USCGC ''Southwind'' (WAGB-280) was a that served in the
United States 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, mu ...
as USCGC ''Southwind'' (WAG-280), the
Soviet Navy as the ''Admiral Makarov'', the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
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 of
icebreaker
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller ...
s operated by the
United States 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, mu ...
. Her
keel
The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
was
laid on 20 July 1942 at the
Western Pipe and Steel Company shipyards in
San Pedro,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, she was christened by Mrs. Ona Jones and
launched on 8 March 1943, and
commissioned on 15 July 1944.
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.
''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 deck guns. Her anti-aircraft weaponry consisted of three quad-mounted
Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft autocannons
and six
Oerlikon 20 mm
The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models emplo ...
autocannons. She also carried six
K-gun
A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use h ...
depth charge projectors and a
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introductio ...
as anti-submarine weapons. After her return from Soviet service she had a single
5"/38 caliber gun
The Mark 12 5"/38 caliber gun was a United States dual-purpose naval gun, but also installed in single-purpose mounts on a handful of ships. The 38 caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5"/51 low ...
mount forward and a
helicopter deck
A helicopter deck (or helo deck) is a helicopter pad on the deck of a ship, usually located on the stern and always clear of obstacles that would prove hazardous to a helicopter landing. In the United States Navy, it is commonly and properly ...
aft. In 1968 the forward mount was removed.
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 in capturing the , ''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
is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
, the city has a population of 409,478, and a population density of . The total area is . Yokosuka is the 11th most populous city in the Greater Tokyo Area, and the 12th in the Kantō region.
The city ...
, Japan.
U.S. Navy service
In 1950 the ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy and rechristened as USS ''Atka'' (AGB-3), after the small
Aleutian island of
Atka. Upon arrival at her
home port of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, ''Atka'' entered the
Boston Naval Shipyard for a thorough
overhaul
Overhaul may refer to:
*The process of overhauling, see
** Maintenance, repair, and overhaul
**Refueling and overhaul (eg. nuclear-powered ships)
**Time between overhaul
* Overhaul (firefighting), the process of searching for hidden fire extensio ...
and modernization. The work was completed late in May 1951, and ''Atka'' began operations from Boston, Massachusetts in July 1951.
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
polar regions to resupply American and Canadian air bases and weather and radar stations. In early fall, she would return to Boston for upkeep and repairs. In the winter, the ship would sail various routes in the North
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
to gather weather data before returning to Boston in early spring for repairs and preparation for her annual polar expedition.
The ship often carried civilian scientists who plotted data on
ocean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours ...
s 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
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
tours.
''Atka'' conducted a notable expeditionary cruise to
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
for
Operation Deep Freeze
Operation Deep Freeze (OpDFrz or ODF) is codename for a series of United States missions to Antarctica, beginning with "Operation Deep Freeze I" in 1955–56, followed by "Operation Deep Freeze II", "Operation Deep Freeze III", and so on. (There w ...
, scouting locations for science stations in support of the
International Geophysical Year. She departed Boston on 1 December 1954, and after stops at
Rodman Naval Station Rodman may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Rodman, Iowa
* Rodman, New York, a town
** Rodman (CDP), New York, a hamlet in the town
* Rodman Mountains, California
* Rodman Reservoir, Florida
People Surname
* Alex Rodman (born 1987), Eng ...
and
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
, she sighted
Scott Island
Scott Island is a small uninhabited island of volcanic origin in the Ross Sea, Southern Ocean, northeast of Cape Adare, the northeastern extremity of Victoria Land, Antarctica. It is long north–south, and between and wide, reaching a h ...
and first ice on 12 January 1955, and encountered the
Ross Ice Barrier on 14 January, marking her arrival at the continent. ''Atka'' conducted surveys, samplings, and experiments from the
Ross Sea
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Clark Ross who ...
eastward to
Princess Martha Coast
Princess Martha Coast ( no, Kronprinsesse Märtha Kyst) is that portion of the coast of Queen Maud Land lying between 05° E and the terminus of Stancomb-Wills Glacier, at 20° W. The entire coastline is bounded by ice shelves with ice cliffs ...
until she departed the region on 19 February 1955. After stops at
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
and
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...
, ''Atka'' returned to Boston on 12 April 1955, completing her mission.
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
The United States Coast Guard Yard or just Coast Guard Yard is a United States Coast Guard operated shipyard located on Curtis Bay in northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland, just south of the Baltimore city limits. It is the largest industrial fac ...
at
Curtis Bay, Baltimore
Curtis Bay is a residential / commercial / industrial neighborhood in the southern portion of the City of Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
The neighborhood is on steep sloping heights, about four city blocks wide (west to east) and fifteen blo ...
, Maryland.
After a shakedown cruise to
Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = "Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, es ...
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
Beagle Channel (; Yahgan: ''Onašaga'') is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the extreme southern tip of South America between Chile and Argentina. The channel separates the larger main island of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego f ...
.
In September 1970, ''Southwind'' visited the port of
Murmansk
Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...
, 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
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
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.
''Southwind'' was
decommissioned on 31 May 1974, and sold for scrap on 17 March 1976 for $231,079.00 to Union Mineral & Alloy Corporation of New York.
References
*
External links
USCGC ''Southwind''USS ''Atka'' AssociationIcebreakers: Historic Photo Galleryby 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
Accessed 20 DEC 2021.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southwind (Wagb-280)
Wind-class icebreakers
Ships built in Los Angeles
1943 ships
Soviet Union–United States relations
Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the Soviet Navy
Ships transferred from the United States Navy to the United States Coast Guard