Photographs -- click your browser's Back button to return here.
The mural 8 x 12 -- 70 Kb
Miscellaneous close-ups of the mural, 70-90 Kb each. Polar-1 | Polar-2

Polar Class Icebreaker Escorts Supply Ship into McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, 1986

Donated by the Coast Guard Academy Class of 1955

This mural depicts the 399-foot Polar Class icebreaker Polar Star escorting a resupply ship through the ice channel to McMurdo Base with Mount Erebus in the background.

United States activities in both the Arctic and Antarctic increased following World War II with Coast Guard and Navy icebreakers supporting defense and science programs in the polar regions. Through the 1970s, operations were supported in both the Arctic and Antarctic by the 269-foot class icebreakers EASTWIND, SOUTHWIND, WESTWIND, STATEN ISLAND, NORTHWIND, BURTON ISLAND, and EDISTO, and the 310-foot GLACIER. In the Antarctic, Operation Highjump in 1946-47 signaled the start of significant increases in U.S. interest and activity.

Permanent scientific stations were constructed starting in 1955 during Deepfreeze I in preparation for the 1957 International Geophysical Year. Thereafter, annual Deepfreeze deployments were made by U.S. icebreakers. The primary mission of the icebreakers was the opening of a channel through the "fast ice" in McMurdo Sound to enable the annual resupply of the McMurdo Base. Other logistical and scientific operations were also performed by icebreakers.

Eventually all U.S. icebreakers and the responsibility for ice breaking operations were assumed by the Coast Guard. The aging fleet of Wind Class icebreakers were replaced by the Polar class in 1980. Since the early 1980s, a single Polar class icebreaker has generally been able to perform annually all required icebreaker support that previously required two or more icebreakers.

USCGC POLAR STAR (WAGB-10) was commissioned in 1976 in Seattle, Washington. At 13,000 tons and 399 feet, she was the Coast Guard's largest ship, and with gas turbines producing 60,000 shaft horsepower its most powerful. (In comparison, Wind-class icebreakers displaced 6,500 tons and developed a total of 12,000 shaft horsepower.) She was designed to break 6½ feet of ice at 3 knots speed and 21 feet by ramming. Her normal propulsion was provided by diesel generators furnishing power to a 6,000-horsepower motor on each of three shafts; the gas turbines were for use in heavy ice. POLAR STAR was joined in 1977 by a sister ship, USCGC POLAR SEA (WAGB-11), which became the first U.S. surface vessel to reach the North Pole in 1994.

Class of 1962 Theme Champion: Wade Moncrief

Artist: Tony Falcone, Falcone Art Studio, 181 New Haven Road, Prospect, CT 06712. Original art measures 7'-0" x 4'-4", created 2004.