Maine-based cutter may go to Ecuador
The decommissioned Coast Guard vessel, stationed in Portland, Maine since 1973, could have a new career.
By John Richardson
A coast Guard cutter that maintained navigation buoys along Maine's coast for the past 24 years may soon have a new life as part of Ecuador's navy. The Spar, a 180-foot oceangoing cutter, was decommissioned in February after a 53-year career based along the shoreline of New England. It had been stationed in Portland Harbor since 1973. Now it is docked in Baltimore waiting for a decision by the U. S. State Department. The Spar appears destined for Ecuador, said Lt. Comdr. John Felker of the Coast Guard's international affairs office, in Washington. Coast Guard officials said this week that other cutters in Spar's class may be transferred to Columbia and Estonia. It also is possible that one of the cutters could go to the west coast for further use by the Coast Guard. Retired boats and cutters are routinely transferred to friendly foreign nations. They also can be but up for sale or used by the U. S. Navy for target practice. Said Robert Browning, the Coast Guard historian. In Maine, the Spar was used to maintain hundreds of buoys that mark channels or hazardous shoals. Its duties also include breaking ice, enforcing fishing and other first maritime rules and assisting and rescuing mariners.
In 1994, the vessel and its 50-member crew steamed from South Portland to the Carribean to intercept Cuban refugees fleeing to Florida. The Spar enjoyed a measure of nautical fame in 1957, during the period it was stationed in Rhode Island. The cutter was among a small flotilla of ice breakers to make the fist deep-draft passage through the Northwest Passage and circumnavigate North America. Local crews regarded the Spar as a reliable work horse - "a die-hard, do-anything boat able to go out, take a beating and bring the crew back," said Lt. Comdr. Stephen Kinner, the Spar's last commander. Though 53 years old, the cutter had been modernized. "She was still in good shape. But an old cutter like that takes a lot of maintanance and upkeep." Said Chief Warrant Officer Vern Shay. Shay was first lieutenant on board when the Spar was decommissioned. Now stationed in Rockland, he will command the new cutter Abby Burgess when it arrives later this year to maintain buoys. Along with being expensive to maintain, the Spar required a larger crew than the new class of cutters, which use new technology for everything from navigation to hauling buoys out of the water. The 180-foot Spar had a crew of 51 when commissioned. Two new cutters coming to Maine, the Burgess and Marcus Hanna, are 175 feet long but will have crews of 18 sailors be ship. The new boats are named after heroic lighthouse keepers in Maine. The Spar's crew usually spent a week at a time at sea, navigating near dangerous shoals and lifting massive steel buoys onto the deck. The buoys themselves weighed 940 pounds to 13,000 pounds each. With moorings, the boat would lift as much as 20,000 pounds onto the deck. Even the Spar, built for the work, would lean over under the task.
"Ten tons is a lot of weight to pull up when you're on a fluid thing called the ocean. When you combine that with wind and waves, it can get interesting,' said Kinner, now stationed in New York. "It's tough to replace a boat like that."
Article from "VOICE OF THE PEOPLE"
SERVING WITH HONOR Article from "VOICE OF THE PEOPLE"
Cutter deserves grateful farewell
I cannot believe that the Portland Press Herald didn't do more to recognize the Feb 28 decommissioning of one of the Maine's important ships - the U. S. Coast Guard cutter Spar. Serving the Coast Guard since its commissioning on June 12, 1944, the cutter Spar has made South Portland its home port since March of 1973. She serviced and maintained 198 buoys over an area stretching from Portsmouth, N.H. to West Quoddy Head on the northeastern tip of Maine, The Spar also did search and rescue, ice breaking in the Cape Cod Canal and Buzzard's Bay and the enforcement of laws and treaties. The men of the Spar worked long, hard hours and spent many days, sometimes weeks, away from family to go out and ensure the safety of the waterways and to be available to search and rescue if called upon. The Spar left its home port of South Portland and traveled as an "out-of-service" down to Baltimore on March 9, where she was to be laid to rest. You will not see her docked at the pier. You will not see her out in our harbor preparing for a weeks journey. You will not see her being called upon to rescue a distressed watercraft. I know for a fact that you were notified of this event by fax and by phone.
How dare the Portland Press Herald neglect to honor or even recognize a ship that has called this city home for 24 years. You and your staff should be ashamed that you failed to bring such a newsworthy event to the people of southern Maine.
Ruann L. Wood
Wife of a U. S. Coast Guardsman
Windham