August 21, 2025 Seward Folly

The United States Coast Guard Storis was in Seward this past week. Residents enjoyed a brief window on a beautiful Sunday morning to tour the vessel. 

Photos by John Page

The medium icebreaker was commissioned Saturday, August 9,  in a ceremony in Juneau, Alaska.  It’s named after a celebrated World War II vessel that patrolled for 60 years in the Bering Sea and beyond. This is the first icebreaker commissioned since 1999.

The Coast Guard bought Storis, formerly the commercial oil and gas vessel Aiviq built by Edison Chouset Offshore, for $125 million and intends to base the icebreaker in Juneau. The Coast Guard has indicated it would spend an additional $25 million to refurbish the ship.

The ship has a bit of history in the Seward area.

On its maiden voyage to Alaska in 2012, the 360-foot vessel Aiviq, owned and operated by Chouest, was towing the Kulluk drill rig northward from Seattle and experienced an Arctic storm. Waves crashed over its rear deck and poured into interior spaces, causing it to list up to 20 degrees to one side. The water damaged cranes, heaters and firefighting equipment, and the vents to the fuel system were submerged.

Then on its way back from Alaska’s Beaufort Sea two months later, the Aiviq suffered an electrical blackout, and one of its engines failed. The ship was repaired in Dutch Harbor.

The Aiviq and Kulluk finally set out on a wintertime voyage back to Seattle. The National Weather Service issued a gale warning predicting 15-foot seas and 40-knot winds. The cable with which the Aiviq was towing the Kulluk came free two days later when a shackle broke. The icebreaker’s captain made a U-turn in heavy swells to hook up an emergency tow line, and water again poured over its deck and into the fuel vents. The Aiviq’s four diesel engines soon began to fail.

The Aiviq and Kulluk were reattached and for the next two days they were adrift. Storms pushed them slowly closer toward Kodiak. Coast Guard helicopter crews braved a storm to pluck 18 men off the deck of the Kulluk before it crashed into a rocky beach. 

The Kulluk was later towed back to Resurrection Bay in rough shape, and a transport ship was brought in to haul the wreckage to Asia. Catalyst Marine, based in Seward, was contracted to attach the rig to the ship for final transport across the Pacific Ocean. 

The Aiviq returned to Seattle. It had multiple problems – the ship was built to operate in the Arctic, but it has a type of propulsion system susceptible to failure in ice. Its waste and discharge systems weren’t designed to meet polar code, its helicopter pad is in the wrong place to launch rescue operations and its rear deck is easily swamped by big waves. In addition it is fuel inefficient, and probably most problematic – it only breaks ice to 4.5 feet. 

Despite these problems, Senator Stevens and others heavily lobbied the  USCG to purchase the vessel, in part due to its availability and relative affordability. At this point the USCG believes the “Storis adds vital capability to the U.S. polar icebreaker fleet at a critical time when our adversaries are expanding their activities in and near U.S. waters,” Coast Guard commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday said during the pier side commissioning ceremony.

The addition of the new cutter will bring the Coast Guard’s icebreaker inventory up to three. Storis joins medium USCGC Healy and the only U.S. polar icebreaker USCGC Polar Star. Healy is largely responsible for the Coast Guard’s Arctic missions while Polar Star has the annual task of breaking out the U.S. McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Storis will be focused on the Arctic. Following the commissioning, Storis will be homeported in Seattle, Wash., while awaiting upgrades to the proposed pier in Juneau.

The Coast Guard has secured more than $5 billion for three or more Arctic Security Cutters and a new class of icebreakers in the recently passed reconciliation bill.  The United States  is attempting to increase its presence in the Arctic, realizing that Russia, with more than 40 icebreakers, and China, with at least 5 icebreakers (and no Arctic Ocean border), create a serious imbalance of power in the region.

The new medium icebreaker design proposal follows the delays for the first Polar Security Cutter Polar Sentinel now under construction in Louisiana. The first hull is expected to be delivered in 2030, at a cost of over $1 billion,  according to the Congressional Research Service.

The Storis was a welcome sight in Seward, after the city lost its beloved Mustang patrol ship. The city is working on helping the USCG fast track the return of one of the new FRC vessels, the Frederick Mann, and its crew back to Seward in the near future.