending a year and a half at a place AtlanticT and Pacific. In 1818, Admiralty Sec- Cmdr. and Lt. , now called Gjøa Haven, and relocating the explored as far as the northwestern coast of new position of the shifting magnetic pole, before turning back with the knowl- Amundsen maneuvered Gjøa through the edge that no simple sea route over the polar rocks, shoals and shallows of sea existed. and around . These are Franklin returned to the Arctic as a captain the same waters that Storis, Bramble and in 1845. He was in command of an elaborate Spar would create the first charts of 50 years Royal Navy expedition with HMS Terror and later. Sailing into what is now called Amund- HMS Erebus, two vessels sen Gulf, Gjøa in 1906 became the first ship only recently returned from a pioneering to complete a northwest passage through the exploration of under the command Canadian Arctic. Five years later, Amundsen of . Franklin’s ships were would go on to become the first explorer to stopped in the late summer of 1846 by heavy reach the and then, in 1926, the pack ice in Wellington Channel, 12 miles first to fly over the North Pole, in the airship northwest of King William Island. Franklin . died in the spring of 1847; after living on After Gjøa, it would be nearly 40 years board the vessels for 18 months, the two before another vessel successfully challenged crews abandoned the ships and began a long the passage. The St. Roch, perhaps the most and desperate march southward. All 129 offi- famous ship in Canadian , cers and men perished, and a score of British took three arduous , from 1940 to and American expeditions set out to discover 1942, to make a Northwest Passage transit. what had happened to Franklin and his men. Under the command of her Norwegian-born Not until 1859 was a record discovered under skipper , St. Roch sailed from a on King William Island that unrav- west to east, in the opposite direction from eled the fate of the doomed expedition. While Amundsen and Gjøa. scattered remains of the men have since been As a Royal Canadian Mounted Police sup- located, the shipwrecks themselves have ply vessel, St. Roch possessed several unique Henry Larson stands on the bridge of never been found. capabilities, including an egg-shaped, two- the St. Roch. The St. Roch was the second One of the men who searched for Franklin foot-thick, ice-strengthened , and room ship to sail the Northwest Passage and the was a named Joseph on her decks for several dog teams. Heavy first ship to sail it both ways in a single René Bellot. In 1851, Bellot joined the ship ice conditions forced Larsen to winter St. season. 7 Prince Albert in an expedition financed by Roch at on . 8 U.S. Army, the Merchant Marine and the U.S. emplaced on the polar ice pack north of Alas- Coast Guard would be involved. ka, six different transport ships were dam- Sealift operations for these missions were aged by ice before the Coast Guard task unit as hazardous as they were necessary. appeared on scene. Other difficulties would Chapter 3: Previous years had shown that a continuous involve the lack of adequate charts; continu- airlift prior to the annual breakup of pack ice ous daylight conditions, which limited the use in the Northwest Passage would bring less of celestial navigation; magnetic shifts caused than 10 percent of the cargo that the MSTS by the proximity of the North Magnetic Pole; The ’s Impact sealift could carry during the brief Arctic and shifting winds that transformed open summer when sea navigation was possible. lanes of ocean into ice-clogged barriers in a “You cannot simultaneously prevent Only sealift operations could bring the ton- matter of minutes. nage of supplies into the Arctic required to Such obstacles became instant challenges build and maintain the forward defense of the for the Coast Guard crew. Petty officers who and prepare for war.” DEW Line. handled quartermaster duties on board Storis But ships were vulnerable to being trapped in 1956 refined their dead reckoning in the ice -Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) by the greatest natural hazard in the Arctic: fields so that their navigation fixes were less s Cold War tensions between construction of more than 50 DEW Line sites ice. For much of the year, the polar ice pack than four miles off even after 10 days of the and western and the emplacement of new weather stations pressed down upon the northern point of moving back and forth through the shift- intensified in the required a massive sealift by the Sea Alaska at Point Barrow. Any ship caught east ing maze of ice. New whip antennae were late and early 1950s, Transportation Service. This sealift delivered of this point when the ice moved in perma- mounted on board Storis to overcome the lack both the United States and more than 2.5 million tons of cargo and 12 nently at summer’s end would be forced to of radio connectivity experienced in Canadian CanadaA sought to define the boundaries of million barrels of fuel to the Canadian Arctic, winter there and would likely be severely waters during the 1956 cruise. any possible conflict. The possibility of a all while maintaining alternate season supply damaged if not destroyed. Ice conditions A newcomer to Storis in the fall of 1956 Russian air attack over the North Pole turned runs to the U.S. Navy’s often required underwater demolition divers was a young just graduated from the the Arctic into a potential battlespace. To in Antarctica. to blast away grounded ice in order to provide Coast Guard Academy, Richard Rybacki. demonstrate its over this vast At its peak, the DEW Line project employed clear approaches to beach areas for landing When Rybacki arrived in Alaska, Storis , Canada sent the icebreaker HMCS over 7,500 civilian and military personnel. craft. had not yet returned from her 1956 Arctic Labrador through the Northwest Passage in The line consisted of six main radar stations If U.S. naval ships were trapped north or expedition. “So they handed me a packet of 1954. supported by 23 auxiliary and 28 intermedi- east of Point Barrow, as had almost happened TRs (Travel Requests), and told me to go out Two years earlier, defense planners had ate stations, with the smaller stations func- in the summer of 1956, they would need and do some recruiting for the Coast Guard begun to look at the Northwest Passage as tioning to close gaps in the radar coverage some way to break out. The only option was Academy!” When Storis did arrive, Rybacki the first line of defense for the continent of of the main stations. It remains one of the to the east, through the classic Northwest recalled, there was the usual reaction on North America. A 1952 meeting of scientists largest and most complicated construction Passage of Amundsen and Larsen, towards board a Coast when they see at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology projects ever undertaken. escape into the North Atlantic. But the a new ensign arrive: “Great, a warm body. produced an idea for a system of early The Coast Guard Cutter Storis had already expeditions of Gjøa and St. Roch had taken Let’s put him to work!” If a new ensign warning radar stations across the Canadian participated in the previous two summer advantage of (and at various