Posted on Mar 1, 2019
Coast Guard’s last heavy icebreaker caught on fire during South Pole mission
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Posted 6 y ago
Responses: 4
Shipboard fires are no joke, your home is on fire and you have no where to go.
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PO1 Kevin Dougherty
There is nothing more ... well frightening ... than the words "Fire, fire, fire, fire in the engine room, this is not a drill at 0200. That was the night that we discovered 8 large men can fit through a 2 1/2' entryway simultaneously while pulling on their clothes.
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I was on the ice for the Star's first cruise. They had a number of yardbirds on board. They got hung up on the ice because the shaft journals were under designed, hence could only hold up to 60% power. I used explosives to free them up. That they continued to have leaks around the shaft doesn't surprise me as it's a reflection of overworked seals. Adding more supports helped, but there was only so much you could do. The incinerator room would have likely been an "add-on" in later years. Like other add-ons, everything is a compromise, hence higher likelihood of a problem. Back in the day, garbage was still dumped over the fantail.
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LTJG Richard Bruce
I remember the repeated shaft and prop problems on both Polar Star and Polar Sea. The controlable pitch screws did not perform as designed.
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You know, I've wondered about that, o think it !ist he Siberia, perhaps, that shapes their concentration on that, though one would think Alaska might induce a similar concentration here...I'd heard about a possibly new icebreaker USCG project at a vet group I go to sometimes, I'll try to find stuff on it....
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PO1 Kevin Dougherty
It is underway. the RFP was released last years, and 750M was in the budget for the contract and long lead time items this year. Contracts is supposed to be let this year, with a delivery target for the first one of 2023. BTW they will be classified as Polar Security Cutters.
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Capt Daniel Goodman
I follow, I wasn't emtirelyq certain, one of the guys at the vet group is retired USCG, he was the one who'd mentioned it, I just heard him speak about it briefly with some of the others in the group, while chatting about naval, ISMC, and USCG recent stuff going on....
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