USCGC ''Polar Star'' (WAGB-10) is a

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

heavy

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 ...

. Commissioned in 1976, the ship was built by

Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company (a.k.a. Lockheed Shipbuilding), was a shipyard in Seattle, Washington with Yard 1 on Harbor Island and Yard 2 at what is now Jack Block Park at Seattle Terminal 5, both at the mouth of the West Wat ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

along with

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same Ship class, class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They o ...

, . Homeported in Seattle, ''Polar Star'' operates under the control of

Coast Guard Pacific Area Coast Guard Pacific Area & Defense Forces West (PACAREA) is an Area Command of the United States Coast Guard, a regional command element and force provider tasked with maritime safety, security, and stewardship throughout the Pacific. The comma ...

and coordinates her operations through the Ice Operations Section of the United States Coast Guard. After ''Polar Sea'' was deactivated in 2010, ''Polar Star'' became the US's only heavy icebreaker. The Coast Guard's only other icebreaker, , despite being classified as a "medium icebreaker", is larger than ''Polar Star'' (13,623 LT versus 16,000 LT, respectively), but needs assistance from a heavy icebreaker like ''Polar Star'' to operate in the Antarctic. Replacement ships for what is called the

Polar Security Cutter program The Polar Security Cutter Program is a program to recapitalize the United States Coast Guard, United States Coast Guard's aging fleet of icebreakers, currently consisting of the heavy icebreaker USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10), USCGC ''Polar Star'' an ...

have been ordered for a new generation of USCG icebreakers.

Design

In August 1971 the Secretary of Transportation announced awarding of a contract to

, "to build the world's most powerful icebreaker for the US Coast Guard," ''Polar Star'', the first of two Polar-class icebreakers. The ship's three shafts are turned by either a diesel-electric or gas turbine

prime mover Prime mover may refer to: Philosophy *Unmoved mover, a concept in Aristotle's writings Engineering * Prime mover (engine or motor), a machine that converts various other forms of energy (chemical, electrical, fluid pressure/flow, etc.) into ener ...

. Each shaft is connected to a diameter, four-bladed, controllable-pitch

propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...

. The diesel-electric plant can produce , and the gas turbine plant a total of . ''Polar Star''s shell plating and associated internal support structure are fabricated from steel that has especially good low-temperature strength. The portion of the hull designed to break ice is thick in the

bow BOW as an acronym may refer to: * Bag of waters, amniotic sac * Bartow Municipal Airport (IATA:BOW), a public use airport near Bartow, Florida, United States * Basic operating weight of an aircraft * BOW counties, made of Brown, Outagamie, and Winn ...

and

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

sections, and thick amidships. The curved bow allows ''Polar Star'' to ride up on the ice, using the ship's weight to break the ice. The 13,000-ton (13,200-metric ton) ''Polar Star'' is able to break through ice up to thick by backing and ramming, and can steam continuously through of ice at . Later upgrades allowed it to serve as a scientific research platform with five laboratories, additional space for seven portable laboratories on deck and accommodations for up to 35 scientists.

Operational history

In May and early June 1976 ''Polar Star'' conducted ice trials in the Arctic regions during Arctic West Summer (AWS76) operations. The starboard controllable pitch propeller failed, followed up shortly by the same type of failure on the port propeller. Removal of the wing propellers and opening of the hubs revealed massive failures of the links, link bearings, and drive pins. While the centerline propeller functioned satisfactorily, it too displayed evidence of incipient failure of the link bearings. Propeller issues continued through 1977-1988, leading Coast Guard to invoke the warranty clause of the

''Polar Star'' has supported

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

and

United States Antarctic Program The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has a presence in the ...

objectives in the

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

, breaking a channel through the

fast ice Fast ice (also called ''land-fast ice'', ''landfast ice'', and ''shore-fast ice'') is sea ice or lake ice that is "fastened" to the coastline, to the sea floor along shoals, or to grounded icebergs.Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. B ...

to resupply the

McMurdo Station McMurdo Station is an American Antarctic research station on the southern tip of Ross Island. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program (USAP), a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is ...

in 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 ...

and the close quarter ice escorts of

Military Sealift Command The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all U ...

resupply ships through the channel in support of

Operation Deep Freeze Operation Deep Freeze is the code name 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 was an init ...

