USCGC Northwind (WAGB-282)

USCGC Northwind in Baffin Bay on 10 July 1986.
History
Builder:	Western Pipe and Steel Company
Yard number:	CG-184
Laid down:	10 July 1944
Launched:	25 February 1945
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Mabelle C Dempwolf
Commissioned:	28 July 1945
Decommissioned:	20 January 1989
Nickname(s):	The Grand Old Lady of the North
Fate:	Scrapped in 1999
Notes:	Callsign: NRFJ
General characteristics
Class and type:	Wind-class icebreaker
Displacement:	6,515 short tons (5,910 metric tons)
Length:	269 ft (82 m)
Beam:	63 ft 10 in (19.46 m)
Draft:	29 ft 1 in (8.86 m)
Ice class:	Heavy (up to 13 ft (4.0 m) ice)
Installed power:	Diesel-electric: 6 × Fairbanks-Morse model 8-1/8OP, 10-cylinder opposed piston engines at 2,000 shp (1,500 kW), each driving a Westinghouse DC electric generator. (1944) 4 × Enterprise / deLaval engines. (1973)
Propulsion:	2 × Westinghouse Electric DC electric motors driving the 2 aft propellers, 1 × 3,000 shp (2,200 kW) Westinghouse DC electric motor driving the detachable and seldom used bow propeller.
Speed:	13.4 knots (24.8 km/h) top speed
Range:	32,485 mi (52,280 km)
Boats & landing craft carried:	4 lifeboats, 1 LCVP, 1 Arctic Survey Boat
Complement:	219 officers and men
Sensors and processing systems:	Radar: SA-2, SL-1 Fire Control Radar: MK-26 Sonar: QCJ-8
Armament:	4 × 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal deck guns 12 × 40 mm/60 cal anti-aircraft guns 6 × 20 mm/80 cal anti-aircraft guns 2 × depth charge racks 6 × K-gun projectors 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 1 × M2 Browning machine gun 1 × M60 Machine guns
Aircraft carried:	One fixed wing amphibious aircraft or two helicopters.
Aviation facilities:	Flight deck with retractable hangar. Two booms for lifting aircraft.
Notes:	Northwind sometimes carried one M29C Weasel.

USCGC Northwind (WAG/WAGB-282), The Grand Old Lady of the North, was a Wind-class icebreaker, the second United States Coast Guard Cutter of her class to bear the name. She was built to replace USCGC Northwind/Staten Island (WAG-278) which was in U.S.S.R. lend-lease service.

During her career, Northwind conducted extensive oceanography, hydrography and cartography studies, as well as icebreaking, during Operation Nanook and Operation Highjump. Northwind was the last Wind-class icebreaker when she was decommissioned in Wilmington, North Carolina on 20 January 1989 after 44 years of service.

Northwind was one of the icebreakers designed by Lieutenant Commander Edward Thiele, USCG (later RADM, and Engineer in Chief of the U.S. Coast Guard) and Gibbs & Cox of New York, who modeled them after plans for European icebreakers he obtained before the start of World War II. She was the fifth of seven completed ships of the Wind-class of icebreakers operated by the United States Coast Guard. She was laid down on 20 July 1944 at Western Pipe and Steel Company shipyards in San Pedro, California, launched on 25 February 1945 and commissioned on 28 July 1945. Rear Admiral Ralph W. Dempwolf, Commander, 9th Coast Guard District presided over the ceremony with his wife, Mrs. Mabelle C. Dempwolf, serving as the sponsor.