USCGC Acushnet (WMEC-167) was a cutter of the United States Coast Guard, homeported in Ketchikan, Alaska. She was originally USS Shackle (ARS-9), a Diver-class rescue and salvage ship commissioned by the United States Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for coming to the aid of stricken vessels and received three battle stars during World War II, before a long career with the Coast Guard. Acushnet patrolled the waters of the North Pacific and was one of the last World War II era ships on active duty in the US fleet upon her retirement in 2011.
United States Navy service - 1944 to 1946
USS Shackle was laid down on 26 October 1942 by the Basalt Rock Company in Napa, California. Launched on 1 April 1943, she was sponsored by Mrs. Walker Cochran. She was commissioned on 5 February 1944, with Lieutenant Charles G. Jenkins Jr. in command. At the time of her building, the country was at war and in need of more naval vessels. As a result of the necessity, three ships, identified only as "naval auxiliaries" underwent construction. The project took less than a year to complete three fleet rescue and salvage vessels which served in the Pacific Theater. All three vessels later became Coast Guard cutters. Shackle's first station was at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where she served as a salvage ship in the West Pacific throughout the remainder of World War II. Shackle's first year was spent completing extensive salvage assignments clearing wreckage in the channels at Pearl Harbor and Midway Island. The vessel spent the rest of the year in Guam, Eniwetok, Tinian and Saipan. On February 15, 1945, Shackle sailed for the invasion of Iwo Jima where she successfully completed over 44 diving and salvage assignments. One of these was the battle repair of USS Terry which was hit by a Japanese shore battery. During March 1945, Shackle served as a supporting unit for the Okinawa invasion. Between D-Day (April 1, 1945) and September 20, 1945, the ship completed 55 salvage and rescue operations on larger naval craft damaged by kamikaze attacks. There were 108 general alarms during the period. Shackle was assigned to mine sweeping operations in the East China Sea where over 200 enemy mines of all types were sunk or destroyed. Shackle cleared the vital docking area of the wreckage of a sunken Japanese cable laying ship at Yokosuka Naval Base, Tokyo Bay, Japan. During all of these operations the Shackle suffered no damage or casualties. As part of her service in the Pacific Theater, Shackle received three World War II battle stars, the WWII Victory Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the Navy Occupation Service Medal. On August 23, 1946 USS Shackle was commissioned into the United States Coast Guard as USCGC Acushnet (WAT-167), a search and rescue vessel and was homeported in Portland, Maine.
Transfer to the United States Coast Guard - 1946 Decommissioned by the United States Navy at the end of World War II, along with her sister ships USS Seize and USS Escape, she was quickly transferred to the United States Coast Guard. She remained at San Diego, California, until ordered to San Francisco, California, where, on 29 June, she was decommissioned and transferred to the Coast Guard. First homeported in Portland, Maine, as a Coast Guard tug, and renamed USCGC Acushnet (WAT-167), she earned a sound reputation as a dependable friend to fishermen and boaters in distress.
North East and International Ice Patrol Service - 1946 to 1968 While in Portland, Maine Acushnet became a friend to the maritime community with her search-and-rescue endeavors. While in Maine, Acushnet served as a search and rescue vessel, and as part of the International Ice Patrol. Acushnet and her role in the International Ice Patrol was featured in the April 22nd 1957 edition of Life magazine. In September 1947, Acushnet fought a fire in Bar Harbor, Maine. On 4 October 1950, the cutter worked with USCGC Cowslip and USCGC Snohomish to free MV Berwindvale which had run aground in the Kennebec River. On 18 February 1952, Acushnet participated in what is listed as one of the ten most significant Coast Guard rescues. The tanker SS Fort Mercer split in two in a fierce storm off Cape Cod, and Acushnet took 18 men off the stern of Fort Mercer in heavy seas. The ships collided twice and the merchant seamen jumped to the safety of Acushnet's fantail. In the year 1950, Acushnet became active in the International Ice Patrol and spent a total of seven patrol months sharing that responsibility with the cutters Androscoggin and Evergreen. Acushnet's salvage gear was removed in late 1959 and replaced with search-and-rescue gear. From 1960 to 1968 Acushnet completed four towing missions for over 950 miles (1,530 km), assisted a vessel that broke in two, escorted four disabled vessels and assisted in two medevacs. A few of Acushnet's more noteworthy cases during that time frame include the following: in 1960, she salvaged the 300-ton USCGC General Greene which had been driven one hundred yards ashore in high winds. One of her more dramatic cases in Portland included the rescue of the entire crew of ten people from the disabled seagoing dredge Cartagena, which was adrift in 30-foot (9.1 m) seas and 75-knot (139 km/h; 86 mph) winds, 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) off of Cape Cod on Christmas Day, 1961. In May 1963, Acushnet salvaged a crashed Coast Guard helicopter 600 yards (550 m) off Duxbury Beach, Massachusetts. The fall of 1967 took Acushnet south, where the cutter rescued a Cuban refugee from a distressed 17-foot (5.2 m) pleasure craft 50 nautical miles (93 km; 58 mi) south of Key West, Florida.
Redesignated as an oceanographic ship - 1968 to 1971 Redesignated an oceanographic ship, WAGO-167, on July 8, 1968, and assigned to oceanographic, meteorological, and polar operations, she commenced duties as a research support ship. During fiscal year 1970, she underwent conversion during which alterations were made to her hull and scientific equipment, and research and storage spaces were added at a shipyard in San Diego, California. As part of the National Data Buoy Project of NOAA Acushnet spent three years attached to the Office of Naval Research and the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in San Diego, California. Her primary mission on eleven extended deployments to June 1971, the cutter aided in positioning buoys. While serving as a WAGO, Acushnet assisted in one rescue, a medevac in 1970.
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