2 × Westinghouse Electric DC electric motors driving the 2 aft propellers, 1 × 3,000shp (2,200kW) Westinghouse DC electric motor driving the detachable and seldom used bow propeller.
USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278) was a United States Coast GuardWind-classicebreaker. Laid down on 9 June 1942 and launched on 28 December 1942, the ship was commissioned on 26 February 1944, and almost immediately afterward transferred to the Soviet Union, under the Lend Lease program, under the name Severny Veter, which loosely translates as Northwind, until 19 December 1951. When returned to the United States Navy, she was designated USS Northwind until 15 April 1952, when she was renamed USS Staten Island to distinguish her from her successor USCGCNorthwind(WAGB-282) which had been laid down shortly after she was lent to the Soviet Union. The ship was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard as USCGC Staten Island in February 1965, and served until November 1974, before being scrapped.
Her hull was 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.[1]
Staten Island had her designed heavy armament reduced to four single 3"50cal.,[2] eight single 40mm., and two depth charge racks for Soviet service. After her return she received a single 5"38 cal. mount forward and a helicopter deck aft. In USCG service she had the forward mount removed.[6]
Service history
Soviet Union (1944–1951)
Severny Veter, (Russian: Северный Ветер or "North Wind"), was transferred to the Soviet Navy in February 1944 through the Lend-Lease program, serving in the Northern Route Command. In 1946 she was renamed Kapitan Belousov (Russian: Капитан Белоусов) after Soviet icebreaker commander Captain M.P. Belousov. Custody of Belousov was returned to the United States Navy on 19 December 1951 at Bremerhaven, Germany.
On 15 April 1952 she was renamed Staten Island to distinguish her from her successor ship USCGCNorthwind(WAGB-282), which had been laid down shortly after the ship was sent to the Soviets. Staten Island was named for the New York City borough of Staten Island. Coincidentally, the major interstate highway that runs through the borough is numbered as Interstate 278.
USS Staten Island (AGB-5) off the Palmer Peninsula, April 1963.
Overhaul was completed by 30 June 1952, and on 1 July 1952 she sailed from Boston to Grenfell Sound, Labrador, to conduct ice reconnaissance in Frobisher Bay, returning to Boston on 8 September.
Staten Island departed Boston for Resolution Island on 25 April 1953 to relieve Edisto(AGB-2), returning to Boston on 10 June. During August, Staten Island became the first U.S. Navy ship to cut through the Davis Strait from Thule to Ellesmere Island.
In the following year, 1954, Staten Island was involved in three ice breaking operations through 15 December 1954.
In 1955 her home port was changed to Seattle, Washington. Staten Island sailed for Seattle on 19 May 1955, and arrived there on 10 June 1955 for duty with Service Squadron 1. From June through September 1955, she broke ice for ships resupplying the Distant Early Warning Line radar stations, returning to Seattle on 28 September 1955.
Staten Island departed Seattle on 5 July 1956 to lead another convoy of resupply ships bound for the Distant Early Warning Line through the ice, returning to Seattle on 6 September 1956. She was then assigned to Operation Deep Freeze II and departed Seattle for Antarctica on 3 November 1956. Staten Island rendezvoused with cargo ship Wyandot(AKA-92) near the Panama Canal Zone before both continued on for Antarctica, arriving on 15 December 1956 at the Weddell Seapack ice, and then breaking through the Antarctic Circle on 20 December 1956 en route to Cape Adams. The icebreaker led Wyandot from Cape Adams to Gould Bay where Ellsworth Station was then assembled. She departed Gould Bay on 15 February 1957 to return home to Seattle, arriving there on 5 April 1957.
On 15 October 1963 while on the summer Arctic mission, the captain, Commander John Metschl, and a Navy helicopter pilot were lost at sea doing ice reconnaissance. The only remains found were one of the helicopter's pontoons floating at sea.
On 1 February 1966, Staten Island was decommissioned by the United States Navy and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1966.
