Evaluation of the USCGC Storis for listing on the National Register of Historic Places

USCGC Storis is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under criteria A and C, supported by the pre-decommissioning study performed for the U.S. Coast Guard in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.

The oldest active cutter in the U.S. Coast Guard fleet at the time of her decommissioning, under National Register Criteria A, Storis is nationally significant in defense and maritime history for her role as the last surviving major vessel to have participated in the Greenland Patrols during World War II and for her long career as a law enforcement and SAR platform in the rugged ocean patrol areas of the Bering Sea and Northern Pacific Ocean near the State of Alaska. Storis is nationally significant for her social/humanitarian activities in providing medical, dental and judicial services to remote villages, disaster relief in time of natural catastrophe, and for performing icebreaking and maintenance of the country’s Aids to Navigation system.

Under the obvious maritime theme, Storis’ association with the 1957 Hydrographic Survey Unit of the U.S. Military Sea Transportation Service Western Task Force is the most significant event associated with the ship. She is significant as one of the first American vessels to successfully circumnavigate North America through the Northwest Passage. The Hydrographic Survey Unit’s mission to determine the feasibility of the Northwest Passage as a route for cargo vessels was as potentially dangerous as it was economically important. It was ultimately determined that the passage was not practical for commercial shipping. However, hydrographic surveys conducted by Storis and the two smaller Coast Guard cutters accompanying her on the mission did produce the first reliable chart of the depths of the Northwest Passage. Because of the nature of the mission, Storis is eligible under the categories commerce, exploration and science.

Under National Register Criteria C, Storis is nationally significant. Though the only vessel of her class ever constructed, Storis proved over her 64 years of faithful and remarkable service to the U.S. Coast Guard the exceptional durability and versatility of her design as a multi-mission platform. She is a sturdy and seaworthy vessel able to travel great distances across open ocean to perform military support, armed law enforcement, SAR and icebreaking duties. Capable of carrying support aircraft, Storis was also very proficient at servicing lighthouses and other Aids to Navigation (AtoN) or providing critical supplies, relief services and replenishment for remote villages and military facilities. Despite working in vast, freezing saltwater ocean environments often swept with hurricane-force winds and mountainous waves, Storis’ ultimate obsolescence took decades to arrive. In an era where typical naval vessels are considered “old” after a service life of ten to fifteen years, a useful and productive military career of over six decades is exceptional. Under Criteria C, the vessel must retain “integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association.” Her proposed return to Juneau and the Alaskan waters in which she patrolled for almost fifty years will restore the ship’s integrity of location, context and sense of place. Although Storis underwent major overhauls in 1972 and 1986, the vessel’s integrity as a 1940s ship design has been maintained. Outwardly, the ship has undergone a variety of minor modifications since her construction; however, the ship evokes a sense of historic design.

USCGC Storis is nationally significant.