Editor's note: Media are invited to attend Tuesday's homecoming as the crew reunites with loved ones. Please contact Thirteenth District Coast Guard Public Affairs at (206)220-7237 to RSVP. Video of the Antarctic Chieftain rescue, escort operations and Antarctic dive missions are available by clicking the thumbnail above. Links are also provided below.
ALAMEDA, Calif. – The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, the nation’s only operational heavy icebreaker, is scheduled to return Seattle after a 101-day Antarctic deployment Tuesday at 10 a.m.
Polar Star’s crew departed Seattle for Operation Deep Freeze 2015, the military resupply and logistical support mission for the U.S. Antarctic Program’s McMurdo Station. Coast Guardsmen aboard Polar Star escorted the cargo vessel Ocean Giant and fuel tanker Maersk Peary to McMurdo Station through ice ranging in thickness from 5 to 10 feet. These logistics allow scientific research to continue in the Antarctic.
Upon completion of Deep Freeze, Polar Star’s crew rescued 26 fishermen aboard the 207-foot F/V Antarctic Chieftain. The mariners were trapped in a heavy pack ice near Cape Burks, Antarctica, for almost two weeks. The crew diverted to provide assistance to the fishermen. After navigating across 753 miles with 89 miles of treacherous ice conditions, Polar Star’s crew located the Antarctic Chieftain and towed the fishing vessel through 49 miles of pack ice with before transferring the Antarctic Chieftain to the New Zealand fishing vessel Janas.
For more than 50 years, Coast Guard icebreakers have deployed to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze. Polar Star is the nation’s only heavy icebreaker capable of operating in the thick Antarctic ice and completing this unique mission. Polar Star will spend the summer months in dry dock preparing for next year’s resupply mission of McMurdo.
Click on the thumbnails below for video -
The Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star tows the fishing vessel Antarctic Chieftain in the Southern Ocean, Feb. 15, 2015. Polar Star's crew assisted the Antarctic Chieftain after the vessel was disabled and trapped in the thick Antarctic ice for almost two weeks. The Polar Star is the nation’s only active heavy icebreaker, which is capable of breaking through ice as much as 20-feet thick. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 1st Class George Degener. The Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, a heavy icebreaker homeported in Seattle, breaks ice near the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Jan. 13, 2015. Polar Star's crew is in Antarctica supporting Operation Deep Freeze 2015, part of the U.S. Antarctic Program, managed by the National Science Foundation. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 1st Class George Degener. Chief Petty Officer Lucas Spencer and Chief Petty Officer Michael Perrault, members of the military dive team assigned to the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, inspect the cutter's propellers while it's is hove-to in the ice in the Ross Sea, Jan. 30, 2015. Divers conducted underwater inspections of Polar Star's hull and propellers to check for damage incurred while breaking ice. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 1st Class George Degener.For more photos from Operation Deep Freeze and the Antarctic Chieftain rescue, please visit https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/DeepFreeze.