USCGC Spar
Buoy Tender · United States · Lost 2004 · The Outer Banks
A Coast Guard buoy tender famed for a 1957 Northwest Passage transit, later sunk off North Carolina as a shark-rich artificial reef.
The Vessel and Her Loss
Commissioned in 1944, USCGC Spar performed convoy escort duty off Brazil during World War II and later took part, with cutters Storis and Bramble, in the first surface vessel circumnavigation of North America via the Northwest Passage in 1957. Decommissioned in 1997, she was scuttled off North Carolina in June 2004 as part of the state's artificial reef program and now sits upright and intact.
Vessel
- 1943
- WLB-403
- Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Company
- Duluth, Minnesota
- Steel
- 180 ft
- 37 ft
- 1025
- Two EMD 8-cylinder diesel engines
- United States Coast Guard
Loss
- June 1, 2004
- Intentional sinking
- Off North Carolina
- Atlantic Ocean
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
- Not established
The Wreck Today
- 80-100
- Intact, upright, with good relief from the seabed to the wheelhouse.
- Upright
- Not established
- North Carolina artificial reef program
Position
- 33.14° N 75.86° W
- Approximate position
- Off North Carolina's Outer Banks
Evidence
Overall confidence: Documented (85/100)
Build, service history, sinking date.
Wikipedia (USCGC Spar (WLB-403))
Build details, decommissioning, scuttling.
