In today’s spotted, we bring you an image of Coast Guard cutter Maple, a 225-foot seagoing buoy tender which has concluded its historic voyage through the Northwest Passage and arrived at Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore.
The image shows the USCGC Maple following the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Terry Fox through the icy waters of Franklin Strait, in Nunavut Canada, on August 11, 2017. The Canadian Coast Guard assisted Maple’s crew by breaking and helping navigate through ice during several days of Maple’s 2017 Northwest Passage transit.
Built in 2001, the Maple features a length of 69 meters and a width of 11 meters.
During the voyage, the cutter served as “a ship of opportunity” to conduct scientific research in support of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The Maple will now undergo scheduled maintenance in dry dock at the Coast Guard Yard for repairs and upgrades. Its crew will return to Sitka – where the Maple is based – to take command of the 225-foot Coast Guard cutter Kukui, which was previously homeported in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is currently completing a mid-life renovation at the yard.
This summer marks the 60th anniversary of three USCG cutters and one Canadian ship that convoyed through the Northwest Passage, which are several passageways through the archipelago of the Canadian Arctic.
From May to September 1957, the crews of cutters Storis, SPAR and Bramble, along with the crew of the Canadian icebreaker HMCS Labrador, charted, recorded water depths and installed aids to navigation for future shipping lanes.