United States Coast Guard (1966–1974)
She was then transferred to the United States Coast Guard, where she was redesignated USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278), and home-ported at Seattle. During the summer of 1966, the engineering plant was upgraded and modifications were made to the flight deck and hangar to allow operation of a HH-52A Seaguard Helicopter. The Coast Guard then deployed her to Antarctica as part of that season's "Operation Deep Freeze" on 22 September 1966.
Staten Island returned from her Antarctic voyage on 6 April 1967 and was then sent into the Arctic Ocean above Alaska for four months during the spring and summer of 1967 during which time she ran aground while traveling west from Prudhoe Bay and sustained minor damage. Staten Island then broke ice to assist her sister ship, Northwind(WAGB-282), twice during the 1967 fall ice season; in September 1967 Northwind lost a propeller and became locked in the ice, and she was trapped again in October–November 1967 450 nautical miles (830km) north-northwest of Point Barrow, Alaska.
On 10–11 March 1969, she attempted to assist in the salvage of the fishing vessel FV Martindale which had run aground off Akun Island. Disaster struck when her 26-foot self-bailing motor surf boat capsized while attempting to pass a towline from the fishing vessel Dauntless to the Martindale, resulting in the death of her Deck Division Chief, BMC Elias Welch. The surf boat was later salvaged using the cutter's landing craft (LCVP) and the crew of the Martindale evacuated.
Staten Island was dispatched to the Arctic Ocean on 7 July 1969 as an oceanographic research platform and escort vessel for supply operations. There she helped Storis(WMEC-38) reach open water off Point Barrow on 7 September 1969, relieved Northwind on 22 September 1969 after that vessel suffered engine trouble, and assisted the Canadian icebreaker CCGSJohn A. Macdonald in escorting the tanker SSManhattan eastward through the Northwest Passage. Staten Island arrived in New York on 9 November 1969, and departed for Seattle on 9 December 1969 by way of the Panama Canal with stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Acapulco, Mexico. Upon her arrival back in Seattle, Staten Island became the fourth United States ship to circumnavigate the North American continent, traveling over 23,000 miles (37,000km) in the process.
She departed Seattle on 6 July 1970 to conduct scientific tests and evaluation of crude oil spread rate in the Arctic Ocean. Later that summer when a large group of 20 tugboats and 40 barges bound for Prudhoe Bay with vital supplies became trapped in pack ice, Staten Island worked around the clock for 31⁄2 days to tow and push the barges to open water. She freed the fouled screw of the tugboat Active30 nautical miles (56km) southwest of Point Barrow on 14 August 1970, and returned to Seattle on 20 August 1970. Staten Island departed Seattle once more later in 1970 as part of "Operation Deep Freeze 1971".
On 28 February 1971, while en route to Mawson Station she struck an uncharted pinnacle14 nautical miles (26km) north of the station, suffering significant damage, including a punctured hull that flooded four compartments, but no crew injuries. After completing temporary repairs in Melbourne, Australia and certified seaworthy, USCGCBurton Island was ordered to escort the Staten Island home to Seattle.
In mid-March 1972, during "Operation Deep Freeze", while en route from Dunedin, New Zealand, to Suva, Fiji, Staten Island was broadsided by a rogue wave and came within 2 degrees of capsizing. While ascending the ladder to the bridge to relieve the helmsman, Seaman Cotten hailed the Officer of the Deck moments before an 80ft (24m) wall of water struck the port beam. With the bridge doors open the bridge instantly filled with water, as well as the stairwell in which Seaman Cotten was prevented from ascending. The ship listed heavily to starboard, began to shake with one propeller turning in the air, then rolled back to port causing the starboard wing to scoop up seawater, sending everyone splashing toward the overhead (again). Only one man was injured; a fireman climbing up from the engine room who twisted an ankle. In early March 1972 Staten Island became the first United States government vessel to enter the port in Dunedin.[citation needed]
During February 1973 Staten Island participated in the Bering Sea Experiment as part of her Arctic West Winter activities, 475 nautical miles (880km) north of Adak Island, with the Soviet research vesselPriboy, and several aircraft. From 7 March through 3 April 1973, she was attached to Task Unit 57.0 of the Pacific Fleet during SUBICEX 1-73. Completing her SUBICEX assignments she sailed south and while leaving the frozen sections of the Bering Sea she took heavy swells over her bow including large chunks of ice that damaged her superstructure. On 4 April 1973 her starboard main electric drive motor caught fire. With that motor out of commission her port motor remained in service as she limped into Kodiak, Alaska and finally onto Seattle arriving 12 April 1973. Staten Island was drydocked for repairs the remainder of that summer.
