The USCGC White Alder (WLM/WAGL-541) was the former Navy

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 lighter

Lightering

Lightering is the process of transferring cargo between vessels of different sizes, usually between a barge and a bulker or oil tanker. Lightering is undertaken to reduce a vessel's draft in order to enter port facilities which cannot accept very large ocean-going vessels...

, YF-417. The United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 acquired a total of eight of these former Navy YF-257-class lighters between 1947-1948 for conversion to coastal buoy tender

Buoy tender

A buoy tender is a type of vessel used to maintain and replace navigational buoys. The name is also used for someone who works on such a vessel and maintains buoys....

s. They were needed to complement the larger seagoing buoy tenders in servicing short-range-aids-to-navigation, typically those placed in coastal waters and harbors.

They were built entirely of steel and were originally designed to carry ammunition and cargo from shore to deep-draft vessels anchored off-shore. These lighters were well suited for a variety of coastal tasks because their hull design incorporated a shallow draft with a solid engineering plant. All of these 133 feet (40.5 m) lighters had sufficient cargo space for storing equipment and an open deck and boom for handling large objects. They proved to be capable and useful buoy tenders. Each was named for a plant, shrub or tree, prefixed by "White."

Tender history

White Alder was stationed at New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

 throughout her Coast Guard career, which spanned 1947 until 1968. Her primary assignment was to tend river aids-to-navigation although she was called upon to conduct other traditional Coast Guard duties, such as search and rescue or law enforcement duties, as required. In mid-November 1965 she escorted raised barge carrying chlorine to a chemical plant and on 4 December 1968 she refloated cutter USCGC Loganberry (WLI-65305), which had been beached on 3 December.

At approximately 18:29 CST on 7 December 1968, the "downbound" White Alder collided with the "upbound" M/V Helena, a 455 feet (138.7 m) Taiwanese freighter in the Mississippi River at mile 195.3 above Head of Passes near White Castle, Louisiana

White Castle, Louisiana

White Castle a town in Iberville Parish, Louisiana, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 1,946. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:White Castle is located at ....

 and sank in 75 feet (22.9 m) of water. Three of the crew of 20 were rescued, while the other 17 perished. Divers recovered the bodies of three of the dead but river sediment buried the cutter so quickly that continued recovery and salvage operations proved impractical. The Coast Guard decided to leave the remaining 14 crewmen entombed in the sunken cutter, which remains buried in the bottom of the Mississippi River.

The Coast Guard dedicated a memorial, at the Coast Guard base in New Orleans, to the White Alder and her crew on 7 December 1969. The memorial was moved to the new Coast Guard Group New Orleans offices in Metairie, Louisiana

Metairie, Louisiana

Metairie is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States and is a major part of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish. It is an unincorporated area that would be larger than most of the state's cities if it were...

, and rededicated on 6 December 2002.

Sources

• This article contains public domain text from the United States Coats Guard Historian’s Office website.
• http://www.uscg.mil/history/WEBCUTTERS/NPS_133_HAER_Report.pdf
• Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
• Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft, 1946-1990. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.
• U. S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. U.S. Coast Guard 133 feet (40.5 m) Buoy Tenders. HAER booklet. Washington, DC: National Park Service, February, 2004. [ HAER no. DC-57; Todd Croteau, HAER Industrial Archeologist (project leader); Jet Low, HAER Photographer; Mark Porter, NCSHPO Consultant (historian), and Candace Clifford, booklet design. ]