points nearly had any advantage in the Coast Guard, it Arctic. This string of outposts would stretch operations in 1955 and 1956, operating as been sunk by) areas of shallows and shoalwa- was the small size of the service. Rybacki from Point Barrow in Alaska 3,000 miles a hydrographic survey unit with the survey ters unsuitable for deep-draft naval and cargo already knew most of the officers in the ward- eastward to Baffin Island. The system as a ship USS Requisite (AGS-18). DC2 Jim vessels. room. Over the next two years on Storis, he whole was designed to detect incoming Loback, who reported on board Storis the The U.S. Coast Guard was therefore given a would spend nearly 90 percent of his time at aircraft, not to intercept or destroy them. day before she left for the Arctic in 1956, special triple mission: find a usable Northwest sea. Once in operation, military planners remembered that “there was some scuttlebutt Passage through which deep-draft ships could When Storis suddenly returned to her expected to gain four to six hours of advance that we would be ‘going around’ [the conti- escape from the Arctic; conduct a detailed homeport in the middle of a May 1957 cruise, warning of an air attack coming from over the nent] in ’56, but it never materialized. In hydrographic survey of it — extending the the crew suspected something was up. When polar horizon. The extra time would allow ’57, I knew they were serious when they hydrographic sounding tracks begun by they were told to spend some time with their for the rapid evacuation of cities and the air sent up the other two ships (Bramble and Storis and USS Requisite in 1955 and 1956; families because they might not be back for defense of vital industrial areas. Spar).” and then mark this new passage with aids to six months, rumor became fact. They were Two years later, President Dwight D. MSTS Arctic Operations in 1957 were to be navigation. “going around.” In a great synchronized Eisenhower approved the project and ordered the capstone of this enormous effort. Besides The expedition would be anything but wheeling operation that encompassed the it built as soon as possible. Between 1955 DEW Line construction, bases would be simple. Early season operations in 1957 had entire continent of North America, three and 1957 this string of installations, called re-supplied in Greenland, Baffin Island, Labra- already seen the worst ice conditions many Coast Guard cutters set out in May 1957 to the Distant Early Warning Line, or DEW Line, dor, and . More than 100 ships Arctic veterans had ever experienced. overcome the obstacles of the Arctic and to brought thousands of military and civilian and 12,000 military and civilian personnel Despite the use of helicopter reconnaissance do what no American vessels had ever accom- 9 personnel onto remote Arctic shorelines. The from the U.S. and Royal Canadian , the and portable automatic weather stations plished. 10 been announced. The challenge was even 9. There, Lt. Cmdr. Carter made the most of greater for Carter, who had no previous expe- his liberty by hauling in a 119-pound sailfish. rience on a buoy tender like Bramble and had “I don’t know how that story got around,” just reported on board himself when Bramble remembered Carter, “but it’s true. Four of us Chapter 4 was being fitted out at Curtis Bay. However, — a chief from Bramble and two folks from he’d faced similar situations in his Coast Spar — had rented a with a fisherman. Guard career. In 1943, due to the war-time You could catch sailfish out there without “It is better to look ahead and prepare than to emergency, he had graduated with a four-year any effort at all. We landed five of them in degree from the Academy in only three years. that one day. You couldn’t keep it unless you look back and regret.” Later he became a member of the Interna- agreed you were either going to mount it or tional Ice Patrol though he had never seen eat it. Well, I couldn’t afford to mount it, so I any ice. “The Coast Guard believes you can do decided to eat this fish that was almost nine -Jackie Joyner-Kersee anything they tell you to do.” feet long. I took it back to the ship, we threw he first of the three cutters to rotating Honeywell sonar unit, an early type Carter found the Bramble in a sorry state. it on the reefer, and it stayed there from June start the continental circum- of side-scanning sonar. The hull plating below the from until we got back to Miami in September navigation was the Spar, which A new stainless steel , designed stem halfway to stern had been cut away to where I had it smoked.” For the remainder left her homeport of Bristol, R.I., to withstand the ice better than the usual be replaced with the heavier plate for work of the expedition, the skipper of Spar, Lt. on May 19, 1957. This followed bronze, was also installed at Curtis Bay. On in the ice. The ship’s small were fitted Charles Cowing, referred to Spar’s sister ship a springT of modifications at the Coast Guard the way south, at certain speeds, it caused with portable fathometers for inshore survey as “the fish carrier from Acapulco and Yard in Curtis Bay, Md., where the hulls of such a shimmy and a loud, penetrating note work. Once in Miami, the operational plan Miami.” both Spar and Bramble were strengthened throughout the entire ship that the Bramble required the loading of six months worth of The two vessels reached Long Beach, Calif., with additional steel ice-belts at and below had to go back into dry-dock in Miami until specialized supplies for the Arctic expedi- in mid June, and moored alongside one an- the water line in preparation for cruising the problem was fixed. tion. During those months of and May other. The log of the Spar recorded that she in Arctic waters. These thick metal belts Lt. Cmdr. Harry H. Carter was Bramble’s of 1957, stores of all kinds streamed on board took on board 31,000 gallons of fuel and an stretched from the aft of amidships, and skipper. “They had just transferred anyone the cutter. Three thousand books were added LCVP. This landing craft would become one would protect the hull from the effects of ram- who wanted to get off,” remembered Carter. to the ship’s library. of the inshore workhorses during the Arctic ming through pack ice. Additional equipment “So we had pretty much of a new crew for this Both Bramble and Spar carried six officers charting and surveying to come. Continuing loaded for the Northwest Passage included an voyage.” The new crew was all volunteers and 54 men during the Northwest Passage north along the western coast of the United evaporator for producing fresh water and a who had signed up for the mission once it had voyage. Along with the 125 crew on board States, Spar and Bramble reached Seattle on Storis and another 60 on board the USCGC the morning of June 27, where they moored Balsam participating in DEW Line operations, alongside Storis, which itself had just arrived the Coast Guard had 305 men involved in the from Ketchikan, Alaska, to have a helicopter 1957 MSTS Arctic operations. landing platform placed in its decks. One of those sailors was a young damage Loback recalled meeting with the petty of- controlman named Ron Kubeck, who had ficers and chiefs who handled quartermaster enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1955. While duties on the other two vessels, to go over serving on board the USCGC , he charts and courses. The sailors from Miami noticed a message seeking volunteers for an on board Bramble were already sporting their upcoming Arctic expedition. With experi- brand new Arctic foul weather gear with fur- ence as a scuba and hookah hose diver from lined hoods. “They were complaining about Damage Control School in Groton, Conn., the cold, and we were still going out on deck Kubeck’s application to join the new expedi- without jackets.” tion was approved, and in the spring of 1957 In Seattle, the Coast Guard vessels, “three he reported on board Spar as the only damage stubby little ships,” as Newsweek referred to controlman. them, were attached to 5 under Spar steamed for Jamaica, arriving at sun- the command of Rear Adm. Henry S. Persons, rise on May 25. After the officers, chiefs and USN, the of the MSTS Pacific crew enjoyed a day of liberty, Spar contin- Area. Task Force 5 was responsible for the ued on to the Zone. Bramble supply of DEW Line stations on the Pacific left her homeport of Miami, Fla., on May 26 side of Bellot Strait. The Coast Guard element and rendezvoused with Spar in the Panama itself was designated as Task Unit 5.1.5, and Canal Zone. With Bramble in the lead, the two operated under the command of Capt. Harold cutters convoyed toward Acapulco, Mexico, Wood, the skipper of Storis. which they reached on Sunday morning, June Rybacki recalled the first meeting between 12 a stoic, pipe-smoking Capt. Wood and Adm. Point Barrow, Alaska, on the morning of July Persons, the overall task force commander. 12. There they made a rendezvous with the When the Coast Guard officers entered the icebreaker USS Burton Island (after 1966, a room, Adm. Persons quipped that it was Coast Guard vessel), and made preparations “good to have the Hooligan Navy here at the for steaming to the east. Throughout July Chapter 5 meeting.” Wood, in a laconic reply his offi- 12, Bell helicopters flown by U.S. Navy pilots cers would retell for years when speaking of from Storis and Burton Island carried mail, him, answered “We don’t mind you calling us personnel and equipment to the four vessels ‘hooligans,’ but it’s the ‘navy’ part that we find offshore. “He that will not sail till all dangers are over objectionable.” At this point, Spar had already been away After a U.S. Navy hydrographer reported from Bristol for 40 days, and steamed for over must never put to sea.” on board Spar from the cable-laying ship USS 8,600 miles. The weather was good, and only (ARC-4), the new task unit steamed scattered ice dotted the seas north of Point -Thomas Fuller north making approximately 250 miles per Barrow. But the crew could see the polar ice day. Kubeck remembered diving to check pack looming on the northern horizon, so it or the next week, Spar began her holding Storis in contact with this vessel’s on some minor damage to Spar’s prop after was no doubt with renewed seriousness that oceanographic work of recording side. Fenders rigged. Unable to maneu- meeting some ice near the . they sat through a training film titled “Cold currents and seawater tempera- ver. and rudders blocked by ice.” The decision was made to continue on. “As Weather Operational Problems.” tures and depths. Meanwhile, The floes pushed the two vessels so close to- I recall, the intercepted our com- The task unit was put to work immediately, Storis and Bramble lay in thick- gether that men were passing cigarettes back munications and cordially invited us to use cruising six miles northeast of Point Barrow eningF ice at 70°04’N, just off Mackenzie Bay, and forth to each other. their dry-dock facilities in , and we told to conduct a series of soundings of a reported Canada. Often, the two cutters drifted in ice- On board Storis, the crew attempted to them, ‘thank you, no thank you.’” shoal. Charts of this survey were forwarded free , or polynias, dodging small chunks maneuver the larger ship to keep from crush- On Wednesday, July 10, the convoy crossed to the MSTS DEW Line fleet for use in its sup- of floating ice known as growlers and small ing Spar. “We were stuck,” recalled Loback, the Arctic Circle (66° 33’N) and arrived off ply runs later that same month. Both the called bergy-bits, while surveying the Burton Island and Storis were equipped ice conditions ahead and waiting to continue with helicopters for ice reconnais- the expedition eastward. sance; on July 13 they led the Spar When progress along the northern coast and Bramble into the ice fields of the of Canada did commence, it was slow and at July 30: Extreme ice pressure . times extremely dangerous. On an expedition Burton Island assisted the three when the daily miles made good averaged be- holding Storis in contact with Coast Guard vessels in breaking tween 50 and 100, Bramble reported only five this vessel ’s port side. Fenders through the solid field of ice that began miles of progress on Aug. 1. Sailors recalled about six miles east of Point Barrow. the sensation of standing watch on the bridge rigged. Unable to maneuver. Continuous daylight made for gener- of Storis at midnight, watching the midnight ally mild weather conditions, and the sun go down not quite to the horizon, before it Propellers and rudders blocked cutters began what would become their stopped and started to rise again. regular routine of following narrow From July 23 through Aug. 2, as Spar con- by ice. openings, or leads, in the ice fields. Fol- tinued her soundings, the three ships strug- lowing these leads, often discovered by gled to maintain headway through heavy ice “and there were rumors that they were going the helicopters scouting ahead of the in and Queen to start taking people off.” Rybacki – who convoy, initially allowed the vessels to Gulf. The situation came to a near-crisis on kept a personal diary of the expedition and maintain regular daily mileage toward July 29, when Storis, ramming through ice still has it in his possession, almost 20 years the east. floes, met hard, fast ice that would not be after his retirement as a rear admiral – re- On July 17, an ice reconnaissance moved. Spar, just astern, slowed to avoid a membered the day vividly. “One of the lessons flight from the airstrip at Cape Parry collision, and Bramble in the rear stopped as we learned along the way is emphasized in had revealed severe ice conditions to well, trapping all three vessels for two days. the notes I kept throughout the trip. And the east. After taking on nearly 20,000 As northerly winds pushed more ice down that was the power of the wind on the ice, and gallons of fuel from Burton Island, the onto the immobile vessels, ice floes forced the fact that if you watched it carefully you’d Spar launched its small boat so Cowing their way under the Spar, the rudder jammed be able to take advantage of the weather. It could join Carter in a conference with and the ship lost its steering control. Ice would make it a lot easier on you and the ves- Capt. Wood on board Storis. As the Bur- continued to press into Spar, pushing the sel, rather than just putting your head down ton Island left the convoy and returned cutter upward