Staten Island departed Seattle 31 October 1973 for San Diego where her crew received refresher training between 5 and 16 November 1973, at which time she departed to escort ships in "Operation Deep Freeze 1974". Staten Island helped rescue the USNS Maumee when her rudder became damaged in the heavy ice at McMurdo. The Staten Island crew freed the rudder from its jammed position at 90 degrees and fixed the rudder with a rudimentary manual steering gear allowing USNS Maumee to make her way to New Zealand for repairs. Staten Island returned from Antarctica to Seattle via stops in Chile, Peru, and Mexico during April 1974. In August and September 1974 Staten Island conducted her final deployment. Her crew completed the Arctic West Summer activities, thereby capping a 30-year ice breaking career in the polar regions of the world.
Staten Island was decommissioned on 15 November 1974,[7] and sold for scrap.
USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) is the United States' largest and most technologically advanced icebreaker as well as the US Coast Guard's largest vessel. She is classified as a medium icebreaker by the Coast Guard. She is homeported in Seattle, Washington, and was commissioned in 1999. On 6 September 2001 Healy visited the North Pole for the first time. The second visit occurred on 12 September 2005. On 5 September 2015, Healy became the first unaccompanied United States surface vessel to reach the North Pole, and Healy's fourth Pole visit happened on 30 September 2022.
USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10) is a United States Coast Guard heavy icebreaker. Commissioned in 1976, the ship was built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company of Seattle, Washington along with sister ship, USCGC Polar Sea.
USCGC Polar Sea (WAGB-11) is a United States Coast Guard heavy icebreaker. Commissioned on 23 February 1977, the ship was built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company of Seattle along with her sister ship, Polar Star (WAGB-10). Her home port is Seattle, Washington.
Polar-class icebreakersUSCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10), USCGC Polar Sea (WAGB-11) are heavy icebreakers operated by the United States Coast Guard (USCG). These cutters, specifically designed for icebreaking, have reinforced hulls, special icebreaking bows, and a system that allows rapid shifting of ballast to increase the effectiveness of their icebreaking. The vessels conduct Arctic and Antarctic research and are the primary icebreakers that clear the channel into McMurdo Station for supply ships. All are homeported in Seattle, Washington.
USCGC Storis (WAGL-38/WAG-38/WAGB-38/WMEC-38) was a light icebreaker and medium endurance cutter which served in the United States Coast Guard for 64 years and 5 months, making her the oldest vessel in commission with the Coast Guard fleet at the time of her decommissioning.
USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-83) is a decommissioned United States Coast Guard icebreaker which operated on the Great Lakes for 62 years. A state-of-the-art icebreaker when she was launched in 1944, Mackinaw was built to extend the shipping season on the Great Lakes into the winter months and thereby strengthen the wartime economy of the United States during World War II. Unlike the U.S. Coast Guard's large icebreakers before and since, Mackinaw was designed specifically for use in the shallow, freshwater Great Lakes.
CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent is a Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) heavy icebreaker. Louis S. St-Laurent's home port is St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. She is the largest icebreaker and flagship of the CCG.
USS Edisto (AGB-2) was a Wind-class icebreaker in the service of the United States Navy and was later transferred to the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Edisto (WAGB-284). She was named after Edisto Island, South Carolina. The island is named after the Native American Edisto Band who inhabited the island and the surrounding area. As of 2011 there is a namesake cutter USCGC Edisto (WPB-1313). The newer Edisto is a 110-foot Island-class patrol boat and is stationed in San Diego County, California.
