Coast Guard cutter here for 1-day visit

4/13/2006

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw will be open for public tours for four hours on Saturday during its final visit to Toledo before decommissioning, the Coast Guard announced yesterday.

The Mackinaw, built in Toledo in 1943 and '44, is expected to dock near the LaFarge Cement terminal on Water Street sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening after sailing from Port Huron, Mich. It will be open for tours from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday.

When commissioned, the Mackinaw was the most powerful icebreaker in the world. She remains the Coast Guard's largest icebreaker on the Great Lakes.

Her replacement, also named the Mackinaw, is in sea trials on the Great Lakes and is designed for warm-weather service as a buoy tender along with icebreaking work in the winter and early spring.

The original Mackinaw is to be decommissioned in June.