USCGC Balsam (WLB-62)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career
Class:	Cactus
Laid down:	25 October 1941
Launched:	15 April 1942
Commissioned:	14 October 1942
Cost to build:	$916,109
Built by:	Zenith Dredge Company, Duluth, Minnesota
Decommissioned:	6 March 1975
Fate:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,025 tons
Length:	180 feet
Beam:	37 feet
Propulsion:	2 General Motors EMD-645 V-8 Diesel engines
Speed:	13 knots
Range:	8000 miles at 13 knots
Complement:	48
Armament:	Wartime: 20mm guns, a 3 inch cannon and depth charges. Peacetime: None
Aircraft:	None
Motto:	Semper Paratus (Always Ready)

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 U.S. Light House 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.