Ninth District Public Affairs U.S. Coast Guard

Sundew History

SUNDEW’S HISTORY   The United States Coast Guard Cutter SUNDEW, “The Superior One”, was launched from Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Company, Duluth, MN on February 8, 1944 and was commissioned on 24 August 1944.  The SUNDEW called many places home before returning to Duluth almost a quarter century ago.  Her first homeport was Manitowoc, WI.  There she serviced Aids to Navigation and conducted icebreaking and search and rescue missions.  In 1947, SUNDEW saved the lives of 28 crewmen on the freighter JUPITER, and towed the 3000-ton vessel to safety.  In 1950, SUNDEW was transferred to Milwaukee, WI where she served for 3 years.  From 1953 to 1958, Sturgeon Bay, WI was home to SUNDEW.  During these years, SUNDEW conducted annual breakouts for ports along Lake Michigan and freed numerous vessels beset in ice, including the fishing vessels Green Bay, Ellison Bay, and Jackson Harbor who were in danger of the ice crushing their thin hulls.  SUNDEW was moved to Charlevoix, MI in 1958.  While in Charlevoix, SUNDEW’s missions expanded to include lighthouse maintenance--taking fuel, supplies and personnel to area lighthouses.    In 1958, SUNDEW engaged in one of her most noteworthy missions when she was sent to the aid of the Carl D. Bradley who had cracked in two and was sinking.  SUNDEW braved waves of 30 to 40 feet as she rescued the only two survivors of the 35-man crew from a wooden life raft where they endured the elements for nearly 14 hours.  During the fall of 1962, a 40-foot patrol boat from the Charlevoix Lifeboat Station began to take on water during a storm.  The 3-man crew was forced to beach themselves on the north shore of Little Traverse Bay.  SUNDEW was dispatched to tow the boat off the beach, hoist it aboard, and return it to Charlevoix.  In the winter of 1962, as SUNDEW was returning to Charlevoix after retrieving Aids to Navigation, she was ordered to change course and assist a 64-foot tug that had grounded itself on the southwest side of Beaver Island.  After snapping three tow hawsers SUNDEW finally pulled the tug free and towed it to Detroit.  In 1963 SUNDEW got underway on a mercy mission of transporting five tons of bailed hay and a large supply of grain to Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan for a herd of 150 Herefords, a type of hardy red beef cattle, who’s food supply was running dangerously low.  It took Sundew 11 hours to break its way through thick ice from Charlevoix to the harbor of St. James, a distance of 32 miles, where the cutter unloaded the cattle’s cargo.  In 1964 the CGC MESQUITE, another 180’ buoy tender, ran aground on a reef south of Escanaba, WI.  The tug John Purves was sent to free the MESQUITE but ran aground on the same reef.  The Coast Guard then dispatched SUNDEW and she was able to tow the tug off the reef with no damage.  Together the tug Purves and SUNDEW pulled the MESQUITE to safety, and SUNDEW escorted the Purves as it towed MESQUITE to Escanaba for repairs of the 12 foot gash that flooded the engine room and other sections of the cutter.  During the ordeal, SUNDEW shared food and other supplies with the 45 crewmen aboard MESQUITE after learning food storage compartments were damaged in the grounding.  In February 1971, when commercial sources failed, SUNDEW was again called upon to bring emergency supplies to Beaver Island.  This time in the form of 2100 gallons of gasoline, 3600 gallons of fuel oil, 20 one-hundred pound tanks of propane gas, and a new radiator for the diesel engine which powered the island’s electrical generator.  In fall of 1971, SUNDEW and a helicopter from Air Station Traverse City, were tasked to search for the 9 crewmembers and retrieve the wreckage of a U.S. Air Force B-52 Bomber that crashed into northeast Lake Michigan during a practice bombing mission.  In the 60’s and 70’s, one of SUNDEW’s spring duties was to take crews to seven lighthouse stations in Northern Lake Michigan and Lake Huron that could not be manned during winter freeze-over.  Early in 1973 while SUNDEW was on one of these many logistic runs, she was diverted to the Straits of Mackinac to assist four steamers that were beset in moving ice fields.  In that same season and again in the Straits of Mackinac, SUNDEW assisted the Cutter SOUTHWIND in freeing the steamers Vorhees, Fraser, Ferbert, Olds, and the S.T. Crapo after they too became stuck in ice.  From August 1977 to August 1978, SUNDEW underwent major renovation at Coast Guard Yard, Curtis Bay, MD.  There she was given new, more powerful Main Diesel Engines, a larger shaft and propeller, and an upgraded main motor with additional thrust bearing support to facilitate the icebreaking mission.  These changes made SUNDEW the most powerful 180-foot buoy tender in the fleet.    In 1980, SUNDEW returned to Duluth, MN where she continued her distinguished service to the public.  SUNDEW sailed in salt water for the first and only time between 1987 and 1988.  She wintered over in the Caribbean where she conducted search and rescue, law enforcement operations, and serviced Aids to Navigation.  Early spring in 1991, SUNDEW freed the icebound M/V’s Incan Superior, Tarantau, Winnipeg, and Lee A. Tregurtha, clearing a path for them to enter Duluth Harbor.  In 1999, SUNDEW conducted a rescue mission in Superior Harbor.  Two people were caught in shifting ice in the harbor and local authorities were unable to assist.  Because it was after the workday, SUNDEW got underway without its usual compliment, proceeded to the scene and rescued the two people from an oncoming winter storm.  SUNDEW has also conducted many scientific missions on Lake Superior.  SUNDEW assists in the maintenance and monitoring of weather observation buoys for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  Today brings closure to the life of one of the Coast Guards most durable assets.  In its 60 years of service, SUNDEW has met every challenge head on.  She will remain in the Duluth area, a museum, where she will continue to educate the public about life aboard a Coast Guard Cutter, just as she has educated those who have proudly sailed with her for the last 60 years.

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