Antarctic operations, 1955–1960 Glaciers shakedown cruise and maiden voyage were combined in "Operation Deep Freeze I", as
flagship for Rear Admiral
Richard E. Byrd. Her first encounter with the ice was in December 1955, breaking through the
Ross Ice Pack, she carved out an ice harbor in
Kainan Bay to allow the discharge of cargo from vessels at the site for
Little America V.
Glacier continued west to break ice into an off-loading site to establish the U.S. Naval Air Facility at
McMurdo Sound. In March 1956,
Glacier explored the
Weddell Sea.
Glacier then surveyed
Vincennes Bay in
Wilkes Land and made the first landing in history on the
Princess Martha and
Princess Astrid coasts.
Glacier returned to
Boston, her home port, on 6 May 1956 after these accomplishments. The ship returned to McMurdo Sound on 28 October 1956 for "Deep Freeze II", having made the earliest seasonal penetration in history.
Glacier then delivered stores and supplies at
McMurdo and then Little America, she led seven other ships of the
Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) through the ice pack to the two Antarctic bases. In January 1957 she led two cargo ships into Vincennes Bay where the last of the seven American bases for the
International Geophysical Year was to be constructed.
Glacier departed Wilkes Station on 17 February 1957 for the United States via
Melbourne, Australia when the operation was completed. During "Deep Freeze III" and the IGY of 1957–1958,
Glacier participated as a launching platform for "
rockoon" tests during which balloon-lifted rockets gathered information of interest to the
"Explorer" space satellite program. Additionally,
Glacier continued her usual icebreaking and escort duties, and conducted oceanographic surveys in the
Ross Sea. In the summer of 1958,
Glacier provided ice-escort for "Operation Sunec" for the resupply of
North Polar radar and weather stations. By November 1958, however, she was again near the
South Pole at McMurdo Sound, and after resupplying the base, steamed to Little America V to begin the station deactivation. Subsequently, while operating in the
Terra Nova Bay on the coast of
Victoria Land, she discovered two unknown islands and what was likely the largest
emperor penguin rookery in the Antarctic, home of over 50,000 of the large birds.
Glacier then sped to the assistance of the Belgian expedition ship RV
Polarhav near Breid Bay, halfway around the Antarctic continent from the
Ross Sea. For "Operation Deep Freeze 5" in 1959–1960,
Glacier sailed to McMurdo and then on an exploration of the
Bellingshausen Sea. In late February 1960
Glacier raced to assist
Argentine Navy icebreaker and Danish cargo ship . When this rescue mission was accomplished,
Glacier sailed to
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 2 April 1960 and provided emergency assistance to flooded areas there for twelve days.
Glacier also did relief operations; providing helicopter and boat transportation, and emergency supplies to residents of
Paramaribo, Suriname after the floods.
Glacier then got underway for
Boston, Massachusetts on 17 April 1960.
Antarctic operations, 1960–1966 The icebreaker departed Boston on 13 October 1960 on her sixth Antarctic voyage and reached
Lyttelton, New Zealand on 21 November 1960 to unload cargo. Most of December 1960 was spent in breaking a channel through McMurdo Sound to open the way for supply ships.
Glacier returned to
Wellington, New Zealand for repairs, and to receive the U.S.
Navy Unit Commendation for her Bellingshausen Sea expedition success. She then returned to the
Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas on another expedition. Oceanographic work continued until March 1961 when she sailed for Boston, arriving on 27 April 1961. Underway again on 8 October 1961 for "Deep Freeze 62", she loaded cargo at Lyttelton, New Zealand, in early November 1961 and entered the Ross Sea ice pack on 13 November 1961, reaching McMurdo Sound by the end of the month. After repairs at Wellington,
Glacier returned to
McMurdo Station and to the site of Little America V for cartographic studies. She returned to New Zealand on 6 March 1962 and then put in at Boston on 5 May 1962 after steaming .
Glacier stood out of Boston on 17 September 1962 for "Deep Freeze 63", entering the pack ice on 6 November 1962 and reaching the edge of the bay ice of McMurdo Sound a week later.