, which deliver food, fuel, and other goods to the station annually. ''Polar Star'' is the only ship in the United States' fleet capable of breaking the fast ice in

McMurdo Sound The McMurdo Sound is a sound in Antarctica, known as the southernmost passable body of water in the world, located approximately from the South Pole. Captain James Clark Ross discovered the sound in February 1841 and named it after Lieutenant ...

. ''Polar Star'' also delivered inspectors from the U. S. Antarctic Inspection team to foreign outposts for the purpose of Antarctic Treaty Inspections.

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

deployments occur regularly, including the annual resupply of

Thule Air Base Pituffik Space Base ( ; ; ), formerly Thule Air Base (), is a United States Space Force base located on the northwest coast of Greenland in the Kingdom of Denmark under a defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. 150 United Stat ...

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

, as well as science and power projection based operations referred to as Arctic East Summer (AES), Arctic West Summer (AWS), and Arctic West Winter (AWW). In the 1997–1998 season, the ship supported the

New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme The New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme (NZARP) was a research programme that operated a permanent research facility in Antarctica from 1959 to 1996. It was created by the Geophysics Division of New Zealand's Department of Scientific and Indu ...

. In February 1998 ''Polar Star'' received a report from the ''Greewave'' that they were disabled and adrift off

Cape Adare Cape Adare is a prominent cape of black basalt forming the northern tip of the Adare Peninsula and the north-easternmost extremity of Victoria Land, East Antarctica. It is the site of the first confirmed landing on the Antarctic mainlan ...

. Arriving on scene the next day ''Polar Star'' took the ''Greewave'' in tow and proceeded on a 12-day 1,515 mile transit to

Lyttelton, New Zealand Lyttelton ( or ''Riritana'') is a port town on the north shore of Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō, at the northwestern end of Banks Peninsula and close to Christchurch, on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. As a landing point ...

. This was the first visit by a military vessel of the United States to New Zealand in 13 years.

Reserve status — Overhaul

The ship was placed in reserve, or "Commission-Special" status, in 2006 and stationed in Seattle. A 26 February 2008 report by the Congressional Research Service estimated a US$400 million cost for a 25-year service life extension refit for ''Polar Star'', a US$56 million cost for an 8 to 10-year service life extension refit or US$8.2 million cost for a single season service life extension refit. This caretaker status required a reduced crew of 44 to keep the ship ready for a possible return to the ice. In 2009, the NSF announced that they would end funding for maintaining the ship. The ship was reactivated for overhaul, which took four years and was completed by Seattle's Vigor Industrial shipyard (formerly Todd Pacific shipyard), at a cost of US$57 million. ''Polar Star'' was back in operation in late 2013, and assigned to Antarctic operations as part of

in early 2014 for the first time since 2006.

Current operations

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

2020, ''Polar Star'' reached 72 degrees 11 minutes north, the farthest north any US government surface vessel has reached in the winter. The Arctic West Winter mission included travel in heavy ice in total darkness and joint exercises with Russian aircraft at the US Russian maritime boundary in the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

. During the deployment ''Polar Star'' made port calls in

Dutch Harbor Dutch Harbor is a harbor on Amaknak Island in Unalaska, Alaska. It was the location of the Battle of Dutch Harbor in June, 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked it just seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. To this day, ...

and

Juneau Juneau ( ; ), officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of wha ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

Over the course of its service life, ''Polar Star'' steamed in all five oceans, made calls in more than 60 ports across six continents; circumnavigated North America, South America, and Antarctica (likely the first such

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...

since 1843 as well as the first to do so completely poleward of 60^o); rounded Cape Horn, transited the North West Passage, and

circumnavigated Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magellan Exped ...

Earth. Operational highlights include Deep Freeze '83 - the circumnavigation of Antarctica completed in 69 days ferrying U.S. State Department inspectors to 14 scientific research stations, assisting with waterside security during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, completing the first solo breakout of McMurdo Sound (

1988), seven consecutive

missions between 2014 and 2020, as well as reaching 72 degrees 11 minutes north (the farthest north any US government surface vessel reached in the winter). Since her commissioning on January 17, 1976, ''Polar Star''s 24 deployments in support of

are second only to USCGC ''Glacier'' (WAGB-4) and her 29 Deep Freeze missions.

References

* *
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. United States Coast Guard Historian's Office

Bibliography

* *

External links

Arctic Exploration Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polar Star (WAGB-10) Polar-class icebreakers 1976 ships Ships built by Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company