USS Glacier (AGB-4) was a U.S. Navy, then U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker which served in the first through fifteenth Operation Deep Freeze expeditions. Glacier was the first icebreaker to make her way through the frozen Bellingshausen Sea, and most of the topography in the area is named for her crew members. When built, Glacier had the largest capacity single armature DC motors ever installed on a ship. Glacier was capable of breaking ice up to 20 feet (6.1 m) thick, and of continuous breaking of 4-foot (1.2 m) thick ice at 3 knots.
USCGC Northwind (WAG/WAGB-282) was a Wind-class icebreaker, the second United States Coast Guard Cutter of her class to bear the name. She was built to replace USCGC Staten Island which was in Soviet lend-lease service.
USS Burton Island (AG-88) was a United States Navy Wind-class icebreaker that was later recommissioned in the United States Coast Guard as the USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283). She was named after an island near the coast of Delaware.
The Wind-class icebreakers were a line of diesel electric-powered icebreakers in service with the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and Soviet Navy from 1944 through the late 1970s. They were very effective ships: all except Eastwind served at least thirty years, and Northwind served in the USCG continuously for forty-four years. Considered the most technologically advanced icebreakers in the world when first built, the Wind-class icebreakers were also heavily armed; the first operator of the class was the United States Coast Guard, which used the vessels for much-needed coastal patrol off Greenland during World War II. Three of the vessels of the class, Westwind, Southwind, and the first Northwind all went on to serve temporarily for the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program, while two others were built for the United States Navy and another was built for the Royal Canadian Navy; all eight vessels were eventually transferred to the United States Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard.
USS Arneb (AKA-56/LKA-56) was an Andromeda-class attack cargo ship named after Arneb, the brightest star in the southern constellation Lepus. She served as a commissioned ship for 27 years and 3 months, the longest time in commission of any AKA.
USCGC Eastwind (WAGB-279) was a Wind-class icebreaker that was built for the United States Coast Guard. Completed in time to see action in World War II, she continued in USCG service under the same name until decommissioned in 1968.
USCGC Westwind (WAGB-281) was a Wind-class icebreaker that served in the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Westwind (WAG-281), the Soviet Navy as the Severni Polius, and again in the U.S. Coast Guard as USCGC Westwind (WAGB-281).
CCGS John A. Macdonald was a Canadian Coast Guard heavy icebreaker. She was named after The Right Honourable, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada. The ship was commissioned into the Canadian Department of Transport's Marine Service in 1960 using the prefix "Canadian Government Ship" (CGS). The vessel was transferred in 1962 into the newly created Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) and served with distinction until being decommissioned in 1991, and replaced by the then-chartered CCGS Terry Fox.
USS Whitewood (YN-84/AN-63/AG-129), a wooden-hulled Ailanthus-class net laying ship of the United States Navy was laid down on 24 October 1942 at Rockland, Maine, by the Snow Shipyard, Inc.; named Whitewood on 5 July 1943; re-classified a net laying ship, AN-63, on 1 January 1944; launched on 21 April 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Eben Kenney; and commissioned on 17 July 1944.
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).
Charles Ward "Tommy" Thomas was a flag officer in the United States Coast Guard and commanding officer of the icebreakers USCGC Northland (WPG-49) and USCGC Eastwind (WAGB-279) that served in the Greenland Patrol during World War II. In August 1945 he was appointed commander of Greenland Patrol. After the war he was commanding officer of USCGC Northwind (WAGB-282) during Operation Highjump; The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Project 1946–1947, also known as the Fourth Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Later followed expeditions in the Bering Sea.
1 2 "USCG Icebreakers". U.S. Coast Guard Cutter History. United States Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
↑ Silverstone, Paul H (1966). U.S. Warships of World War II. Doubleday and Company. p.378.
↑ "Staten Island, 1965 (WAGB 278)". U.S. Coast Guard Cutter History. United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
↑ "USN Staten Island". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. United States Navy. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
1 2 "NavSource Staten Island". Service Ship Photo Archive. NavSource Naval History. Archived from the original on 10 September 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
↑ "U.S. to Retire Ship Once in Soviet Navy". Los Angeles Times. 12 November 1974. p.I-4.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
United States 
Soviet Union 
United States
