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USS Glacier (AGB 4) in May 1955 ready for commissioning.
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Class: GLACIER (AGB 4)
Design: SCB Project No. 11A
Displacement (tons): 5,100 light, 8,740' full
Dimensions (feet): 310' oa, 290' wl x 74' e, 72' wl x 29'
Armament: 2-5"38T, 3-3"50T, 6-20mmT; (1957) 2-5"38T, 2-3"50T
Accommodations: 41 officers, 320 enlisted
Speed (kts.): 16
Propulsion (HP): 16,000
Machinery: Diesel electric, 2 screws
Construction:
AGB | Name | Ord | Builder | Keel | Launch | Comm |
4 | GLACIER | 10 Jan 1952 | Ingalls, Pascagoula | 3 Aug 1953 | 27 Aug 1954 | 27 May 1955 |
Disposition:
AGB | Name | T | Decomm | Strike | Disposal | Fate | MA Sale |
4 | GLACIER | | 30 Jun 1966 | 1 Jul 1966 | 30 Jun 1966 | Trf | 16 Feb 2012 |
Class Notes:
The original SCB Project 11 (1948) was for an "Arctic Picket Ship." It was initially a large anti-aircraft cruiser with considerable excess capacity for the support of Arctic operations. As such it was tentatively designated as CLI, Cruiser Ice-breaker. The General Board preferred an older CA (Astoria class) with strong ASW and AA batteries. DDs and DEs were deemed unsuitable for operations in ice. It was pointed out that an AG 88 (AGB 1) WIND class icebreaker could be modified to carry out the picket duty of SCB 11 and two WIND class conversions were contained in some drafts of the FY 1948 program, but ultimately the funds were spent on winterizing two LSDs for Arctic service (SCB Project 29).
On 27 July 1950 CNO established an ad-hoc panel within the Arctic and Cold Weather Coordinating Committee to consider lessons learned from operating the WIND class icebreakers (five Coast Guard ships beginning with WESTWIND that were copied by the Navy in its AG 88-89/AGB 1-2). (See the page on ATKA (AGB 3) for more on the WIND class.) This action was triggered by a letter from Rear Admiral R. H. Cruzen dated 11 May 1950 that reported that, "when properly handled the WIND class ice-breakers are excellent ships for working in heavy ice. However they have very definite limitations, due primarily to lack of sufficient power.... An improved icebreaker, based on the WIND class design, with greater horse-power and a correspondingly heavier hull will permit access to many parts of the Polar Sea, now inaccessible, where wartime operations may prove both desirable and profitable." He urged that a design for such a ship should be developed and a prototype built as soon as possible, and the panel concurred. On 29 December 1950 BUSHIPS advised the Supervisor of Shipbuilding (SUPSHIP) at New York that it was undertaking the design of a naval icebreaker and that there was some prospect that one would be authorized in the FY 1952 building program. The Bureau asked SUPSHIP New York to see if Gibbs and Cox would undertake the preliminary design and possibly the contract design of the ship. Gibbs received a contract for the preliminary design work on 7 February 1951. The Ship Characteristics Board on 12 February 1951 circulated for comments its first preliminary characteristics for the icebreaker, designated SCB Project No. 11A and dated 9 February 1951, and followed with second preliminary characteristics on 20 February 1951.
