USCGC Southwind
![]() USCGC Southwind in December 1970
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History | |
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Name | USCGC Southwind |
Builder | Western Pipe and Steel Company |
Cost | $9,880,037.00 |
Yard number | CG-98 |
Laid down | 20 July 1942 |
Launched | 8 March 1943 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. Ona Jones |
Commissioned | 15 July 1944 (USCG) |
Decommissioned | 23 March 1945 (USCG) |
Identification | WAG-280 |
Fate | transferred to USSR on 25 March 1945 |
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Name | Admiral Makarov |
Namesake | Stepan Makarov |
Acquired | 25 March 1945 |
Fate | Returned to the United States, on 28 December 1949 |
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Name | USS Atka |
Namesake | Atka Island |
Acquired | 28 December 1949 |
Commissioned | 13 April 1950 |
Decommissioned | 31 October 1966 |
Identification | AGB-3 |
Fate | Transferred back to USCG, 31 October 1966 |
Stricken | 1 November 1966 |
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Name | USCGC Southwind |
Acquired | 31 October 1966 |
Recommissioned | 31 October 1966 |
Decommissioned | 31 May 1974 |
Identification |
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Nickname(s) | The Polar Prowler |
Fate | Sold for scrap on 17 March 1976 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Wind-class icebreaker |
Displacement | 6,515 tons (1945) |
Length | 269 ft (82 m) oa |
Beam | 63 ft 6 in (19.35 m) mb |
Draft | 25 ft 9 in (7.85 m) max |
Installed power |
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Propulsion | 2 × Westinghouse Electric DC electric motors driving the 2 aft propellers, 1 × 3,000 shp (2,200 kW) Westinghouse DC electric motor driving the detachable and seldom used bow propeller. |
Speed |
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Range | 32,485 nmi (60,162 km) |
Complement | 12 officers, 2 warrants, 205 men (1967) |
Sensors and processing systems |
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Armament |
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Aircraft carried | 1 Grumman J2F seaplane or 2 helicopters |
Aviation facilities | Retractable hangar |
USCGC Southwind (WAGB-280) was a Wind-class icebreaker that served in the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Southwind (WAG-280), the Soviet Navy as the Admiral Makarov, the United States Navy as USS Atka (AGB-3) and again in the U.S. Coast Guard as USCGC Southwind (WAGB-280).
Construction
Southwind was the third of the Wind class of icebreakers operated by the United States Coast Guard. Her keel was laid on 20 July 1942 at the Western Pipe and Steel Company shipyards in San Pedro, California, she was christened by Mrs. Ona Jones and launched on 8 March 1943, and commissioned on 15 July 1944.[1][2][3][4][5]
Wind-class icebreakers had hulls of unprecedented strength and structural integrity, with a relatively short length in proportion to the great power developed, a cut away forefoot, rounded bottom, and fore, aft and side heeling tanks. Diesel electric machinery was chosen for its controllability and resistance to damage.[6]
Southwind, along with the other Wind-class icebreakers, was heavily armed for an icebreaker due to her design being crafted during World War II. Her main battery consisted of two twin-mount 5-inch (127 mm) deck guns. Her anti-aircraft weaponry consisted of three quad-mounted
First U.S. Coast Guard service
On 15 July 1944, she was commissioned as USCGC Southwind (WAG-280).
After service on the Greenland Patrol, and assisting USCGC Eastwind in capturing the German weather ship Externsteine, Southwind was transferred to the Soviet Union on 23 or 25 March 1945 as part of the Lend-Lease Program.
Soviet service
The ship served in the Soviet merchant marine under the name Admiral Makarov (Russian: Адмирал Макаров, named in honor of Stepan Makarov) until being returned to the U.S. Navy on 28 December 1949 at Yokosuka, Japan.
In 1950 the ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy and rechristened as USS Atka (AGB-3), after the small
Throughout her career in the American navy, the icebreaker followed a routine established by the changing seasons. In the late spring, she would set sail for either the northern or southern
The ship often carried civilian scientists who plotted data on ocean currents and ocean water characteristics. They also assembled hydrographic data on the poorly charted polar regions. Atka was also involved in numerous tests of cold weather equipment and survival techniques.
She served in the Atlantic fleet and completed three Arctic tours.
Atka conducted a notable expeditionary cruise to
Second U.S. Coast Guard service
On 31 October 1966 she was transferred to the United States Coast Guard and christened again as USCGC Southwind (WAGB-280), changed homeport to the United States Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Baltimore, Maryland.
After a shakedown cruise to Bermuda she proceeded on its first operational cruise north to Thule, Greenland.
She deployed to the Arctic in 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973, as well as to the Antarctic in December 1967, December 1968 and January 1972. In 1968 she was involved in a diplomatic incident between Chile and Argentine about navigation rights in the Beagle channel.[9]
In September 1970, Southwind visited the port of Murmansk, being the first U.S. naval vessel to visit a Soviet port since the start of the cold war. During that visit, she took aboard a boilerplate (BP-1227) from the Apollo program. The boilerplate had been lost in the North Sea in early 1970, recovered by a Soviet fishing trawler in the Bay of Biscay, transferred to the Soviet Union, and passed to Southwind on 5 September 1970.[10][11]
From December 1972 to 31 May 1974 Southwind was stationed in Milwaukee to do icebreaking on the Great Lakes.[12]
Southwind was
References
- ISBN 0517-67963-9.
- ^ OCLC 36309625.
- ^ a b "USCGC Southwind, 1944". USCG.mil. United States Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
- ^ "Atka". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. United States Navy. Archived from the original on 3 December 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
- ^ Canney, Donald L. "Icebreakers and the U.S. Coast Guard". USCG.mil. United States Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
- ^ Harry, Stephanie (5 April 2017). "Atka (AGB-3): 1950-1966". Naval History and Heritage Command. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
- ^ Dater, Henry M. (February 1965). "Voyage of USS Atka (1954-1955)" (PDF). Bulletin of the U.S. Antarctic Projects Officer. 6 (4): 14–25. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
- OCLC 620986981. ADA163393. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 25 November 2011.)
{{cite thesis}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Wade, Mark (2002). "Soviets Recovered an Apollo Capsule!". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
- ^ "Потерянная капсула NASA найдена в Мурманске". Kolamap.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
- ISBN 0-87021-719-4.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
Media related to USCGC Southwind (WAGB-280) at Wikimedia Commons
- USCGC Southwind
- USS Atka Association
- Icebreakers: Historic Photo Gallery by the U.S. Coast Guard
- "Arctic Combat: The Capture of the German Naval Auxiliary Externsteine by the Coast Guard Icebreakers Eastwind & Southwind in Greenland, 1944" by the U.S. Coast Guard
- United States Coast Guard, Historian's Office. United States Coast Guard. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. [1] Accessed 20 DEC 2021.