ICEBREAKER!! The End for Ex-Coast Guard Cutter GLACIER, Age 58

Update: 9/20/12 -- Talked with ESCO Marine, a Texas shipbreaker.  After a 40-day journey from the "mothball fleet" at Suisun Bay, CA to Brownsville, TX, ex-Glacier arrived at her final port on 19 June.  Breaking of the vessel began shortly thereafter and continues, quite rapidly -- until around 1 October.  From that moment -- an existence of 58 years, 34 days ceases -- for Glacier will be no more  -- except for her atoms, to be blended into valued new steel products or lying somewhere, rusting back to nature -- and in the fading particles of memory, for those to whom she meant something.  She mattered. There is always that.  And that's that.

First published: 4/18/12

SAD, BUT INEVITABLE, END FOR A FAMOUS SHIP
"And this, too, shall pass away..."

YOU CAN STILL SEE HER, if you look closely (and quickly) enough. Look down and east, from the Benicia Bridge.  She sits idled and nestled-in among the aging mothball fleet, in the row closest to you.  She's the second ship from the north, but not for much longer -- she's heading for the "shipbreakers," real soon.

Next to the other aging vessels, the 310'-long ex-Coast Guard Icebreaker, GLACIER,  seems short and fat -- but, she is "fat" for a reason.  She had to cut wide enough channels in the thick polar ice to allow other vessels to follow her to their iced-in destinations

BACKGROUND NOTE 

By the way, the Coast Guard is like our nation's "Swiss Army-knife" of the seas.  

• We all know that if there is a life (or property) to be saved, on almost any navigable, interstate water-body (such as "Katrina," rivers, lakes, oceans), regardless of weather conditions (or anything else), our Coast Guard is likely to be the one to do it.  They say "we have to go out, but we don't have to come back in."
• With the recent 2012 centennial of the  death of RMS Titanic, it's fitting to note that not a single ship has ever been lost due to iceberg collision, since that tragedy.  This is largely due to the International Ice Patrol, for which our Coast Guard has always been the driving force.  

• Oh, there's so much material for future articles -- but with this background, we shouldn't be surprised that the Coast Guard also runs all the nation's public icebreakers -- and has significant presence -- performing a multitude of other vital functions -- all over the globe.  

.  

LONG LIVE THE U.S. COAST GUARD -- 

one of the nation's VERY BEST bargains, undeniably!

WHAT A MACHINE "BIG RED" WAS!  Carrying a crew of around 200, plus a two-helicopter detachment, her 10 locomotive-sized engines and nearly 2"-thick steel hull enabled her to drive through ice, up to 2-stories thick!  The surface of the ice is at sea-level, but the thickness is measured downward from that surface.

SHE CARRIED A SUITE OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES to support 10 marine scientists and to give them access to the coldest regions of the earth -- north and south -- to do amazing science in places inaccessible by any other means.  That, and logistical support for the US-Antarctic base at McMurdo Sound.  There is even an enlisted Coast Guard specialty-field, "Marine Science Technician," to support the science teams who arrived from various universities and other institutions, to temporarily serve during her annual deployments into the cold, remote wastes of the planet.  And, oh, the great discoveries she enabled.

TO BREAK THE THICKER ICE, she used the "backing and ramming" technique.  With all engines on line, she would back down, about 1/4 mile -- then charge ahead, flank speed, smacking into the ice -- riding up on top -- stopping at the right instant (or else risk becoming stuck) -- to allow her weight, momentum, and temporary air space below the ice, to collapse the hard blue-white stuff.  Then, repeating the cycle -- non-stop -- for weeks -- under the 24-hour sun -- to cut the roughly 27 mile channel to her usual summer destination on the southern continent -- during annual "OPERATION DEEP FREEZE" deployments.  (The same technique took the scientists where the satellites said they should explore and which only a powerful icebreaker could ever hope to reach.)



SHE WAS SO SOLID that icebreaking activities were barely discernible to those inside her.  The newer Coast Guard icebreakers are far more powerful and efficient, and can do the same job in days -- and much cheaper -- so, her fate was sealed.  But for her time, she was "Big Red." (Coast Guard polar icebreakers are painted red, as opposed to the usual white, to better contrast with their typical operating environment -- the camouflage of typical "Coast Guard white" would have been inappropriate).

HER HISTORY AND FATE ARE EXCERPTED BELOW -- but there's more -- much more to this masterpiece of naval engineering.  When former crew members witness the sad, ignominious end to ships where they spent significant portions of their youth -- a grieving often takes place (sort of like losing an old friend who succeeded in keeping one alive and comfortable and entertained with adventures).  I grieve, but such is life.

A GLACIER SOCIETY formed in an effort to save the ship and convert it into a museum but, alas, the effort came to naught.

WIKIPEDIA Excerpts:

USS Glacier (AGB-4) (later USCGC Glacier (WAG/WAGB-4)) is the historic Glacier class icebreaker which served in the first through fifteenth Operation Deep Freeze expeditions. Glacier was first icebreaker to make her way through the frozen Bellingshausen Sea, and most of the topography in the area is named for her crewmembers. 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 (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph)...

... Following 29 Antarctic and 10 Arctic deployments, Glacier was decommissioned in 1987. She is currently under the control of the U.S. Maritime Administration, located in the U.S. Naval Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay, on the Sacramento River, California. 

...  On February 16, 2012 Glacier was sold for scrap for $146,726. She's scheduled to be broken up at ESCO Marine in Brownsville, Texas.  :(

[... and, as of around 1 October 2012, Glacier will be no more.]



David Nelson


Note:  Glacier's Navy and Coast Guard hull numbers were 4, once and always.  The "W" identifies it as a Coast Guard ship.  The other vessels shown are to give you added perspective on ships of her function and type.  As to sisters in her particular class of ice-breaker, I believe she was unique in all the world.






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