The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell, a vessel frequently seen in Alaskan waters over the last half-century, recently completed its final voyage to the Bering Sea.
The 378-foot high endurance cutter returned to its base in San Diego about a week before Christmas.
Coast Guard News reports Boutwell conducted two patrols in Alaskan waters in the last six months. Crews conducted two helicopter medical evacuations, 29 fisheries boardings and provided safety zone enforcement for Shell oil rigs in the Arctic Ocean.
Boutwell’s crew stopped in Dutch Harbor to spend Thanksgiving with residents who provided a traditional, home-cooked holiday meal as part of the “Host a Coastie” program.
Boutwell traveled more than 40,000 nautical miles during its final year of Coast Guard operation.
According to a vessel history compiled by the Coast Guard, Boutwell’s many successful missions over the last 47 years included a record-breaking maritime drug raid, the interception of high seas driftnetters, providing support for the intervention and overthrow of the Haitian military regime, repatriating Haitian migrants, assisting in the search and rescue of a disabled Soviet nuclear submarine, and defending Iraqi and Iranian oil terminals during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Boutwell responded to the 1980 sinking of the Prinsendam cruise ship in Alaska waters. Over 500 passengers and crew were saved in what has been called the greatest high seas rescue ever conducted.
The cutter will be decommissioned in 2016 and sold to the Philippines.
Related stories:
35th Anniversary of the Prinsendam, Part 1: The Rescue, from KCAW
35th Anniversary of the Prinsendam, Part 2: The Response
35th Anniversary of the Prinsendam, Part 3: The Reporting