Glacier sustained minor damage in the thick ice and proceeded to Wellington for repairs. On 31 December 1962,
Glacier cut through McMurdo Sound en route to McMurdo Station. She continued operations off McMurdo Station through 1965. Her diverse duties included keeping the channel open for supply ships. On 29 December 1965, US ships
Atka and assisted her in pushing an iceberg out of the shipping lane. After further participation in her 11th "Operation Deep Freeze",
Glacier returned to Boston in the late spring of 1966. On 1 July 1966,
Glacier was struck from the
Navy List, the day after her transfer to the
United States Coast Guard.
Coast Guard operations, 1966–1987 Prior to her transfer to the U.S. Coast Guard,
Glacier had her smaller armament removed. In September 1967,
Glacier departed her new homeport of
Long Beach, California en route to the
Chukchi Sea north of
Cape Lisbourne, Alaska, to aid in the rescue of , beset in Arctic ice. The Canadian icebreaker had freed
Northwind by the time of
Glaciers arrival.
Glacier departed Arctic waters to sail to Port Lyttelton, to start Operation Deep Freeze 1967–68. Due to the
Northwind rescue trip,
Glacier had crossed the
Arctic Circle,
International Dateline,
Equator, and
Antarctic Circle lines all within six weeks, attaining "Square Knot Sailor" status in that short time frame.
Glacier and other USCG icebreakers opened up the McMurdo shipping lanes, then returned to Port Lyttelton. At that time an experimental
navigational satellite (NavSat) system was installed in
Glacier by the Applied Physics Lab of
Johns Hopkins University, to allow precise positioning in the upcoming exploration in the Weddell Sea.
Glacier transited the South Pacific Ocean to
Punta Arenas, Chile and the
Magellan Straits, then entered the Weddell Sea as lead vessel for the 1968 International Weddell Sea Oceanographic Expedition.
Glacier occupied most of the scheduled oceanographic sampling stations in the Weddell Sea. Current meter arrays were set with the precise positioning of the NavSat system. These stations were to be revisited in three years, and the current meters sonic-released for data collection. The heavy fast ice in the Weddell Sea thwarted the scheduled retrieval of this array, until 1975.
Glacier visited the new
Palmer Station on
Anvers Island, after , to retrieve USN
Seabees and transport them to Punta Arenas for eventual transit back to
Davisville, Rhode Island. While departing
Arthur Harbor at Palmer Station,
Glacier was astern of .
Southwind ran aground on an uncharted pinnacle (now called Southwind Rock), tearing out an section of hull.
Glacier escorted the damaged
Southwind across the
Drake Passage to Puntas Arena, then up the West coast of South America to the
Panama Canal.
Glacier then departed Panama Canal for Long Beach. In 1968, the 5-inch guns were also removed. Only the
M2 Browning machine guns,
M60 machine guns and small arms were retained for law enforcement purposes. During 1973, she and her helicopters were painted red for improved Arctic visibility. In 1975,
Glacier was trapped in ice in Antarctica for six days, finally breaking free and escaping into the waters of
Antarctic Sound on 10 March 1975. "She backed and rammed her way to the open sea with the use of only one of her two propellers," said the Coast Guard. Two of the three blades on her other screw were sheared off by "steel hard ice" on Wednesday 5 March, while en route to assist an Argentine icebreaker, ARA
General San Martín, which had engine trouble while on a supply mission to a south polar scientific base. The Argentine ship made its way to freedom on its own.
Decommissioning Following 29 Antarctic and 10 Arctic deployments,
Glacier was
decommissioned in 1987. She went under the control of the U.S.
Maritime Administration, located in the
National Defense Reserve Fleet,
Suisun Bay, on the
Sacramento River,
California. The Glacier Society saved
Glacier from the
scrapyard in 2000, and planned to convert the ship into a hospital or research vessel. However, on 16 February 2012
Glacier was sold for $146,726 to be broken up by ESCO Marine in
Brownsville, Texas. Efforts to save the vessel from the breakers continued as the ship was taken to the former naval base at Mare Island, Vallejo, on 17 April 2012 for cleaning. Nevertheless, she was towed away to Brownsville, arriving on 19 June. A last-minute stay of execution was rejected, and MARAD ordered her scrapping to begin on 2 July 2012. ==Awards==