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N7KTP > NAVNET 08.09.04 05:01l 106 Lines 6377 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 21375_N7FSP
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Subj: USS GLACIER (AGB-4)
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0RGB<DB0AAB<DB0FSG<I4UKI<IK2YHJ<IK2QCA<IK1YPH<TK5KP<
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Sent: 040907/1906z @:N7FSP.#SEA.#WWA.WA.USA.NOAM West Seattle, WA. on 145.010
Icebreaker USS Glacier plowed the ice packs for science
By FRED MILES WATSON - Managing Editor - Northwest Navigator
The fourth ship to be named Glacier, was an icebreaker built by
Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp., of Pascagoula, Miss. The lead ship of its
class, Glacier was commissioned by d1e Navy on May 27, 1955, with Cmdr.
E. H. Mater as her first commanding officer.
Displacing 8,650-tons, Glacier was 310 feet in length and carried
a draft of 29 feet. About 16 knots was her top speed and she was
outfitted with two helicopters and armed with one, twin 5-inch
.38 Ca1iber gunmount and three, twin 3-inch .50 Caliber gunmounts. Her
propulsion came from two Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines and two
Westinghouse electric propulsion motors. A total of 339 Sailors were
assigned in Glacier. Her shakedown cruise and maiden voyage were
combined as she participated in Operation "Deep Freeze". Her first
encounter with the ice came on December 1955, when after breaking
through the Ross Ice Pack, she carved out an ice harbor in Kainan Bay
to permit the offloading of cargo ships at the site for Little America
V.
Glacier subsequently continued 400 miles west to break ice into an
oflloading site for the establishment of the Naval Air Facility at
McMurdo Sound. In March 1956 an exploratory voyage around the Weddel
Sea was completed; the icebreaker surveyed Vincennes Bay in Wilkes Land
and made the first landing in history on the Princess Martha and
Princess Astrid coasts. Glacier then set a course on May 6, 1956 for
her homeport of Boston.
After a brief respite, she returned to McMurdo Sound Oct 28, 1956
the lead for Deep Freeze II, having made the earliest seasonal
penetration in history through the dangerous ice pack. After delivering
supplies at McMurdo and at Little America, she led seven other Navy
ships from New Zealand through the ice pack to the two Antarctic base
sites. In January 1957 she led two cargo ships into Vincennes Bay where
the last of the seven American bases for the International Geophysical
Year was to be constructed.
Glacier departed Wilkes Station Feb.17 for the United States via
Melbourne at the completion of the operation. During Deep Freeze III
and the IGY of 1957-58, Glacier participated as a launching platform
for extensive "rockoon" tests during which balloon-lifted rockets
gained information useful to the "Explorer" space satellite program. In
addition, the icebreaker continued her usual ice clearing and escort
duties and conducted oceanographic studies in the Ross Sea.
The summer of 1958 found Glacier at the opposite end of the earth
as she escorted ships participating in Operation Sunec for the resupply
of North Polar radar and wead1er stations. By November of that year,
however, she was again near the South Pole at McMurdo Sound, and after
supplying the base steamed to Little America V to begin deactivation of
that station. Subsequently, while operating in the Terra Nova Bay on
the coast of Victoria Land, she discovered two previously unknown
islands and what was possibly the largest Emperor penguin rookery in
the Antarctic, home of over 50,000 of thhe large birds. Glacier came to
the assistance of the Belgian expedition ship Polarhav near Breid Bay,
halfway around the Antarctic continent from the Ross Sea area.
The fifth of the Navy's Antarctic support operations, Deep Freeze
60 (for the season 1959-60) took the ship once more to McMurdo and on a
tour of exploration into the Bellingshausen Sea. Oceanographic and
cartographic studies were discontinued in late February 1960 when
Glacier steamed to assist Argentine icebreaker General San Martin and
Danish cargo ship Kista Dan. With these missions accomplished, Glacier
sailed for Boston via Rio de Janeiro, and while at that port provided
emergency assistance to flooded areas in Brazil. She finally sailed for
Boston April 17, 1960.
The icebreaker departed Boston Oct 13, 1960 on her sixth Antarctic
voyage and reached Port Lytteiton, New Zealand on Nov. 21 to unload
cargo. Most of December was spent in breaking a 21-mile channel through
McMurdo Sound to open the way for thee thin-hulled supply ships.
Following a return voyage to Wellington for repairs and to receive the
Navy Unit Commendation for her Bellingshausen achievement of the
previous expedition, she again entered the ice-chocked Amundsen and
Bellingshausen Seas on a voyage of exploration and discovery.
Oceanographic work continued until March 1961 when she sailed for
Boston, arriving April 27.
Underway again Oct 8, 1961 for Deep Freeze 62, she loaded cargo at
Port Lyttelton in early November and encountered the Ross Sea ice pack
by Nov. 13, and reached McMurdo Sound by the end of the month. After
repairs at Wellington Glacier she returned to McMurdo and pressed on to
the site of Little America V for cartographic studies. She returned to
New Zealand March 6, 1962. After racking up 36,000 nautical miles,
Glacier arrived back at Boston on May 5.
The busy ship stood out of Boston Sept 17, for Deep Freeze 63,
entering the ice on Nov. 6 and reaching the edge of the fast bay ice of
McMurdo Sound a week later. The thickness of the ice necessitated
repairs at Wellington, by Dec. 31, 1962, Glacier was again churning
through McMurdo Sound enroute to McMurdo Station. She continued
operations off McMurdo Station through 1965. One of her many duties was
to keep the channel open for supply ships.
On Dec. 29, 1965 Atka (AGB-3) and Burton Island (AGB-1) assisted
her in pushing an iceberg out of d1e shipping lane. After further
participation in her 11th Operation "Deep Freeze," Glacier returned to
Boston in late spring of 1966.
On July 1, 1966 Glacier was struck from the Navy List after being
transferred to the Coast Guard on June 30 and recommissioned as USCGC
Glacier (WAGB-4). Her duties as a Coast Guard vessel lasted until July
7, 1987 when she was decommissioned and transferred to the Maritime
Administration where she was laid up in the National Defense Reserve
Fleet, Suisun Bay, Benecia, Calif She was proposed to serve as a museum
ship at Bridgeport, Conn.
USS Glacier (AGB-4) was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation,
National Defense Service Medal and Antarctic Service Medal for her
service to the Navy.
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