USCGC Acacia (WLB-406)

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Career

Laid down:	16 January 1944
Launched:	7 April 1944
Commissioned:	1 September 1944
Cost to build:	$927,156
Built by:	Zenith Dredge, Duluth, Minnesota
Decommissioned:	7 June 2006
Fate:	museum ship
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,025 tons
Length:	180 feet
Beam:	37 feet
Propulsion:	Two Cooper-Bessemer diesel electric engines
Speed:	14 knots maximum
Range:	8000 miles at 13 knots
Complement:	52 crewmen
Armament:	Wartime: 20mm guns, a 3 inch cannon and depth charges. Peacetime: None
Aircraft:	None
Motto:	Semper Paratus (Always Ready)

The USCGC Acacia (WLB 406) was second to the last of a fleet of 39 similar 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders completed during World War II. The Acacia was named after the U.S. Lighthouse Service ship Acacia, the only Lighthouse Service vessel sunk during World War II. The Acacia is a multi-purpose vessel, nominally a buoy tender, but with equipment and capabilities for ice breaking, search and rescue, fire fighting, logistics, and other tasks as well.

The Acacia was homeported in Charlevoix, Michigan. The ships primary duty was maintaining more than 210 buoys, lighthouses, and other navigational aids. Its area of operation ranged from as far south as Calumet Harbor, south Chicago, to as far north as Little Bay DeNoc, including Green Bay, Wisconsin; Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin; and Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula.

Among its various other duties were search and rescue of lost or disabled vessels and icebreaking assistance during the cold winter months. During the ice season, Acacia was one of several Coast Guard ice breakers engaged in Operation Coal Shovel, which keeps the channels between Toledo, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan open for the coal ships supplying power plants and industries in Detroit.

The ship also worked with NOAA in their efforts to acquire accurate weather information and with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as they stock Lake Michigan with hundred of thousands of yearling trout.

The Acacia was decommissioned June 7, 2006 after 62 years of service. She was the last of the 180 foot vessels to serve. Although another ship will not be assigned to Acacia's current home port, her duties will be picked up the new USCGC Mackinaw which is equipped to handle buoy tending as well as ice breaking.

[edit] Maritime museum

In 2006, the American Academy of Industry, an Illinois nonprofit group formed a decade ago with the intention of acquiring a ship, will acquire the ship and turn it into a maritime museum in Chicago. Locations considered include Navy Pier, but also moorings along the Chicago River. The vessel, which was delivered in full working order with only its machine guns removed (an unusual condition for a museum ship, typically decommissioned after years in mothball fleets), is temporarily moored at Burns Harbor in Indiana. The Coast Guard had considered a sale to an unnamed African country, but when that fell through, found the Chicago group's request filed away. The donation was arranged through a transfer to the State of Illinois, which holds title.^[1]