USCGC North Star
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Builder: | Berg Shipbuilding Company |
| Commissioned: | May 15, 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | June 15, 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 2,200 long tons (2,200 metric tons; 2,500 short tons) |
| Length: | 225 ft (68.58 m) |
| Beam: | 41 ft (12.50 m) |
| Draft: | 18.6 ft (5.67 m) |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
| Complement: | 17 Officers, 116 Enlisted |
| Armament: |
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The USCGC North Star was a United States Coast Guard Cutter during the Second World War. It was originally built for the U.S. Interior Department and served in the United States Coast Guard (USCG) before being acquired by the U.S. Navy.
The 'North Star' was built in 1932 by Berg Shipbuilding Company in Seattle, Washington as a wooden cutter for the U.S. Department of the Interior and was commissioned by the Interior Department in 1932. She served as a support ship during the United States Antarctic Service Expedition from 1939 to 1941. She transported the unique Antarctic Snow Cruiser to for the expedition and evacuated members of the expedition early in 1941.
She was commissioned as the USCGC North Star (WPG-59) on 15 May 1941 and served on the Northeast Greenland Patrol starting on 1 July 1941. Although the United States was not yet at war, the Navy was providing convoy escorts to protect American shipping in the North Atlantic from attacks by German U-boats. The Northeast Greenland Patrol, was organized at Boston and consisted of Coast Guard cutters Northland and the venerable Bear, as well as the North Star. The South Greenland Patrol, consisting of cutters Modoc, Comanche, and Raritan, along with the former US Coast & Geodetic Survey (USCGS) ship Bowdoin (commanded by legendary Arctic explorer Donald B. MacMillan) was consolidated with the Northeast Patrol by October 1941 and the consolidated unit was re-designated as the Greenland Patrol. The duties of the Greenland Patrol were varied - protecting convoy routes; ice breaking and passages were found through it for the Greenland convoys; escorting merchant ship; rescuing survivors of submarine attacks; construction and maintenance of aids to navigation; reporting of weather and ice conditions; and conducting air and surface patrols.
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