and into the hull of Storis. and battering your way through the ice. The to Point Barrow, Storis cautiously led Spar’s logbook recorded the scene on the wind and the weather had such a great impact 13 the task unit into the . morning of July 30: “Extreme ice pressure on the forces of the ice.” 14 Kubeck remembered the 20-degree list enough for a mail plane to deliver correspon- ice, Spar followed Storis on Aug. 1 in split- Twenty families lived in a native making it very difficult to walk the Spar’s dence to the ship. He wrote: “Lucky as I am, ting a path in the ice to free Bramble, trapped village nearby. Unlike their Coast Guard decks. “I think if that happened to me today I received three letters from my wife and one and unable to maneuver two-and-a-half miles counterparts from the Greenland Patrol I’d be very concerned, but back then I had from my mother. Had the 8-12 watch today, astern. “We had 5,000 yards to go to get to during the Second World War, the men of the maybe the right attitude that nothing can so I went on watch immediately following the them,” Rybacki wrote in his log. “At midnight, Northwest Passage expedition were forbid- happen to me; nothing is going to happen to movie “Davey Crockett.” Had a fair watch, we just reached them and started chipping den by Canadian government regulations to any of us.” busting the Spar out of the ice in which she them out. Had a lot of fun breaking the ice, visit or fraternize with the native population. But Storis was having problems of its own. was stuck. I learned what an amazing effect but I got stuck and had to use the boom to get Loback, who did not go ashore, recalled one As it attempted to move off, ice jammed has on ice while chopping out the Spar.” out once.” Re-reading his young ensign’s log, sailor returning to Storis and removing his Storis’ rudder first at 30 degrees left, then Storis was not able to free herself until the Rybacki found that at the same time Storis watch cap to reveal a shaved head covered in 5 degrees left. “We were at ‘all stop,’” said afternoon of July 30. Rybacki noted in his was fighting the ice, he was involved in a mosquito bites. Loback, “since the screws wouldn’t turn over. private log that he slept in until 1000, sewed a tussle with his executive officer over a lock The task unit charted Cambridge Bay and One of the privileges of being a first class patch on his shirt and even did a few exercis- he had issued but which the XO had lost. “So its approaches. Broken, concentrated ice petty officer on board Storis was the chance to es. So while the Storis was pinched in by ice, those kinds of things were going on while created difficult operating conditions for stand ice watch on the stern. Any time ice got life went on. Nevertheless, discussions took the ship was locked in the ice.” In the larger the convoy’s small boats, as the LCVPs from too close to the prop, you’d notify the bridge place just in case life couldn’t go on. “We talk- scheme of things, this was also the same day and they’d stop the engine. These watches ed about that,” remembered Rybacki. “I think that the DEW Line was declared operational. would last for an hour at a time. All of a sud- we all felt that we would be able to get out. My Lt. Cowing stopped Spar the following day to den we were stopped and couldn’t use the log shows that we were waiting for either the check for ice damage. Divers found that a foot “I don’t think they were that screws, and the rudders were frozen in.” wind to shift or for the Burton Island to arrive and a half of one of the propeller blades had familiar with the dynamite,” re- One of the gunner’s mates appeared with and break us free. I think the concern was been snapped off. Ice conditions improved dynamite charges and attempted to blast whether we would be able to break out and go on Aug. 2, and the crisis abated. That same membered Loback, “because they Storis free. “I don’t think they were that east, which was our mission. We always felt day, one of the Bell helicopters from Storis familiar with the dynamite,” remembered Lo- we could break out and return west.” surveyed the route ahead, landing and refuel- back, “because they set the charges off quite a When Spar restarted her engines and ing on board Spar before returning to Storis. set the charges off quite a ways ways from the ship — which we were grateful turned her propellers, the crew felt a shimmy Bramble’s log recorded 54 miles made good from the ship —which we were for.” In the afternoon, Rybacki recorded in throughout the stern of the ship, evidence of a that day. grateful for.” his private log that the weather had cleared broken prop blade. Limping through the pack Cmdr. Carter recalled that, after the near- entrapment, the captains decided to proceed through the ice abreast of each other as much Bramble and Spar led a shallow water survey as possible. If one of the ships was stuck, then with portable fathometers. “We would take one or both of the other ships could try and continuous soundings with the fathometer,” force a passage to free the trapped cutter. remembered Loback, “and one of the hydro- The vessels were able to proceed through graphic officers and I would use to Dolphin and Union Strait, continuing their take angles and plot those against our sound- ocean stations and surveying a previously ings. We were operating with charts of the uncharted island, before traversing Corona- area that did not have good soundings.” tion Gulf on Aug. 4 and on Aug. Charts from these surveys would be used by 5. Feeling their way through small leads and the MSTS supply ships that would follow the cracks in the ice near the shoreline of Victoria Coast Guard convoy later that summer. While Island, the cutters arrived at the desolate out- these surveys were being carried out, another post of Cambridge Bay on the Aug. 6. Bramble small boat from Bramble assisted divers in broke the ice in Cambridge Bay and led in the scuba gear as they inspected the hulls of the other two cutters. three Coast Guard cutters. They found a four- At Cambridge Bay, local authorities allowed foot section of Bramble’s port bilge keel had the men a chance to go ashore for a rather been badly dented, and Spar would have to bleak liberty. After landings by LCVPs from limp along until its prop could be replaced. both Spar and Bramble, a day of recreation in- Besides the executive officer and assis- cluded visits to the local Hudson’s Bay Compa- tant engineering officer on Storis, two young ny trading post; the Royal Canadian Mounted ensigns were assigned to Arctic diving opera- Police outpost; and two missions, one Angli- tions. Rybacki was one of them. “If you’ve can, the other Catholic. Rybacki went ashore seen the film of the expedition [“Cutters with his tackle and caught a few Arctic Around the Continent”], there are a couple of 15 char. heroic guys in their dry suits. I was one and 16 my classmate Bruce Solomon, who has since house and airlift most of the crew to safety. find them, then you have a real problem. We fleet exchanged mail and movies while passed away, was the other. We went through A skeleton crew would remain behind for the came very close once. We put an LCVP ashore Bramble and Spar continued with their aids ‘tortuous’ training in order to become quali- winter. to take down a tower when the fog shut in. to navigation work. A U.S. Navy film, “Land fied. While in Seattle we went to the YMCA for Leaving Cambridge Bay, the convoy contin- They didn’t know where we were, and since and Life in the Arctic,” made a hurried pass scuba-diving classes for one week!” ued east. The LCVPs continued their work we didn’t have radar we didn’t know where through. A Coast Guard press release of the During one dive underneath Storis to ex- around the ice-filled edges of tiny Arctic they were. It could have been very dicey, but time claimed somewhat unconvincingly that tract a sonar transducer from its nest in the islands, ferrying men and supplies ashore suddenly the fog lifted and they found us.” such “movies were good even for the second hull, Rybacki accidentally scraped a hole in for the construction of aids to navigation. Other distractions could alter the daily or third time.” his suit. “It was like a sharp needle. The Drilling through and rock, crews routine as well. Every morning Loback would After refueling and re-supplying from the water was 29.5°F. By the time they hoisted anchored steel bases for tripod towers that make out the daily position report, have the MSTS fleet, Task Unit 5.1.5 continued its me on board with the boom, my foot was held navigational beacons and radar reflec- navigator sign it, and have it ready by 8 a.m. intensive survey of Simpson Strait, while numb.” tors. Old buoys were repainted and reset, One morning Loback could not find the navi- Balsam led its convoy more than 1,000 miles As for their ice-breaking methods, Cmdr. and new ones emplaced, including one of the gator. He searched the entire ship, and finally back to Point Barrow. On Aug. 23, Spar ran Carter recalled that swinging the Bramble’s spot where Storis touched bottom in Simpson found the navigator at the Storis’ fantail, aground while surveying Douglas Bay, and buoy crane back and forth with a suspended Strait on Aug. 14. intently taking pictures of a . The Bramble towed her free. The same day, Capt. buoy mooring weight to rock the vessel back “It’s a very shoal body of water,” Rybacki bears would often appear at the fantail when Wood made an ice reconnaissance flight from and forth was ineffective. So was using wrote in his personal log that day. “As was the ship was operating in heavy pack ice. Storis all the way to Bellot Strait and back. explosives to break a path through the ice. experienced by Storis today as we spent four Rybacki recalled the roar of ice as it pressed “There were all sorts of unnamed islands in “You had to simply wait for the wind to shift hours on a shoal. Storis went aground.” After down on Storis when the vessel was anchored the area,” recalled Loback. “So everybody and clear the ice. It never occurred to us they floated free, Storis completed setting a in . “Being the OD (Officer of was putting their own names on them, or that we would be stuck there. We just figured series of channel markers and then escorted the Deck), I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something their wife’s name, but I don’t think any of that sooner or later things would open up.” If the task force through the newly-marked quick. I don’t know whether the anchor is go- them ever got recorded. There’s a Loback they were beset in the ice, the plan was to use channel. ing to hold us here.’ It was a time for learning Island up there somewhere.” an onboard supply of plywood to enclose the Some towers needed removal, and one such to do some significant ship-handling, learning A week later, with their hydrographic and incident remains in Cmdr. Carter’s memory to to react quickly to what was going on.” construction work in Simpson Strait conclud- this day. “We were operating in an area where On Aug. 15, an MSTS convoy led by the ed, the convoy commenced its long-awaited the fog rolled in very quickly. Our shore USCGC Balsam arrived in Queen Maud Gulf, transit of the final leg of the Northwest parties had installed many aluminum towers and for several days the small Coast Guard Passage. for navigation, and the Storis sent us back to remove one of them. I didn’t have any radar. We sent a crew ashore, they tore the tower down, came back to the ship and by then we were about 25-30 miles behind the convoy. Dense fog, no radar; so we just started plug- ging away. You could look over the side and see the bottom. I don’t think we had more than three or four feet under the keel. So we moseyed along at about three knots and finally caught up, but I can tell you I didn’t get much sleep that .” During an LCVP deployment from Bramble, Cmdr. Carter realized the quickly-changing operational environment in which he and his crew were navigating. The LCVP deployed from Bramble to do some work on an island, but without supplies to sustain the crew if they were caught there. “We learned that shore parties in the Arctic have to be self- sustaining, because you never know if you are going to get them back or not. You can put them ashore and they can be working there when the next you know the fog shuts everything down and they can’t find you. And 17 if they can’t subsist by themselves until you vessels were tied up alongside the Labrador, so it could proceed homeward to the United some of the Americans went on board Labra- States. dor to enjoy the daily From Bellot Strait, the convoy continued rum ration, recalled Loback. its oceanographic research through Prince Chapter 6 Finally, on the morning of Sept. 6, 1957, the Inlet, where Cowing sent a party four ships, led by Labrador, steamed 17 miles ashore with a plaque and a to mark Spar’s “To accomplish great things, through an ice-free Bellot Strait and anchored attained on the expedi- at its eastern end. Following a centuries-old tion. In Lancaster Sound, and Arctic tradition, shore parties from each Davis Strait, the crews took gunnery practice we must not only act, but also dream; vessel landed at Fort Ross on barren and on drifting icebergs. The 3-inch deck guns rocky Somerset Island in order to place his- made only small chips in the massive bergs. not only plan, but also believe.” torical documents describing their achieve- In Baffin Bay, the crew of Spar listened to ments underneath a rock cairn. a lecture on the Arctic by Squadron Leader -Anatole They were standing on appropriately histor- Scott E. Alexander of the Royal Canadian Air he 300-mile voyage from Queen U.S. Coast Guard’s Wind-class . ic ground. Pullen’s crew discovered the cairn Maud Gulf to Bellot Strait was On Aug. 24, Labrador, under the command a week earlier, and found that it contained a free of the perils that had thus of Capt. Thomas C. Pullen, RCN, had moved series of messages from previous explorers, far accompanied the expedition. through Bellot Strait from east to west, including one written by Henry Larsen of the “We were never really told how Ice had moved out and “we just preceded by a small sounding boat and two St. Roch in 1942. They also located artifacts kindT of sailed up there,” remembered Loback. helicopters. Pullen discovered a good channel from HMS Fury, the British Arctic explora- tion ship wrecked on Somerset Island in 1825. A survey around the