On 29 June 1951 Gibbs and Cox delivered a 101-page "Report on Preliminary Design" for the ship. The most important improvement over the WIND class desired by the Navy was in the horsepower to displacement ratio, and in the new design the improvement was 1.53 to 1. A bow propeller as in the WIND class was to be incorporated only if means for ready removal by the ship's force alone in the ice field could be accomplished. The vessel was designed to the shortest length consistent with the other dimensions being reasonable in order to more readily thread the ice lanes. This combined with other Navy requirements, including draft less than that of the WIND class and power greater, produced a hull measuring 290.0' pp, beam 72.5' wl and 74.0' max, draft at designed waterline 25.75', and total displacement of 7,640 tons. Although not mentioned during the design process, the ten foot increase in beam over that of the WINDs would allow it to clear a path for the Maritime Administration's large postwar standard cargo ships of the Mariner class. For propulsion, Gibbs recommended a direct current diesel electric plant with Fairbanks-Morse 2-cycle opposed piston diesel engines. To satisfy the Navy's horsepower requirements, the design included ten 12-cylinder 1,900 BHP engines (later identified as Fairbanks Morse 38D 8-1/8 diesels), each directly connected to a 1,700 KW 900 volt DC electric generator. These drove two 13-foot propulsion electric motors driving two screws aft with the option of a third motor driving a bow propeller. The plant could develop 16,900 shaft horsepower continuously with a four-hour overload rating of about 21,000 SHP. Gibbs recommended that the specified trial speed of the vessel be set at 16.25 knots. A BUSHIPS letter of 29 June 1951 authorized Gibbs to proceed with the preparation of hull and machinery contract plans and detail and special specifications for the ship. On 6 August 1951 SUPSHIP New York asked BUSHIPS Code 420 for new AGB vessel numbers for use as a class designation for the new vessel, and on 22 October 1951 Code 415 provided the designation Ice Breaker and the identification number AGB 4 for the ship.
Approved characteristics for a new AGB, SCB Project 11A, were promulgated on 21 September 1951 with a final change on 7 March 1957. On 12 December 1951 the Bureau of Aeronautics wrote to BUSHIPS requesting alterations to the aviation facilities in the Project 11A contract plans. BUAER wanted to add a hangar on the 01 level to accommodate the 2 HU model helos with their spares plus facilities for helo maintenance and pilot balloon inflation. This matter was already under study and around 17 December 1951 Gibbs produced an updated proposal that included relocating the after 3"/50 gun mounts, raising the boat stowage one deck level, and providing cranes instead of kingposts booms. On 19 December 1951 CNO determined that the phrase "facilities for basing" helos in the approved characteristics covered this change. At about this time a decision was made not to install a bow propeler on the ship. The construction contract for the ship was awarded to Ingalls on 10 January 1952. On 26 February 1952 the BUSHIPS Ship Design Division (Code 410) declared that the design work was completed and transferred technical control to the Ship Technical Division (Code 500). On 3 June 1952 BUSHIPS issued Change Order No.1 to the contract with Gibbs for design services for AGB 4 to cover the provision of a helicopter hangar and the necessary rearrangements around it.
GLACIER's motto was "Follow me." She originally had a heavy gun armament of two 5"/38 and six 3"/50 guns, all in twin mounts, although the forward twin 3"/50 mount was eventually landed. Nearly all of her Navy service was in successive Operations Deep Freeze in Antarctica. All Navy icebreakers were transferred to the Coast Guard in 1966.
An icebreaker of a new shallow draft type, Project 171, was included in a FY 1958 program proposed on 16 May 1956 and recommended by CNO to SECNAV on 23 October 1956, but SECNAV returned the program on 14 December 1956 for major reductions which removed the AGB and most other auxiliaries from the program. The ship was to provide icebreaking services in water that was too shallow for standard icebreakers in support of bases, presumably including those of the DEW line then under construction, and other operations in high latitudes. Approved characteristics for an Icebreaker, Shallow Draft (AGB), SCB Project No. 171, were promulgated on 7 June 1957 and updated on 18 June 1958. It was to be much smaller than Glacier (AGB 4) with an overall length of 245 feet, displacement of 2,600 tons, and machinery of 4,500 HP. (Another source provides measurements of 255' x 53' x 14', 2,350tons light, and 4,470 SHP.) The ship was not included in later building programs.
Ship Notes:
AGB | Name | MA | Notes |
4 | GLACIER | | FY 1952. Trf. USCG and comm. 30 Jun 1966 as USCGC GLACIER (WAGB 4). Decomm. 7 Jul 1987, to MA custody 3 Oct 1991. Title to MA 18 Dec 1998. Departed 17 Apr 2012 under domestic sale. |
Page Notes:
Compiled: 18 Oct 2021
© Stephen S. Roberts, 2021
Special sources: NARA: RG 19 Entry P 62 Boxes 8 and 69, RG 19 Entry P 26 Boxes 6-7