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Log Books of the U.S. Revenue Service/Coast Guard, 19th and 20th Centuries USCGC Southwind (also known as USS Atka) General description, specifications and time line |
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USCGC Southwind returning from the Arctic, December 1970 (USCG Photo, click images to enlarge) |
Back to US Log Book Homepage |
See also USS Atka.
Type and Characteristics: Diesel-electric cutter, Wind-class, WAGB-280, built by Western Pipe & Steel Co, Los Angeles, CA at cost of $9,880,000, laid down 20 July 1942, launched 8 March 1943, commissioned in USCG 15 July 1944, in USN 13 April 1950 after service with USSR, in USCG 31 October 1966, 6,515 tons displacement, 269ft long x 63ft 6in beam x 25ft 9in draft, 13.4kts, no armament, helicopter flight deck, 219 crew - 12 officers, 2 warrant officers, 205 men.
Log Period and Areas of Service: 1944-45, Greenland waters, transferred to USSR.
Summary of Service, US Coast Gaurd
15 July 1944 – Commissioned and assigned to the Navy’s CINCLANT (Commander in Chief, Atlantic Command) homeported in Boston, Massachusetts served along the coast of Greenland.
25 March 1945 - Transferred to the Soviet Union under the terms of lend-lease; renamed Admiral Makarov and operating in the Russian merchant marine.
1 October 1950 – Returned to the US, she was renamed USS Atka (AGB-3) and commissioned by the US Navy, she served the Navy as the USS Atka for the following 14 years, in Arctic and Antarctic waters.
31 October 1966 – Commissioned by the Coast Guard as USCGC Atka (WAGB-280); the name was struck from the Navy List.
18 January 1967 – Resumed her name USCGC Southwind, and homeported in Baltimore, Maryland.
1967-68 – Participated in Arctic East and Operation Deep Freeze.
15 June 1970 – Conducted oceanographic and logistics operations in Baffin bay and the Barents and Kara Seas north of Europe.
March 1971 – Opened the Great Lakes for summer shipping, and then an oceanographic and scientific cruise in Greenland and northern European waters.
6 December 1971 through 26 February 1972 – Took part in Operation Deep Freeze 1972.
Summer 1972 – Participated in Operation Arctic East.
November 1972 - Transferred to the Great Lakes at Buffalo to replace the damaged CGC Edisto.
2 July 1973 – Participated in Operation Arctic East.
17 September 1973 – Returned to the Great Lakes at Milwaukee.
31 May 1974 – Decommissioned.
Fate: Decommissioned by USCG 23 March 1945, transferred to USSR 25 March 1945, returned to USA 1949, repaired and commissioned in USN 1950 as USS Atka (AGB-3). Transferred back to USCG as Atka (WAGB-280) in October 1966, but renamed Southwind. Decommissioned 31 May 1974, sold for scrap to New York company March 1976.
Links: DANFS, USCG Historian's site
Possibly day of commissioning, 15 July 1944 |
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Both images from the ship's "Arctic East '70" scrapbook. The "strange" object is an Apollo training capsule, lost at sea, found by a Russian trawler, and picked up by Southwind at Murmansk in 1970 |
Possibly taken near the end of her career |
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A general note on the sources.