southeast corner of King in the strait, with a minimum depth of 50 feet. rememberedsignificant Loback. the expedition “It was was,”about William Island provided a navigational track Use of the strait would cut hundreds of miles “Anchored in False Strait just north of the through , , and off the usual Northwest Passage route around entrance of Bellot Strait,” Rybacki wrote in 40 years later that I really under- all the way to the approaches the northern end of Somerset Island. his personal log that day. “The Labrador is of Bellot Strait. Waiting for the American con- For two days after the Coast Guard cutters moored alongside to port and the Bramble stood what it was we had accom- and the Spar to starboard. We had all nested voy at the western approaches of Bellot Strait met Labrador, each of the four vessels plished up there.” on the morning of Sept. 3 was the Canadian operated independently, each surveying a together the night before awaiting morn- icebreaker HMCS Labrador, which was simi- different sector of the western approaches ing before making our triumphant transit lar in design and construction similar to the to Bellot Strait. When the three Coast Guard through Bellot. It was foggy in the morning so Force. The 44-year-old former Royal Cana- the episode was delayed until noon. I luckily dian Mounted Policeman and Arctic expert had the noon watch so I have the privilege of had accompanied U.S. task force units in the saying that I was the first American OOD to go Northwest Passage for three consecutive sum- through Bellot Strait. We built a cairn at both mers. Newsweek reported that during the ends of the strait, placing in them the names 1956 expedition Capt. Wood of Storis had of all officers and crew of the ships participat- exclaimed: “Look at us. The Coast Guard ing in this project. Now that the party’s over leads the Navy — and who leads the Coast it’s about time to head home.” Guard? Why, a blankety-blank airman — and Cmdr. Carter regretted not knowing more a Canadian at that.” Arctic history before he commanded a vessel On Sept. 24, Spar completed her 14,000- on a voyage through the Northwest Passage. mile of the continent at “I would have spent more time looking [for her homeport in Bristol, R.I., namesake city artifacts of earlier expeditions]. The survey of Bristol, England, from where John Cabot area that we ended up doing just before we had sailed in search of a Northwest Passage went through Bellot Strait was where Frank- 460 years earlier. The Spar had been the first lin and his men all perished, and it would Coast Guard vessel to leave its homeport, and have been interesting if we could have spent therefore the first to return. That made it the more time there looking around.” first American vessel to circumnavigate the Lt. Cowing returned to Spar to write his continent. Kubeck had a special reason to feel own special entry into the cutter’s logbook. a personal sense of triumph. “Coming into They had charted and pioneered a new route port, my mooring position was up near the for deep-draft naval vessels through the bow at the anchor windlass. So I claim that, Arctic, and in the process made Coast Guard unofficially, I was the first American to cir- history. Once on the eastern side of the strait, cumnavigate the North American continent!” 19 Labrador released the Coast Guard convoy But for other sailors, the meaning of the 20 expedition did not sink in for many years. accomplished up there.” he kept a journal of the expedition. “The over the years.” Even though the Storis was greeted in Bramble moored back in Miami on Oct. 1, significance of events is generally learned by The Northwest Passage has been accom- by the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, and when Storis completed her transit of the people on reflection, after study, and only plished 11 times by American vessels, and Capt. Wood was awarded the Coast Guard Panama Canal Zone and returned to Seattle the very few observant people who are 10 of these voyages were carried out by U.S. Commendation Medal, and a specially- later that same month, one of the Coast especially aware of the events of the day can Coast Guard vessels, the only American naval commissioned bronze plaque was bolted onto Guard’s most complex and daring expeditions appreciate what is going on. Most of us have vessels to do so. Storis, Bramble and Spar the vessel to commemorate the expedition, came to a quietly successful conclusion. to wait awhile, mature and learn a little bit were the first of these 10 Coast Guard cutters the magnitude of the achievement was not “Being on an operation of that significance more. Certainly a young ensign or j.g., mar- to make the journey through the passage, immediately clear. “We were never really told is very much like going through daily life ried six months to a year, could not by any establishing a tradition that was followed by how significant the expedition was,” remem- without being aware that you are living stretch of the imagination appreciate the the Coast Guard cutters Staten Island (1969), bered Loback. “It was about 40 years later through historic times,” said Rybacki, now significance of this long trip we were on. But Polar Sea (1985, 1990), Polar (1988, that I really understood what it was we had a retired rear admiral, as he reflected on why I certainly grew to appreciate its significance 1989) and Healy (2000, 2003). time, his wardroom hosted a group of actors served in the Office of the Captain of the Port — including Walter Brennan in the role of in Boston, and then earned a commission at Chief Petty Officer O’Malley — during the the Fort McHenry Training Station in production of the 1954 film “Sea of Lost , Md. Through the remainder of the Chapter 7 Ships.” After a tour with the oceanographic war, he served at Captain of the Port offices in unit at headquarters (during which he repre- New York and . sented the Coast Guard at an oceanographic After a post-war tour as executive officer The Skippers working group meeting at the Oceanographic on the patrol cutter Daphne out of Alameda, Institute at Göteborg, ), Carter was Calif., Cowing served in Antwerp, , “The wonder is always new that any sane man tapped in April 1957, to command the cutter under the senior merchant marine detail Bramble during its Arctic mission with the officer supervising the handling and stowage can be a sailor.” U.S. Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Ser- of explosives. Cowing returned to the United vice. Leaving the service in the early 1960s, States and between September 1946 and -Ralph Waldo Emerson Cmdr. Carter worked as an oceanographer for 1953 served as officer-in-charge of ments included chief of operations and chief the Institute of Johns Hop- stations in Massachusetts and of staff for the 13th District. Upon retiring kins University before moving on to the State California. After a collision between the USNS University of New York at Stony Brook, where Benevolence and the SS Mary Luchenbach Cmdr. Harold L. Wood, from the service, Wood worked as an engineer for Todd in Seattle. he retired in 1985. four miles west of Golden Gate Bridge in Au- gust 1950, Cowing received a commendation USCGC Storis Born and raised in Trenton, N.J., Harold for supervising the rescue of 179 survivors Lambert Wood graduated from the U.S. Coast from the Benevolence. After brief tours in Alaska on board the Guard Academy in New , Conn., and Lt. Cmdr. Harry H. Carter, Lt. Charles V. Cowing, was commissioned an ensign, on , tenders Bittersweet and Sedge, Cowing took command of the patrol cutter General Greene 1936. He served on a variety of East Coast USCGC Bramble USCGC Spar cutters and reached the temporary rank of in Gloucester, Mass., in April 1954. Two and commander during the Second World War (he Born in Nebraska in 1921, Harry Hart Charles Vinal Cowing was born in a half years later, after being promoted to achieved it permanently on April 15, 1949). Carter graduated from high school in Wiscon- in 1915, and entered the Coast Guard as an lieutenant, Cowing took command of Spar His Coast Guard experiences during the war sin and attended the University of enlisted surfman boatswain’s mate in 1936. in 1956. The following summer, prepared him well for the 1957 Northwest before graduating from the U.S. Coast Guard Prior to the Second World War, he served at Charles Cowing became the first commander Passage expedition. From July 1940, until Academy and earning a commission as ensign lifeboat stations in both Maine and Massa- of an American ship to circumnavigate the April 1943, he was assigned as assistant to in 1943. After serving in the North Atlan- chusetts. From 1941 through 1943, Cowing North American continent. the chief inspector during the construction of tic on convoy escort duty with the cutter the Storis in Toledo, Ohio. After the commis- Argo and attending radar school at Harvard sioning of Storis, Wood served as engineering University, Carter served on board the Coast officer on Storis as the icebreaker entered Guard-manned troop transport USS General service on the Greenland Patrol. For a year George M. Randall (AP-115) in the Pacific. and a half, Wood served as engineering officer After the war, Carter specialized in ocean- on board the Coast Guard-manned attack ography, meteorology and geophysics on USS (AKA-16) during a board the cutter Tampa during International series of assault landings in the Pacific in the Ice Patrol cruises. He then reported to the Kwajalein islands, , , and at Leyte Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, in the Philippines. Calif., where he studied for two years. Carter After the war, Wood served as engineering returned to the Grand Banks of Newfound- officer on the cutter Wachusett out of Seattle, land to study ice from the decks of the Coast then as executive officer on the cutter Duane Guard’s oceanographic cutter Evergreen, out of Boston. After a headquarters tour, served with the service’s oceanographic unit Wood took command of Storis in Juneau, in Woods Hole, Mass., and completed a geo- Alaska, in June 1955, and participated for physics course at the University of California three consecutive summers in the massive at . He attained the rank of lift of construction and supply materials that lieutenant commander on Aug. 26, 1952. The four commanding officers of the vessels that comprised the convoy through Bellot summer for the Distant Early Warning Line Carter then served tours as executive Strait, on Sept. 6, 1957, meet on the deck of the Canadian icebreaker HMCS Labrador prior radar stations in the Arctic. officer and commanding officer of the patrol to their historic transit. From left to right: Cmdr. Harold L. Wood, Capt. Thomas C. Pullen, 23 Some of Wood’s other Coast Guard assign- cutter Minnetonka in the Pacific. During this Lt. Charles V. Cowing, and Lt. Cmdr. Harry H. Carter. copied the most famous ice-ship in history, logistic support for scattered Coast Guard the Norwegian polar exploration vessel , transmitter stations and lighthouses and was designed to enable the ship to rise alike. Storis returned to Juneau in mid-fall to up and avoid destruction when squeezed by take up winter search-and-rescue work. Chapter 8 ice. At the time of the 1957 expedition, Storis Storis joined the U.S. Navy’s Military Sea carried a dozen officers and more than one Transportation Service during its summer hundred sailors. operations in 1955 and for several summers The Cutters Storis was first assigned to guard wartime thereafter participated in the re-supply of convoys steaming from Newfoundland to Distant Early Warning Line sites in the far “Land was created to provide a place Greenland. During the summer months of the north. At the same time, with USS Requi- Second World War, Storis patrolled the east site, Storis formed part of a unit that in 1955 for boats to visit.” coast of Greenland in search-and-destroy began the first hydrographic surveys in the missions for weather stations established by central Canadian Arctic. The 1957 expedition -Brooks Atkinson the Germans. To extend its range, the ice- with Bramble, Spar and HMCS Labrador was carrier, gun boat and for both breaker carried a seaplane on its deck. a continuation and expansion of the sounding seaplanes and helicopters. In 1948, Storis was transferred to the West tracks begun by Storis and Requisite in 1955 Storis:USCGC A Danish Storis word meaning ‘large ice,’ Storis was designed and constructed early Coast, where Juneau, Alaska, became its and 1956. referring to old pack ice that forms in the in the Second World War as a replacement homeport. During the short summer months, After the Northwest Passage Expedition, Arctic basin and drifts southward along the for the temporary fleet of small, hastily- Storis took up a long tradition of Coast Guard Storis returned to Alaska where she was east coast of Greenland. converted fishing trawlers that had carried vessels serving on the Bering . stationed in Kodiak and used for search-and- As a Coast Guard public affairs bulletin supplies from Boston to bases in Greenland Carrying on board a federal judge, a doc- rescue and fisheries law enforcement patrols. stated at the time of the Northwest Passage in 1942 and 1943. At 230 feet long, Storis tor and a dentist, the cutter became a float- In 1986, the cutter’s buoy deck was shortened Expedition, there is literally no ship like the was more than 100 feet longer than the small ing courthouse and clinic. While providing to provide more space in the interior of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis. A prototype Arctic trawlers it replaced, 43 feet wide and healthcare and judicial services to the isolat- ship. Even after Spar was sunk off the coast pocket icebreaker, Storis served not only in with a draft of 15 feet. Built by Toledo Ship- ed villages of the Aleutian Islands and as far of North Carolina to become an artificial reef that capacity but also as a buoy tender, cargo building in Ohio in 1942, Storis’ rounded hull north as Point Barrow, Storis also provided and Bramble became a museum in Michigan, Storis continued patrolling Alaska waters. Company. In 2005, the Coast Guard Bramble was built by Zenith and launched announced that Storis would be decommis- on Oct. 23, 1943, and commissioned by the sioned in early 2007. At the time, Vice Adm. Coast Guard on April 22, 1944. Bramble was Harvey Johnson, then commander of the briefly stationed in Cleveland, before under- Coast