PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - Coast Guard Cutter Elm is heading to Baltimore this month for a major dry dock overhaul.
The Juniper Class, 225-foot seagoing buoy tender was commissioned in 1998.
It has spent the last 20 years maintaining over 250 floating aids to navigation from central New Jersey to the Border of North Carolina and South Carolina.
Elm crew members also deployed to heavy ice seasons in New England, breaking ice for merchant traffic and freeing vessels trapped in the ice along the Hudson River and in Delaware Bay.
The Elm will make its final departure from its homeport in Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, this month to the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore. It will report to its new homeport in Astoria, Oregon, following the completion of its overhaul.