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Although few people see beyond the brawn, the Fir is more than just a buoy tender. The cutter and others in its class are some of the most versatile ships in the entire Coast Guard fleet. Hazardous bars, severe weather, rough surf conditions and use of heavy gear make for risky operating conditions, especially during winter months. Each year, the CFVS program attempts to mitigate those risks by ensuring fishing vessels maintain proper safety and survival equipment.
Though the Coast Guard prefers to conduct voluntary dockside inspections before the crab fishing season begins Dec. Once at sea, however, Coast Guard resources like Fir have the jurisdiction to conduct safety inspections on any vessel operating 3 miles or more from shore. And they do.
While medium and high endurance cutters steam several hundred miles from the coast and small boats patrol near shore, seagoing buoy tenders are the perfect asset for the mid-range law enforcement required during fishing seasons. Crewmembers aboard the fishing vessel Martin work Dungeness crab pots during a Coast Guard commercial fishing vessel safety boarding off the coast of Oregon Jan. During the compliance checks, boarding team members examine fishing vessels for number and condition of cold-weather immersion suits, survival crafts, emergency position-indicating radio beacons, watertight integrity, and vessel stability in a process that is often thought of as search and rescue prevention.
The davits, foundations, and chocks for boats were completed as well as the steering gear engine, rudder, quadrant, and arrangement. The main engines, hand gear, stern tubes, propeller struts, bearings, line and propeller shafting were completed in the shop. Installation of the propellers, condenser, and feed water heater. All work progressing satisfactory and no doubt of keeping delivery dates.
With workers, logging 23, hours, furniture was being installed; air ports and lights completed; components of the electrical system were either in the yard or had been installed; fire extinguishers had been installed; interior communication including telegraph system, bells and pulls, electric bells, alarm and ships bell, was 75 percent completed.
Bosporus forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia and connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmar Queen Elizabeth liner in Bosphorus The gaff rigged cutter 'Bloodhound' sailing downwind with spinnaker, The program shall also provide FEMA External Affairs with tracking capability to determine which recipients opened email messages, what documents or links were accessed from which emails, and summarize campaign results to assess program effectiveness. Overall the Canadians feel the Type is a good icebreaking vessel which was relatively inexpensive, and has the ability to function as a buoy tender in coastal and Great Lakes areas. This eliminates fixed fins as a potential candidate, and makes paravanes less attractive. When the offshore oil business first started in the U. Low resistance combined with the simplicity of construction compared to vessels like Hydrofoils and SES , makes a catamaran an excellent platform for carrying fairly light loads at moderately high speeds. Nice uscg.
Cementing of tanks and bilges was listed as being complete and the piping systems close to completion. Skylights were complete but not tested; ventilation of the engine room, fire room, officers quarters, and crews quarters was 80 percent complete. Derrick mast and boom as well as standing and running rigging, main mast, ensign and jack staff had been completed. Painting of the underwater body and boot topping had been completed and was well underway for the exterior of the hull above the waterline, superstructure, quarters, and pilothouse.
Red lead paint was used on machinery casing and radio room, galley, and engine room.
The United States Coast Guard Cutter Fir (WAGL/WLM ) was the last lighthouse tender built .. "US Coast Guard Cutter Fir (WLM): A Lighthouse / Buoy Tender for the Pacific Northwest" (pdf). HAER Report No. WA National Park. U.S. COAST GUARD CUTTER FIR (WLM) the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Office of Financial A Lighthouse/Buoy Tender in the Pacific Northwest.
Anchors, cleats, chocks, freeing ports, hand rails, grab rails, and ladders were complete or close to completion. Superintendent of Lighthouses, Portland, Oregon, acting as his alternate; and F. Lighthouse Service, the vessel was completed under the U. Coast Guard, making her the last U.
Lighthouse Service. Fir was outfitted with several small boats: a foot cargo boat on the starboard side; a foot, 3-inch surf boat on the port side; and a foot, 3-inch powered dinghy on the upper deck,. Measurements at decommissioning were the same except the extreme beam was listed as 34 feet and her length between perpendiculars as feet, 6 inches.
