USCGC Acacia (WLB-406)
44°15′34″N 86°18′54″W / 44.259444°N 86.315000°W
USCGC Acacia in 1944
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History | |
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United States | |
Builder | Zenith Dredge Company, Duluth, Minnesota |
Cost | $927,156 |
Laid down | 16 January 1944 |
Launched | 7 April 1944 |
Commissioned | 1 September 1944 |
Decommissioned | 7 June 2006 |
Identification |
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Motto | Ace Of The Lakes |
Status | Museum ship |
General characteristics as built in 1944 | |
Class and type | Iris |
Displacement | 935 tons |
Length | 180 ft (55 m) |
Beam | 37 ft (11 m) |
Draft | 12 feet (3.7 m) |
Propulsion | 2 Cooper-Bessemer GND-8 Diesel engines |
Speed | 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph) maximum |
Range | 8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi) at 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
Complement | 6 officers, 74 enlisted men |
Armament |
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The USCGC Acacia (WAGL-406/WLB-406) is an Iris-class
Construction and characteristics
Acacia was built at the Zenith Dredge Company shipyard in Duluth, Minnesota. Her keel was laid down on January 16, 1944, she was launched on April 7, 1944, and she was commissioned on September 1, 1944. She was the second-to-last of the 39 similar 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built. Her original coast was $927,156.[1]
Her hull was constructed of welded steel plates framed with steel I-beams. As originally built, Acacia was 180 feet (55 m) long, with a beam of 37 feet (11 m), and a draft of 12 feet (3.7 m). Her displacement was 935 tons. While her overall dimensions remained the same over her career, the addition of new equipment raised her displacement to 1,025 tons by the end of her Coast Guard service.
She was designed to perform light ice-breaking. Her hull was reinforced with an "ice belt" of thicker steel around her waterline to protect it from punctures. Similarly, her bow was reinforced and shaped to ride over ice in order to crush it with the weight of the ship.[2]
Acacia had a single 5-blade propeller 8.5 feet (2.6 m) in diameter.
She had a single cargo boom which had the ability to lift 20 tons onto her buoy deck.[1]
The ship's fuel tanks had a capacity of approximately 28,875 US gallons (109,300 L). Acacia's unrefueled range was 8,000 nautical miles (15,000 km) at 13 knots, 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km) at 12 knots, and 17,000 nautical miles (31,000 km) at 8.3 knots. Her potable water tanks had a capacity of 30,499 US gallons (115,450 L). Considering dry storage capacity and other factors, her at-sea endurance was 21 days.[1]
Her wartime complement was 6 officers and 74 enlisted men. By 1964 this was reduced to 5 officers, 2 warrant officers, and 42 enlisted personnel.[1][5]
Acacia was initially armed with a
At the time of construction, Acacia was designated WAGL, an auxiliary vessel, lighthouse tender. The designation was system was changed in 1965, and she was redesignated WLB, an oceangoing buoy tender.[1]
The ship's original name was Thistle, but when it was learned that the US Army was operating
Operating history
Acacia's first home port was Detroit, Michigan. Her primary mission was maintaining aids to navigation. Much of her activity was driven by the annual advance and retreat of heavy winter ice on the Great Lakes. Buoys were brought to port in the fall to prevent them from being damaged, sunk, or set adrift by ice. Acacia was reported to have picked up about 150 buoys from the Detroit River and nearby waters in ten days in December 1948.[9] Buoys were cleaned, repaired, and repainted over the winter and redeployed by the ship in the spring.[10]
Her second mission was icebreaking, a service she performed throughout her career. One aspect of her icebreaking work was to free ships that became trapped in the ice. In January 1945, for example, the freighter James Watt with a cargo of coal for the
Acacia also participated in numerous search and rescue missions. In October 1951, the freighter George F. Rand collided with another ship in the Saint Claire River. Her hull was breached and she began to flood. Acacia was dispatched to provide assistance which included emergency pumps to control the flooding.[16] On June 1, 1956 Acacia towed the disabled freighter George Hindman from the Saint Claire River where she was blocking ship traffic.[17] The freighter Daniel J. Morrell broke up and sank in a storm on Lake Huron in November 1966. Acacia was dispatched to search for the crew and recovered the bodies of eight.[18] A happier outcome was obtained after two freighters collided at the mouth of the Saint Claire River during the night of August 26, 1971. Acacia was able to rescue 16 people from Trans Michigan.[19]
