The Coast Guard's newest icebreaker will honor a storied cutter that plied the Bering Sea, Alaska and elsewhere for more than 60 years -- a period in which its crews saved hundreds of distressed mariners, responded to the nation's worst earthquake, and kept sea lanes clear for commercial traffic.
The Aiviq, a commercial vessel acquired by the Coast Guard this year, is sporting a new icebreaker red paint job, the hull number "21" and the name "Storis" on the stern, according to photos taken Dec. 5 and sent to Military.com by amateur photographer and Tampa area resident Wake Foster.
The name is a nod to the light icebreaker and medium endurance cutter Storis, commissioned in 1942, that served as the Coast Guard's "Queen of the Fleet," the oldest commissioned Coast Guard vessel, from 1991 until decommissioning in 2007.
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The soon-to-be Coast Guard cutter Storis is currently in a Tampa shipyard, where it is being adapted for service use. It will be homeported in Juneau, Alaska, where it is expected to participate in icebreaking operations, maritime patrols and other Coast Guard duties in the far North.
During a congressional hearing last month, Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Mission Support Vice Adm. Thomas Allan said the service expects to take possession of the vessel by the end of this year and would have it in Alaska by 2026.
The Coast Guard is expected to begin construction on the first of three planned heavy icebreakers, the Polar Security class, by the end of this year. The Aiviq/Storis will serve as a stopgap, supporting the service's other two oceangoing icebreakers, which are both homeported in Seattle: the 48-year-old Polar Star, currently on its way to Antarctica; and the medium icebreaker Healy, which has been in the Bering Sea and Alaska since Oct. 3.
News of the Aiviq's new name was first reported by the publication gCaptain.
The Storis' history is legendary in the service, from sweeping rescues and defense operations to maritime patrols, icebreaking and countless fisheries patrols.
In addition to conducting anti-submarine and convoy patrols during World War II, the Storis sailed the seas of Argentia in Newfoundland, Greenland and Alaska for icebreaking duties and was first on the scene of the sinking of the Coast Guard icebreaker Escanaba, believed to have been struck by a torpedo or a mine in 1943, killing all of its crew with the exception of two service members.
The Storis took part in the search for the Northwest Passage in 1957 and then became the first U.S.-registered vessel to circumnavigate the North American continent. Its crews were on the scene of the nation's most powerful earthquake to date, the 1964 9.2 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed 131 people and destroyed much of Anchorage's infrastructure.
More recently, footage of the Storis' response to the sinking of the fishing vessel Alaskan Monarch was featured on the TV show "Deadliest Catch," and it had a cameo shortly before its decommissioning in the movie "The Guardian."
The Storis' end was not so epic, however. Despite efforts by a nonprofit to save the ship and turn it into a museum, the U.S. General Services Administration sold the vessel for scrap in 2013.
The new Storis' hull number, 21, is the next in line after the medium icebreaker Healy, which has the designation WAGB-20.
The Coast Guard has not made a formal announcement about the new name and did not respond to a request for comment by publication.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect the Storis' deployments during World War II.
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