USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-83)
USCGC Mackinaw | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| United States | |
| Name | USCGC Mackinaw |
| Namesake | Mackinaw City, Michigan |
| Builder | Toledo Shipbuilding Company, American Ship Building Company |
| Laid down | March 20, 1943 |
| Launched | March 4, 1944 |
| Commissioned | December 20, 1944 |
| Decommissioned | June 10, 2006 |
| Identification |
|
| Status | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 5,252 long tons (5,336 t) |
| Length | 290 ft (88 m) |
| Beam | 74.3 ft (22.6 m) |
| Draft | 19.5 ft (5.9 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) |
| Capacity |
|
| Complement |
|
USCGC Mackinaw (WAGB-83) is a decommissioned United States Coast Guard icebreaker which operated on the Great Lakes for 62 years. A state-of-the-art icebreaker when she was launched in 1944, Mackinaw was built to extend the shipping season on the Great Lakes into the winter months and thereby strengthen the wartime economy of the United States during World War II. Unlike the U.S. Coast Guard's large icebreakers before and since, Mackinaw was designed specifically for use in the shallow, freshwater Great Lakes.
Mackinaw was homeported in Cheboygan, Michigan for her entire Coast Guard career, travelling as needed into Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan and Erie during icebreaking season to keep shipping lanes and harbors open. After her decommissioning in 2006 in the face of high operating costs, she sailed to a permanent berth in Mackinaw City, Michigan to become the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum.
The decommissioned Mackinaw was immediately replaced by a smaller multipurpose Coast Guard cutter, also named Mackinaw (USCGC Mackinaw (WLBB-30)) and also homeported in Cheboygan.