Her hull is steel and her superstructure steel and wood. Her propulsion is twin screw and, when launched, she had two triple-expansion steam engines. She had a maximum cruising speed of 12 knots or a radius of 1, nautical miles. Her normal complement was six officers and 24 enlisted men, which increased to 41 enlisted men during wartime. In , she had four officers, two warrants, and 35 enlisted men. Fir began her career equipped with two triple-expansion horizontal steam engines 1, combined steam horsepower and two oil-fired Babcock and Wilcox watertube boilers. Her steel boom with hydraulic hoist had a ton capacity.
Above left Triple-expansion steam engines before installation. Above right Starboard engine after installation. Facing page, above left Shot of engine room after installation. Facing page, below left Engine room during s. Photo courtesy of National Archives, Seattle. Facing page, right Diesel engine in Washington, from February 1 to October 1, , Fir was reengined from steam to diesel with twin 1,horsepower Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines coupled with reduction gears.
She was the last American steam-powered tender to be dieselized. Oak bannisters adorn the ladders, polished brass is throughout the bridge, many staterooms have the original wooden racks, desks, and wardrobes, and screen doors still open onto the weather decks.
The engine room contains the twin Diesel engines that replaced the steam engines in as well as two generators for electricity while underway and boilers for heat. The upper deck includes davits anchoring two lifeboats, boat winch, main mast, staterooms, engine room trunk, offices,. The wardroom, where the officers ate and worked, is unusual for cutters in that it offers a view of the buoy deck.
The forecastle deck includes various vents and the anchor windlass. The bridge deck level is occupied by the wheel house with the control house for the hoisting mechanism above. A photo of the old bridge. Fir also transported personnel on and off these remote stations and delivered mail and personal. Pilothouse in s. Pilothouse in NPS photo by Candace Clifford. In addition to servicing the manned aids, Fir maintained the automated acetylene buoys throughout the waters of northwest Washington.
Washington had several remote offshore light stations where the transfer of personnel was often a dangerous and timeconsuming task. A small boat had to be worked in under the box as personnel were transferred, sometimes under rough sea conditions. Fir, like other tenders, had to routinely go into water where no other type of boat dared venture. Armament installed included caliber machine guns, one 3-inch gun, and depth charges. Her war duties included standing picket duty, towing gunnery targets, and patrolling in and around Washington and Oregon waters.
The increased size of the fishing fleet had the effect of causing more rescue operations, and in these, the tenders did an extraordinarily fine job. Maintaining and servicing buoys means long hours of hard, often dangerous work. On command, the huge anchor is released and plunges to the bottom of the sea, pulling row after row of heavy chain, clattering off the steel decks after it.
The freshly painted and serviced buoy,. Photo courtesy National Archives, Seattle. The ship backs away and another aid to navigation is back on the job. Initially the bearings were taken with lead line and sightings from the bridge deck. Now Global Position System satellites provide much more accurate, and quicker fixes. The buoys, once lighted with acetylene, were updated to storage batteries and then to solar power.
FIR lived long enough to witness these transitions over the years. In addition to servicing aids to navigation, Fir performed search and rescue, marine environmental protection, and law enforcement. Servicing buoys aboard Fir in Right Bringing aboard a double bluff whistle buoy. Below left Scraping off sea growth. Below right Preparing scraped and repainted buoys for relief. Photos courtesy National Archives, Seattle. Fir also helped fight a fire at the Todd Shipyard in Seattle on November 28, Her last dramatic rescue occurred on July 5, , when Fir saved the life of a mariner trapped on the bow of a burning pleasure boat on Shilsole Bay, extinguishing the fire and saving the boat.
She was awarded a Unit Commendation for her work after the foot Arco Anchorage grounded in Port Angeles, spilling , gallons of crude oil in Lamp changer and mechanism are being completely checked and tested after being reattached to renewed buoy before it is taken off the dock. Her hull form is unusually susceptible to synchronous rolls. The Seattle tender is required to respond to discrepancies along the coast whenever the Astoria tender is in a maintenance status; furthermore, it would be desirable to more evenly distribute the coastal ATON and ELT workload by routinely assigning the Seattle tender to duties along the coast.
Photo courtesy Coast Guard Museum Northwest.