Coast Guard Heritage
Fleet to Escort Training Square-Rigger Eagle
Two World War II era Coast Guard
boats with Puget Sound historical connections and another from the
Vietnam War era will escort the square-rigged sail training vessel
Eagle into Seattle’s Elliott Bay on July 1 (Tuesday). Known
as “America’s Tall Ship,” the Eagle is scheduled to make a
one day stopover in Seattle on its way to participate in the Tall Ships
Tacoma 2008 event July 3 – 7. It has been three decades since the
almost 300-foot-long sailing vessel has visited Puget Sound.
The Eagle will be
welcomed to Seattle by a three boat Coast Guard Heritage Fleet which
spans more than a half century of Coast Guard history from WWII to the
mid-1990’s. The Fleet consists of an 83-foot patrol boat, CG-83527,
built in 1944, a 65-foot buoy tender, Blueberry, built in
1941, and an 82-foot patrol boat built in 1962 and formerly known as the
Point Divide.
The CG-83527 was
assigned to Tacoma beginning in 1945 and provided security,
search and rescue, vessel safety inspection and navigational
aids services in south Puget Sound until decommissioned in
1962. Sold as military surplus in the mid-1960’s the retired
cutter spent more than 35 years as a live aboard yacht in
Alameda, California. In 2003 Tacoma’s former Coast Guard
patrol boat was itself rescued, purchased and |
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restored to its early 1960’s military appearance by Combatant
Craft of America (CCA). The nonprofit CCA operates the
CG-83527 in Puget Sound as part of its mission to
preserve the history of military patrol boats and honor those
veterans who served aboard these vessels in times of war and
peace. |
Joining the CG-83527 to
escort the Eagle will be the Blueberry,
a former Coast Guard buoy tender built early in WWII by the
Birchfield Boiler & Shipbuilding Co. in Tacoma. She placed
and maintained navigational aids on Pacific Northwest inland
waterways including the Columbia River during her 34-year
service career and was decommissioned in the mid-1970’s.
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The Blueberry (CG-65302)
was purchased and restored by Peter Whittier of Orcas Island and
is owned and operated currently by Mark Freeman, a longtime tug
master and owner of Fremont Boat Co. in Seattle. A Coast Guard
veteran who served at the Westport, Washington station from 1955
to 1959, he received the service’s Commendation Medal for
rescuing more than 20 crew members from a cargo ship which had
run aground on the northern Washington coast in fog and heavy
seas. |
A final historic patrol boat joining
the Coast Guard Heritage Fleet will be the Seattle Maritime
Academy’s 82-foot Maritime Instructor, formerly
the Point Divide (WPB-82337).
Built by the Coast Guard in 1962, the cutter was assigned to
Corona del Mar, California for search and rescue, law
enforcement, boating safety and environmental response duties in
southern California coastal |
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waters. Coast Guard crews also manned 82-footers in combat
patrol roles during the Vietnam War from the late 1960’s to
early 1970’s. Today as the Maritime Instructor,
the former patrol boat is part of the Seattle Community College
District’s program to train future vessel officers, engineers
and crew members. |
During the Tall Ships Tacoma event
the CG-83527 will escort the Eagle during
the Parade of Sail on July 3 (Thur.) and will be on exhibit and open for
public tours from July 4 through 6 on the Thea Foss Waterway.
For more information about the
CG-83527 and the Coast Guard Heritage Fleet go to
www.cg83527.org or call 206-947-2303 or 360-943-2858.
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