USCGC ''Bollard'' (WYTL-65614) is a cutter in the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

. ''Bollard'' is a small icebreaking harbor tug that operates in

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

and north to

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sma ...

. Her homeport is

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

. She was constructed at Western Boat, in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

in 1966 and was commissioned in February 1967. As an icebreaking tug, the ship breaks ice on the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...

in the winter to allow commercial traffic to pass. In warmer weather, ''Bollard'' serves many missions including servicing

aids to navigation Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, search and rescue and law enforcement. ''Bollard'' and her crew conduct search and rescue operations as necessary regardless of the time of year. The officer-in-charge is a chief boatswain's mate. ''Bollard'' was awarded the Coast Guard Unit Commendation for service during the period of 2 Jul 86 to 6 Jul 86. On 26 February 2015 ''Bollard'' was featured in a news story about Coast Guard ice breaking operations on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

. In January 2018 ''Bollard'' was damaged during icebreaking operations on the Connecticut River.

References

External links

USCG page on USCGC ''Bollard''
1967 ships Ships of the United States Coast Guard USCG 65' small harbor tugs Ships built by the Western Boat Building Company {{US-mil-ship-stub