Acacia

Acacia was built in 1944, is 180 feet long and flies a U.S. flag.

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The Acacia came in early in the morning of August 24, 2001 (above) on a routine training mission on Lake Superior. Specifically, it was an area familiarization exercise, which is pretty much what it sounds like. They have new personnel among their 40 enlisted and 8 officers. In case they get called up here for duty, they will know what to expect. Duluth is the birthplace of the Acacia, just as it was for the Sundew. Both were built in Duluth in 1944. We know the Sundew came out first since it has number 404. The Acacia was number 406.

Acacia was named for a former United States Lighthouse Service tender Acacia that was the only tender sunk during World War II.

She was nominally a buoy tender, but with equipment and capabilities for ice breaking, search and rescue, fire fighting, logistics, and other tasks as well.

Among her various duties were search and rescue of lost or disabled vessels and icebreaking in Operation Coal Shovel, which kept the channels between Toledo, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan open for the coal ships supplying power plants and industries in Detroit.

Acacia also worked with NOAA to acquire accurate weather information and with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service when they stocked Lake Michigan with hundreds of thousands of yearling trout. She was homeported in Port Huron, Michigan, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Grand Haven, Michigan and Charlevoix, Michigan. She maintained more than 210 buoys, lighthouses, and other navigational aids ranging from a Calumet Harbor, south Chicago, to Little Bay de Noc, including Green Bay, Wisconsin, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin and Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula.

Acacia was decommissioned June 7, 2006 after 62 years of service. She was the second to last of the 180-foot (55 m) vessels to serve. Although another ship was not assigned to Acacia’s last home port, her duties were picked up then newly commissioned USCGC Mackinaw which is equipped to handle buoy tending as well as ice breaking.

Three years after decommissioning, the Acacia is now a museum ship open for tours. She rests along side the S.S. City of Milwaukee, in Manistee, Michigan.