USCGC Edisto

USS Edisto (AGB-2) was a Wind-class icebreaker in the service of the United States Navy and was later transferred to the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Edisto (WAGB-284). She was named after Edisto Island, South Carolina. The island is named after the Native American Edisto Band who inhabited the island and the surrounding area. As of 2011 there is a namesake cutter USCGC Edisto (WPB-1313). The newer Edisto is a 110-foot Island-class patrol boat and is stationed in San Diego County, California.

Edisto was one of the icebreakers designed by Lieutenant Commander Edward Thiele and Gibbs & Cox of New York, who modeled them after plans for European icebreakers he obtained before the start of World War II. She was the last of seven completed ships of the Wind class of icebreakers operated by the United States Coast Guard. Her keel was laid on May 15, 1945 at Western Pipe and Steel Company shipyards in San Pedro, California, she was launched on December 28, 1946, and commissioned on March 20, 1947.

Her outer hull plating was constructed with 1+5⁄8-inch (41 mm)-thick high tensile steel. Edisto had a double bottom above the waterline with the two "skins" being approximately 15 in (380 mm) apart, insulated with cork. Framing was closely spaced and the entire hull girder was designed for great strength. Edisto's bow had the characteristic sloping forefoot that enabled her to ride up on heavy ice and break it with the weight of the vessel. Edisto's stern was similarly shaped to facilitate breaking ice while backing down. The sides of the icebreaker were rounded, with marked tumble home, that enabled the ship to break free from ice by heeling from side to side. Such heeling was accomplished by shifting water rapidly from wing tanks on one side of the ship to the other. A total of 220 tons of water could be shifted from one side to the other in as little as 90 seconds, which induced a list of 10 degrees. Ballast could also be shifted rapidly between fore and aft tanks to change the trim of the ship. Diesel electric machinery was chosen for its controlability and resistance to damage.

Edisto was built during peacetime, so she had a much lighter armament than her war-built sisters, one 5 in (127 mm) 38 caliber deck gun when in Navy service, and unarmed for the Coast Guard.

On April 11, 1947, Edisto sailed for the United States East Coast on a shake-down cruise. That summer, during a training cruise to Greenland, she crossed the Arctic Circle for the first of many times in her career. Upon her return to Boston, Massachusetts, Edisto was assigned to Task Force 39 for the Second Antarctic Development Project. She sailed on November 1, 1947 for a rendezvous via the Panama Canal with USS Burton Island at American Samoa. Together, they ventured south, becoming the first ships to penetrate the pack ice east of the Ross Sea. While in the Antarctic on this deployment, Edisto trained sailors and tested cold weather equipment, as well as investigating installations and equipment left by Operation Highjump of the previous year. She also collected valuable scientific data concerning geographic, hydrographic, photographic, oceanographic, meteorological, and electromagnetic conditions in the south polar regions.

Upon her return to Boston, Massachusetts on March 31, 1948, Edisto immediately began preparing for operations in the far north. During this summer deployment, her task force resupplied weather stations at Thule, Greenland, and on Ellesmere and Ellif Renghes Islands. The ships in this task force did reconnaissance to establish additional weather stations, trained men in cold weather operations, tested equipment, and collected a variety of data. Except for brief repairs in Boston for replacement of a broken propeller shaft, Edisto continued this grueling grind until September 25, 1948. During December 1948, in company with USS Hoist, she successfully rescued USS Whitewood, which had been damaged by ice and had run aground in Tunulliarfik Fjord at Narsaq, Greenland.

The next cruise of Edisto to the north polar regions was for purely exploratory purposes. Not even waiting for summer, she sailed out of Boston Harbor on January 24, 1949 to determine how much an icebreaker would be limited by the foul Arctic storms and lowest temperatures. She weathered extreme sub-zero conditions and returned to Boston on March 25, 1949.

From 1949 until her transfer to the U.S. Coast Guard on October 20, 1965, Edisto continued her support to exploration in both Arctic and Antarctic regions. The icebreaker supplied bases, reported ice packs and floes, took part in oceanographic, hydrographic, geological, coast and geodetic, and hydrophone surveys, and participated in Arctic convoy exercises. In 1949, Edisto took part in Operation Bluejay, the construction of radar stations in the far north. The following year, on August 6, 1950, Edisto set a record for northernmost penetration by reaching latitude 82 degrees North while conducting oceanographic surveys. In 1952, the work she had begun in Operation Bluejay was completed.