I’ve posted before about Wikipedia and I’ve posted before about my interest in Coast Guard buoy tenders — especially the old “180s”, the 180-foot cutters that were built in Duluth, MN for the Coast Guard during World War II. My favorite of these, obviously, is the USCGC Sundew, the cutter that was home ported in Duluth while I lived there. I’ve even written about the Sundew on Wikipedia.

This week I noticed that of the 39 “180s”, only a handful have been written about on Wikipedia. I found this a little frustrating, so I decided to get busy writing. Over the last week I’ve added entries about the USCGC Cactus, USCGC Balsam, USCGC Blackthorn, and USCGC Cowslip. I’ll write about more of the 180s in the future.

I’ve learned a couple of interesting things as I’ve been trying to research the history of these vessels from online information. The first thing I’ve learned is just how little information there is about the majority of these ships in online sources. There appears to be quite a bit of info in printed materials, but most of them have not been made accessible in a digital format yet. Frustrating!

The other really interesting thing I learned about is in reference to an unusual circumstance with USCGC Cowslip. I discovered that she was officially retired from the Coast Guard in 2002. The surprise was that this was actually the second time Cowslip was retired. She was apparently retired in 1973 as well. The Coast Guard even went as far as selling her in 1977. Then in 1980, her sister ship, the USCGC Blackthorn, was destroyed in an accident. Surprisingly, the Coast Guard decided the best course of action was to actually buy the Cowslip back and put her back in service. She served for another two decades!

I wonder what other interesting information I’ll discover as I write the rest of these articles.

–Pete