In the summer of 1958 Acacia's home port was changed to Port Huron, Michigan, where a new berth was built for her.[20] The city spent $10,667 on the dock.[21] The change in home port did not fundamentally change the ship's mission. She was responsible for 145 aids to navigation in the Port Huron area.[22] She continued to break ice in the Saint Claire River, and during several winters participated in "Operation Coal Shovel" to break ice between Toledo, Ohio and Detroit for the coal ships supplying power plants and industries in Detroit.[23][24]
In May 1975 Acacia sailed from Port Huron to the
After her refit, Acacia was assigned to
In the spring of 1979 Acacia was transferred to
For four months during the winter of 1987–1988 Acacia was temporarily assigned to patrol Caribbean waters. During one of her patrols she intercepted 88 Haitians on a 45-foot (14 meter) wooden boat attempting to reach Florida. These refugees were repatriated to Haiti. She also assisted in the arrest of two Cuban drug smugglers. She arrived back in Grand Haven in April 1988, in time to replace buoys after the spring ice break-up.[35][2]
In December 1989, Acacia responded to the grounding of USCGC Mesquite off of the
After rioting broke out in Cuba in August 1994, Fidel Castro announced that anyone who wanted to leave the country could. Thousands did so, creating a crisis of unsafe small boats and rafts intent on reaching the United States. On August 26, 1994 Acacia was ordered to the Caribbean to respond. By the time she reached the area, Operation Uphold Democracy, the United States intervention to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the presidency of Haiti, was underway. Acacia was retasked to survey and buoy the major ports that were used to support the operation including Port-au-Prince, Cap-Hatien, and Miragoane. The ship earned the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for her work in Haiti.[38] She returned to Charlevoix on November 17, 1994.[42]
Acacia was decommissioned on June 7, 2006, after 62 years of service.[2] She was the last of the 180-foot buoy tenders to be retired.
Museum
Immediately after decommissioning, Acacia was donated to the State of Illinois for the benefit of the American Academy of Industry. This nonprofit group planned to turn her into a maritime museum in Chicago. The vessel, which was delivered in full working order with only her machine guns removed, was temporarily moored at Burns Harbor in Indiana.[43][44] The plan for a Chicago-based museum was never executed because suitable moorage could not be found. Through the efforts of a common board member, the ship was transferred from the American Academy of Industry to The Society for the Preservation of the S.S. City of Milwaukee.[45] On October 16, 2009, Acacia steamed under her own power to Manistee, Michigan, where she became part of the SS City of Milwaukee National Historic Landmark museum.[46] The ship was dedicated in her new museum role on August 13, 2011.[47] Acacia is open to the public as part of the museum.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Porter, Marc. U.S. Coast Guard Buoy Tenders, 180' Class (PDF). Washington, D.C.: National Park Service.
- ^ a b c d "Acacia, 1944 (WLB-406)". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
- ^ "Acacia, 1944 (WLB 406)". United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
- ^ "Recommended Revisions to Gaseous Emission Factors From Several Classes of Off-Highway Mobile Services". nepis.epa.gov. March 1985. p. 45. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ United States Congress House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. Washington, D.C. 1964. p. 74.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Dziuban, Colonel Stanley W. (1990). Military Relations Between The United States and Canada 1939-1945 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Army. pp. 278–280.
- ^ Boswell, Randy (March 16, 2006). "Machine-guns added to U.S. Coast Guard ships". Edmonton Journal.
- ^ Proter, Marc (2002). U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Acacia (PDF). Washington, D.C.: National Park Service.
- ^ ""Operation Pickup" Clears River Of Buoys For Year". Detroit Free Press. December 26, 1948.
- ^ "Lightship Leaves Today To Officially End Lake Season". Times Herald. December 19, 1947.