Guard’s Pacific Area, called Storis “a taking aids-to-navigation work at her first gallant workhouse for the Coast Guard since permanent duty station in San Pedro, Calif. World War II [that] has earned an honored On , 1945, Bramble was transferred place in Coast Guard history.” Thus ended a to Juneau, Alaska, where she hauled sup- long career of maritime service to America 65 plies and serviced aids to navigation. After years after it began, and half a century after the war, Bramble was stationed first in San the cutter made history in the Northwest Francisco and in the summer of 1946 trans- Passage. ferred to Honolulu, where she steamed for the in support of Opera- tion Crossroads, the atmospheric testing of Bramble: USCGC A thorny Bramble plant of the genus rubus nuclear weapons. in the rose family. Brambles include blackber- Bramble returned to San Francisco in the ries, loganberries and other closely related summer of 1947, and was reassigned to San plants. Juan, , in 1949, where she In 1939, when the Bureau of Lighthouses engaged in several search-and-rescue opera- became part of the U.S. Coast Guard, it tions in addition to her regular aids-to-naviga- brought with it a requirement for a new and tion duties. After four years in Puerto Rico, standardized vessel for multiple missions in Bramble headed for Florida, where on July the coastal environment. This need for a 1, 1953, she berthed in her new homeport flexible work platform with a large open deck of Miami Beach. It was from this port, with plan for servicing aids to navigation, conduct- a complement of six officers and 54 enlisted ing search-and-rescue and law enforcement men that Bramble steamed to join Spar on the missions, and breaking harbor ice in the first leg of the circumnavigation of the conti- winter, led to the design of the 180-foot buoy nent and the Northwest Passage Expedition tender. on May 26, 1957. Between 1941 and 1943, 39 of these steel- Five years after the expedition, Bramble hulled vessels were built, and all were named was transferred to to perform search- after trees, shrubs and flowers. With a fuel and-rescue, icebreaking, law enforcement and capacity of 30,000 gallons of diesel, the new aids-to-navigation work throughout the Great tenders could steam for 12,000 miles at their Lakes. After 1975, the Bramble operated out cruising speed of 12 knots. Lowered to 8.3 of Port Huron and served in Erie, Lake knots, this range increased to 17,000 miles. Huron and . As she had during A reinforced bow and ice-strengthened water- the Northwest Passage expedition, Bramble’s line gave the 180s icebreaking capability; a ability to break ice allowed her to escort heavy-lift crane allowed salvage operations in ships through ice and assist ships in distress. addition to aids-to-navigation work; and deck Among the many awards the cutter received guns and depth charge racks enabled military during her career were the Department of operations. Transportation Gold Medal, Coast Guard Unit The vessels initially used the U.S. Navy Commendation, Coast Guard Meritorious designation of WAGL, which stood for “auxilia- Unit Commendation, Coast Guard “E” Ribbon, ry vessel, lighthouse tender.” Later, in 1965, Coast Guard Bicentennial Unit Commenda- the designation was changed to WLB, “seago- tion, American Campaign Medal, World War ing buoy tender.” Both Bramble and Spar II Victory Ribbon, National Defense Service were both from the third and last class — the Medal and the Coast Guard Arctic Service Iris class — of 180s, and possessed 20 percent Medal. more engine power than the original Cactus Decommissioned in 2003, Bramble is now class. All but one of the 39 180s were built an integral part of the Port Huron museum, in Duluth, Minn., by either the Zenith Dredge which also includes the lightship Huron and 27 Company or the Marine Iron and the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse. topography and logged more than 17,000 miles while visiting in Iceland, , Spar: USCGC An acronym Spar symbolizing the Coast , and . In April Guard women’s corps readiness to contribute 1967, Spar changed homeports to Boston, to the war effort. It stands for “Semper Para- Mass., and then again, in March 1973, to Bibliography tus - Always Ready,” the Coast Guard motto. Portland, Maine. From there, Spar worked Amundsen, Roald. 1908. The North-West Passage: Being the Record of a Voyage of Spar was built at the Marine Iron and Ship- to keep hundreds of aids to navigation on Exploration of the Ship Gjøa, 1903-1907: Volumes 1 and 2. London: Constable. building Company in Duluth, Minn.; launched station amid the shoal waters and on Nov. 2, 1943; and named in honor of the unpredictable weather of hundreds of Anonymous. 1957. “Passage in the Ice.” Newsweek Magazine, July 15, 1957. 11,000 women who served in the U.S. Coast uninhabited islands. Spar assisted in the Guard during World War II. The Coast Guard massive oil spill cleanup operations after the Canney, Donald L. “Icebreakers and the U.S. Coast Guard.” http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g- commissioned Spar on June 12, 1944. That Argo Merchant ran aground off Cape cp/history/icebreakers.html (July 2006). summer, the cutter reported to her first in 1976. In the winters, like Bramble on homeport of Boston, before relocating to the , she carried out icebreaking Carter, Harry H. 2006. “Oral History Interview, 18 July 2006.” U.S. Coast Guard Woods Hole, Mass., on Dec. 1, 1946. After operations in the Cape Cod Canal and Buz- Historians Office. five years on Cape Cod, Spar was relocated to zard’s Bay. Bristol, R.I. It was from Bristol that Spar de- Spar was decommissioned on Feb. 28, 1997. Delgado, James P. 1999. Across the Top of the World: The for the Northwest parted, with six officers and 54 enlisted men, Two days short of her 60th birthday, in 2004, Passage. New York: Checkmark Books. for the Northwest Passage expedition on May the North Carolina State Division of Marine 19, 1957. Fisheries sank Spar 20 miles offshore from Headland, Robert K. 2005. “Transits of the Northwest Passage.” Unpublished manu- After the Northwest Passage expedition, Morehead City as an artificial reef. A new script. Spar went on to cross the Atlantic in 1966 Spar, a 225-ft seagoing buoy tender based in and return to the Arctic. Off the coast of Alaska, was commissioned in 2001 under the Kubeck, Ron. 2006. “Oral History Interview, 17 July 2006.” U.S. Coast Guard Histori- Svalbard, Norway, Spar surveyed ocean command of Lt. Cmdr. Joanna Nunan. an’s Office.

La Fay, Howard. 1958. “DEW Line, Sentry of the .” Magazine CXIV: 1.

Loback, Jim. 2006. “Oral History Interview, 17 July 2006.” U.S. Coast Guard Histori- an’s Office.

Novak, Theodore. 2005. Life and Death on the Greenland Patrol, 1942. Edited by P.J. Capelotti. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.

Rybacki, Richard. 2006. “Oral History Interview, 17 July 2006.” U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office.

U.S. Coast Guard Historian’s Office. Northwest Passage files.

U.S. Department of the Interior. 2003. U.S. Coast Guard 180-foot Buoy Tenders. Wash- ington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior.

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