USCGC Balsam (WLB-62)

The USCGC "Balsam" (WLB-62) is a 180 foot sea going buoy tender (WLB). A "Cactus" class vessel, she was built by Zenith Dredge Company in Duluth, Minnesota. "Balsam's" preliminary design was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service and the final design was produced by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth. On 25 October 1941 the keel was laid, she was launched on 15 April 1942 and commissioned on 13 October 1942. The original cost for the hull and machinery was $916,109.

"Balsam" is one of 39 original 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built between 1942-1944. All but one of the original tenders, the USCGC Ironwood (WLB-307), were built in Duluth.

Her initial service was in the South Pacific during WWII. After the war, she returned to the west coast of the United States where she served in Astoria, Oregon and Eureka, California. She also was home ported in Honolulu, Hawaii before being transferred to Alaska to serve her remaining years in the Coast Guard fleet.

The "Balsam" was decommissioned in 1975 and sold to a private company for $53,687. She was subsequently sold again and then converted into an Alaskan crab fishing boat.

Sources

* [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBCUTTERS/NPS_180_HAER_Report.pdf National Park Service Report on the 180 foot buoy tenders]
* [http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBCUTTERS/WLB_Photo_Index.html Photo history of USCG buoy tenders by the Coast Guard Historian's Office] Dead link|date=May 2008

References