- ^ "Freighter, Tug Freed By Coast Guard Cutter". Times Herald. January 27, 1945.
- ^ "As Lake Tankers, Freighters Battered Away at Heavy Ice Pack". Windsor Star. December 19, 1951.
- ^ "Ship Collide In Saginaw Bay". Times Herald. April 1, 1954.
- ^ "Hutchinson Leaves Winter Berth Here". Times Herald. April 16, 1947.
- ^ "Acacia Abandons Icebreaking For Lake Erie Duty". Times Herald. March 20, 1950.
- ^ "Stricken Ship Settles To River Bottom". Times Herald. October 18, 1951.
- ^ "Four Ships In Mishaps; Lake Traffic Slowed". Times Herald. June 1, 1956.
- ^ "Bodies Recovered". Ironwood Daily Globe. December 3, 1966.
- ^ "Ships Collide At Pt. Huron". Traverse City Record-Eagle. August 27, 1971.
- ^ "Coast Guard Will Base Cutter Here". Times Herald. July 10, 1957.
- ^ "Port Huron: Midway on the Seaway". Times Herald. May 19, 1959.
- ^ "Cutter Acacia Quits Berth To Service Saginaw Area". Times Herald. April 24, 1962.
- ^ "Acacia Will Take Part in 'Operation Coal Shovel'". Times Herald. December 29, 1962.
- ^ "Acacia On 'Operation Coal Shovel'". Times Herald. January 17, 1967.
- ^ Duffy, Mike (May 11, 1975). "Now Port Huron residents can spell Acacia, Bramble is ours". Times Herald.
- ^ Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1976: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session, on H.R. 8365 ... Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1975. p. 1266.
- ^ "Serving Our Country". Santa Maria Times. November 25, 1976.
- ^ "Room For Daddy". Green Bay Press-Gazette. September 19, 1976.
- ^ "Stuck In Ice". South Bend Tribune. January 12, 1978.
- ^ "Marinette Dedicates New Cutter". Green Bay Press-Gazette. November 18, 1979.
- ^ a b c Babcock, Lisa (June 18, 1990). "Charlevoix, officials turn out to greet newest residents". Petoskey News-Review.
- ^ "Acacia sailing off into sunrise". Green Bay Press-Gazette. March 4, 1979.
- ^ "Trout Restocking Thursday". Herald-Palladium. May 15, 1984.
- ^ Vanden Heede, John (April 5, 1984). "There's Some Good News In Area Fish Release Cuts". Herald-Palladium.
- ^ "Cutter headed for home". Battle Creek Enquirer. March 31, 1988.
- ^ "Mesquite fuel oil leaking into Lake Superior". Petoskey News-Review. December 5, 1989.
- ^ "Acacia Crew Commended". Petoskey News-Review. October 19, 1990.
- ^ a b Coast Guard Military Medals and Awards Manual (PDF). Washington, D.C.: US Coast Guard. 2016.
- ^ "Bob Davis has worked hard for his district". Petoskey News-Review. May 7, 1992.
- ^ "'Coast Guard City U.S.A.' loses its cutter Acacia to Charlevoix". South Bend Tribune. June 14, 1990.
- ^ "City fights for Coast Guard cutter". Lansing State Journal. October 7, 1992.
- ^ Dammann, Sara Gay (November 18, 1994). "Families cheer cutter's return from Haiti duty". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Johnson, Chandra (July 1, 2006). "Ship waits in Burns Harbor to become a museum moored on Chicago River". The Times.
- ^ Mullen, William (October 30, 2006). "City could land floating museum". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ Chronicle, Dawn Veltman | The Muskegon (2009-11-07). "Cutter Acacia back in Michigan; 'Ace of the Lake' to dock in Manistee next to floating museum". mlive. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
- ^ SS City of Milwaukee and USCGC Acacia museum website
- ^ USCGC Acacia Dedication Video.wmv, archived from the original on 2021-12-21, retrieved 2020-06-01
External links
- Official website
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MI-328, "U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ACACIA, Charlevoix, Charlevoix County, MI", 5 data pages