The long way home: after a six-month voyage to Antarctica, filled with unexpected challenges and tragedy, the crew of the CGC Polar Star find themselves finally sailing ��

A journey that started last fall to the sound of bagpipes began its final leg Feb. 12, when the CGC Polar Star left Antarctica and headed home to Seattle after a six-month deployment marked by tragedy, frustrating hurdles and historical firsts.

The Polar Star, a 399-foot polar icebreaker, and its 160 crewmembers departed Seattle Nov. 4, 2004, for the Coast Guard's 50th Antarctic mission in support of Operation Deep Freeze. The Polar Star makes the 28,700-mile journey annually to deliver fuel and food to the National Science Foundation research station in McMurdo, and to break open the channel to allow supply ships to reach the research station.

Supply ships deliver about 40 million pounds of food, vehicles, fuel, linens and other critical items for McMurdo's year-round research and support staff, as well as the staff due in for next year's research season. Aircraft bring supplies to McMurdo on a regular basis, but they cannot move the required volume of cargo that ships can carry.

"Without these supplies, the station would have to be evacuated and placed in caretaker status," said Cmdr. Craig Lloyd of the Coast Guard's Pacific Area Operations division in Alameda, Calif. "Not only do the supplies keep McMurdo operating, they keep [Amundsen -Scott] South Pole Station operating too."

Built in the 1970s, the Polar Star's red hull is made of reinforced steel and at varying speeds is capable of breaking ice up to 21 feet thick. Its specially designed bow rides up onto the ice, which then breaks under the ship's weight. It also has a system that allows rapid shifting of ballast to increase the effectiveness of the icebreaking. The breaker can carry up to 400 tons of cargo, and two HH-65 Dolphin helicopters.

On its nearly three-week journey toward Antarctica, the Polar Star made stops in Honolulu, and the Australian cities of Sydney and Hobart. The ship's visit to Honolulu ended in tragedy when one of its crewmembers, 34-year-old IT1 Mark Mueller, died during a recreational dive accident. Mueller, originally from the Chicago area, was diving with other crewmembers near a wrecked vessel when he lost consciousness. Mueller was pulled from the water but efforts to revive him failed.

"We were down [emotionally] for a long time," said Lt.j.g. Collin Bronson, the Polar Star's public affairs officer. "Mark was well liked and it was tough to lose him, especially at the beginning of a long deployment."

The Polar Star and its crew continued south toward Antarctica, making stops in Sydney and Hobart to rest and make minor repairs. While in Hobart, which is on the Australian island of Tasmania and is the last stop before heading toward Antarctica, approximately 20 NSF scientists boarded the Polar Star to make the remainder of the journey south. The ship arrived at the ice Dec. 18, and discovered that this year the ice's edge, which in past years extended 30-40 miles from McMurdo Station, extended more than 80 miles from the research center.

The wind normally pushes the ice away from Ross Island, where McMurdo is located. This year, though, icebergs that had broken away from the Ross Ice Shelf several years ago gradually migrated west to a point northeast of McMurdo Sound creating a barrier to the fast ice's route to the open ocean. Fast ice is sea ice that is immobile due to its attachment to a landmass.

The significant amount of ice presented challenges for the Polar Star. Last year its sister ship, the Polar Sea, made the trip south to help break open the channel into McMurdo. This year, however, the Polar Sea is drydocked for repairs.

The Polar Star's crew took a collective deep breath and plunged in. It wasn't long, though, before even the stalwart Polar Star suffered under the harsh ice conditions. The bolts located on the cover of the propellers were jarred loose from the extreme icebreaking, a condition that could cause the system to come apart.

"All that hard work takes its biggest toll on the ship, and extended ice breaking simply beat up an already aging ship," Bronson said

Seven divers and 6,000 pounds of equipment contracted by Naval Sea Systems Command from a Louisiana-based company were flown into McMurdo on a C-141 airplane. The divers worked in 10-hour shifts and completed repairs to the ship's propeller system about three weeks later.

While the Polar Star was undergoing repairs, the National Science Foundation chartered the Russian icebreaker Krasin from the Far East Shipping Co., when it became clear that the ice condition was severe enough to require a second icebreaker.

Back in the saddle again, the Polar Star resumed breaking the channel into McMurdo for the supply ships. Because the Polar Star has greater icebreaking capabilities than Krasin, it focused on the last 14 miles leading into McMurdo, while the Krasin concentrated its efforts farther out.

Because of the Polar Star's and Krasin's efforts, Navy fuel tanker Paul Buck made it to McMurdo Station's ice pier in late January and unloaded about eight million gallons of fuel, and the cargo vessel American Tern arrived Feb. 3 and unloaded its cargo.

The Polar Star had to depart by March 1, a goal that was attainable partly due to the joint effort with the Russians.

"We had Krasin working most of the time that we were down," Bronson said. "Also, we had made so much progress before the [mechanical] casualty, we still finished ahead of schedule."

The Polar Star served as an underway research platform for the scientists onboard. During their deployment, the Coast Guard crewmembers aided NSF scientists with several projects, including inter-annual variability in the Antarctic Ross Sea, which is a project that measures climactic changes that affect the entire world. They also completed several atmospheric tests on the trip down to Antarctica.

President's Day weekend, in the midst of the cruise back to Seattle, the Polar Star got the call that it was needed elsewhere: the Samoan and American Samoan islands had suffered extensive damage from Tropical Cyclone Olaf, a category five storm that had ripped through the region earlier in the week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency needed thousands of pounds of relief equipment moved, and the Polar Star was the only platform in the area with the capacity to move that much cargo.

"We were the perfect asset; we were in the right place and had the capacity to carry the load," said Capt. Richard "Mac" McCullough, Polar Star's commanding officer. "It was a great way to break the monotony of the sail home, and we were going to help those in need. There was no downside."

The cutter altered its course and arrived in Pago Pago Feb. 21. Over the next two days, sporting sunburns and sweaty shirts in the tropical climate, the crew worked from dawn to dusk loading bottled water, tents, tarps and engineering kits onto the ship's decks. Everyone on board, regardless of rank or job title, helped in one way or another to ensure that the 70,600 pounds of life-giving supplies got to the people living on the islands of Tau and Ofu.

"Seeing those people's faces as we were pulling up to the dock was a feeling like no other," said BM1 Joseph D. Shiver of the Polar Star. "We never get to do missions such as these, being a polar roller, but it is the reason we all came in [the Coast Guard]; to help others."

The Polar Star left American Samoa Feb. 23 and, after a brief port call in Honolulu, the cutter finally took its crew home, ending a trip marked by tragic loss, tough challenges and historical achievements. Upon their return to Seattle, amid the warm embraces of family and friends, the crew will surely feel the satisfaction of closing the chapter on this trip and preparing for the next.

Story by PA1 Amy Thomas, PacArea and PA2 Brooksann Anderson, 14th Dist.

COPYRIGHT 2005 U.S. Coast Guard
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