NAVY ICEBREAKERS

The 1950s was a decade of scientific endeavor in such far reaching environments as outer space, the deep ocean, and Antarctica.  With respect to the latter, the US Navy cooperated with the International Geophysical Year 1955 by establishing a research station at Kainan Bay at the Ross Ice Shelf.  This facility, “Little America,” would be supported by NAS McMurdo Sound 400 miles to the west.  Our Navy contracted Ingalls Shipbuilding in Mississippi in 1954 to construct an icebreaker of sufficient strength to negotiate these Antarctic waters.  On 25 May 1955 USS GLACIER (AGB-4) was commissioned, armed with a twin 5″ bow mount and seven smaller guns.  Her maiden voyage supported Operation “Deep Freeze I” that was already underway.

GLACIER arrived in extreme southern waters in December 1955 (Antarctic summer) and broke a harbor in Kainan Bay for ships delivering equipment, supplies, and fuel.  Construction at Little America began as GLACIER departed to open McMurdo Sound.  GLACIER continued in the Antarctic until May 1956.

“Deep Freeze II” in October 1956 saw GLACIER leading a seven-ship Navy convoy for the two new bases.  In January of that summer, she led two ships into Vincennes Bay, where the third and last US base was to be built.  During “Deep Freeze III” the following summer, GLACIER launched “rockoons,” high altitude balloons deploying rockets in experiments involving our Explorer space program.  And in yet the following year, she helped disestablish Little America, taking time out to rescue the Belgian research ship Polarhav in the Ross Sea.

Her fifth Antarctic season in 1959-60 saw her serving as a platform for research in the Bellingshausen Sea.  It was during this evolution on 1 March 1960 that GLACIER received a distress call.  The Danish supply ship Krista Dan had become trapped in the ice along the Palmer Peninsula near Marguerita Bay.  GLACIER got underway immediately, reaching the stranded freighter this day.  With Danish sailors standing helplessly on the freighter’s fo’csle, GLACIER proceeded to circle Krista Dan.  She made several closer passes, converting the solid ice trapping the Dane into crushed slush.  It took less than a few hours to free the freighter, and both turned north for open water.  Yet another emergency arose, this time to free the trapped Argentine icebreaker General San Martin.  Here, GLACIER fouled a prop, shearing off one of the blades.  Detached to Boston for repairs, she called first at Rio de Janeiro, where she provided humanitarian relief in a flood disaster.  GLACIER continued in Navy Antarctic service until 1966 when she was transferred to the US Coast Guard.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  13 MAR 24

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Cooney, David M.  A Chronology of the U.S. Navy:  1775-1965.  New York, NY: Franklin Watts, Inc., 1965, p. 448.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 102-03.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The fouled prop prevented GLACIER from freeing the Argentine icebreaker, who eventually accomplished her own rescue.  GLACIER is no longer with us.  She served the Coast Guard at WAGB-4 until 1987 then was broken up in 2012.

At one time our Navy had four icebreakers in addition to GLACIER in active commission:  BURTON ISLAND (AGB-1); EDISTO (AGB-2); ATAK (AGB-3); and STATEN ISLAND (AGB-5)–all built during WWII.  All five were transferred to the Coast Guard on 30 June 1966, the last day of the 1965-66 fiscal year.  Icebreaker services remain a Coast Guard tasking today.

AGB-4 was the fourth and last Navy vessel to carry the name Glacier.  The first was the food stores ship AF-4, who served from the turn of the 20^th century into the 1920s.  The second, CVE-33, was transferred to Great Britain in 1943, leaving the cargo ship AK-183 to carry the name during the remainder of WWII.

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