A Tour of the Soo Coast Guard Station

Every year the Coast Guard station is open for tours and every year I end up doing other things.  This year there was only one ship going through the locks and the rest of the ships that were passing that day were coming down later in the afternoon.  That gave me plenty of time to do other things.

 So I decided to head over to the Coast Gaurd station, although I didn't look at the station itself.  I was more interested in the boats that you could tour.

 First up is the US Coast Guard Cutter Buckthorn.  She is a buoy tender and I think one of the oldest vessels still in the Coast Guard.

 Looking up at her bridge.  The Buckthorn is used as a buoy tender.

 A view from the Bridge of the Buckthorn to the one of the defender boats that just docked.

 A shot of her control panel.

Next up on the tour was the Biscayne Bay.

 A view of her bow.

 I think this was the mess hall.  The accommodations are pretty small.

 The Captain's office.

 The controls in one of the bridge wings.  I think these are used when she is doing icebreaking operations.

 A shot of her other controls.

 The wheel of the Biscayne Bay.

 The Canadian Coast Guard provided the Constable Carrier patrol ship.

 The Constable Carriere is used for enforcement duties and because of that, she has a compliment of Mounted Police.

 One of her liferings.

 I think this is the flag of the Canadian Coast Guard.

 Looking at her bridge from the front.

 The crest of the Canadian Coast Guard.

 Her controls.

 One of her mounties.

 An okay shot of her.

The Great Lakes Towing company has a slip next door to the Coast Guard station.  This gave me an opportunity to get a picture of a pair of tugs.

The Buckthorn

These pictures are a little out of order for the day because there was quite a jumble of ships at roughly the same time.  Rather than breaking these posts up further, I decided to just keep each ship as one post.

 That being said, our next vessel is the Coast Guard Buoy Tender Buckthorn.

 She was built in 1964 by the Mobile Ship Repair Company in Alabama.  She was first stationed in Detroit.

 Later she was moved to Buffalo in 1967.

And then she was moved to Sault Ste. Marie in 1970.  She is the oldest inland buoy tender.  She had extensive repairs earlier this year.