Coast Guard Cutter Elm leaving for major dry dock overhaul, homeport change

News Release

U.S. Coast Guard 5th District Mid-Atlantic Contact: 5th District Public Affairs Office: (757) 398-6272 After Hours: (757) 434-7712 5th District online newsroom

Coast Guard Cutter Elm leaving for major dry dock overhaul, homeport change

 

PORTSMOUTH, Va. — The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Elm will make their final departure from the cutter’s homeport in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, in January 2018 to the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore for a scheduled major dry dock overhaul.

The Coast Guard Cutter Maple, which is completing its own midlife overhaul, will replace the Elm in Atlantic Beach this April.

The Elm, a Juniper Class, 225-foot seagoing buoy tender, was commissioned in 1998 and reported to Coast Guard Sector Field Office Macon, North Carolina. The Elm has spent the last 20 years maintaining over 250 floating aids to navigation from central New Jersey to the border of North and South Carolina. These aids ensure the safe and quick transit of maritime commerce and recreational boating traffic.

The Elm was also key to a Coast Guard partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to maintain weather buoys. These buoys collect essential data for climate mapping and real-time weather conditions. In 2005, crew members also worked with NOAA marine biologists to help save an entangled northern right whale.  

Additionally, Elm crew members deployed to heavy ice seasons in New England, breaking ice for merchant traffic and freeing vessels trapped in the ice along the Hudson River and in Delaware Bay. Crewmembers also performed law enforcement duties to ensure the safety of recreational and merchant vessels and to uphold compliance with fisheries laws. The crew deployed to South Florida to conduct migrant interdictions as well.

The Elm’s humanitarian missions included crew members deploying in the wake of Hurricanes Matthew, Irma and Maria. Their missions during these responses helped reopen ports in Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Florida and Georgia. The Elm crew also spent five months coordinating and performing oil cleanup following the Deepwater Horizon incident off the coast of Louisiana in 2010.

The Elm will report to its new homeport in Astoria, Oregon, following the completion of its overhaul.

-USCG-