USCGC Cactus (WLB-270) is a 180 feet (55 m) sea going buoy tender (WLB). A Cactus-class vessel, she was built by Marine Ironworks and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota. Cactus's preliminary design was completed by the United States Lighthouse Service and the final design was produced by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Corporation in Duluth. On 31 March 1941 the keel was laid, she was launched on 25 November 1941 and commissioned on 1 September 1942. The original cost for the hull and machinery was $782,381.
Cactus is one of 39 original 180-foot seagoing buoy tenders built between 1942-1944. All but one of the original tenders, USCGC Ironwood (WLB-307), were built in Duluth.
Cactus was decommissioned in 1971 after running aground. Ultimately, the Coast Guard sold the damaged vessel and she was converted to a barge for use in the Pacific Northwest. Cactus was moored without permission in Tacoma, Washington for several years and then in King County off Maury Island from 2003 to 2008. King County currently has custody of the vessel in Seattle, Washington.
Famous quotes containing the word cactus:
“What do we want with this vast and worthless area, of this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs; to what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor in it?”
—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)