By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

For twelve years, Ben Koether tried to save the icebreaking ship that was Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s flagship when he was commander of the U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze I.

This week, a Brownsville, Texas, company began taking the ship apart.

“I take full responsibility,” Koether said from Newport, R.I., one of several places he had hoped to find a home for the USS Glacier. “I wish it had sunk at sea with us aboard. It would have been a more fitting end.”

The Glacier was pulled from its moorings last April and towed to California Dry Dock Solutions, Mare Island, for preparation for its final trip to ESCO Marine Inc., in Brownsville.

Even as the Glacier headed toward its ultimate destruction, Koether tried to block its fate, enlisting the aid of members of Congress and ship experts and even trying to get the Maritime Administration to swap another ship for the icebreaker.

U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Mark Begich of Alaska wrote MARAD to ask for a review of the sale of the ship, or to trade the Glacier for a different MARAD non-retention ship.

Joseph Lombardi, a marine surveyor from Manchester, Mass., who originally surveyed the shp’s condition in 2002 and 2003, traveled to California last May for another assessment, and declared the ship’s hull to be “in first class condition,” and he disputed MARAD’s declaration that the ship was deteriorated to the point it no longer could be donated.

Koether persisted, even as the ship was towed through the Panama Canal on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Eventually, he would write his supporters, he would get no more responses to his inquiries.

Kris Wood, contracts and logistics manager at ESCO Marine, confirmed Tuesday that the ship’s demolition was under way.

Koether, 75, at one time served as the Glacier’s navigator, and had described the ship’s adventures in the Antarctic with these words: “Have you ever been scared to death for two years in a row?”

The ship sailed where no ship had journeyed before, and many of the places it either traveled or carved free bear the names of its crew. Koether Inlet, a previously unexplored area in the Bellingshausen Sea until the Glacier went there, carries the name of the icecutter’s would-be savior.

After 29 Antarctic and 10 Arctic deployments, the ship was decommissioned in 1987, came under MARAD control and was moored in Suisun Bay.

At one time, Koether thought the unique ship already had been destroyed. Then he spotted the vessel as it floated in the Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay. He formed The Glacier Society, and his quest began. The organization scored a victory in July 2000 when Congress transferred ownership of the old ship to the Glacier Society for use in education and public service.

Through the years, at least a thousand people would join in the effort, including Benicia Volunteer Fire Department members, led by Ron Rice, who stood the “fire watch” while other volunteers cut a donated Navy generator from another Reserve Fleet ship for installation on the Glacier.

The volunteer workers would stay aboard the Glacier, sleeping in 70 berths that were made ready to accommodate them.

“Will you please give my sincere appreciation to the volunteers of Benicia and California?” Koether said Tuesday. “And to the business men and women of Benicia for their contributions in kind?”

He said Benicians contributed hotel rooms, parts, tools and meals when Glacier Society volunteers worked on the vessel while it was in Suisun Bay. “That helped us a lot. I know they are very distraught and upset.”

In the early years of the Glacier Society, Koether had hoped to move the icebreaker from off the coast of Benicia to a dock at Mare Island. He said he got cooperation from Vallejo, Lennar Corp. which took over the old naval shipyard, Richmond and other Bay Area agencies.

But he said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blocked the dredging that would have made the silting docks available. Koether’s group was denied berthing or dry dock space.

He then sought space at Bridgeport, Conn. Arrangements to move the ship to Newport, R.I., also fell through.

When Koether moved to Florida, he began working on moving the ship to his new home state. He made progress there. In fact, he said, all he needed to do was get the Glacier towed to Miami.

As of Tuesday, Koether had received no official word about the ship’s fate, though ESCO informed him earlier that the ship’s demolition was slated to start Monday, “and by the end of Monday, the ship will be gone.”

He sighed.

“Oh, my golly. I’m trying to decompress, and get control of my emotions,” he said, trying to comprehend that 12 years of effort, and millions of dollars invested by the Glacier Society had been futile. “Maybe in the future, I’ll write a book.”

Not all remnants of the Glacier will be gone once the recycler has done its job. Koether sailed into Newport on the Arctic Scout, a 44-foot survey boat that had been used on the Glacier.

The Arctic Scout, abandoned by the U.S. Coast Guard, was found, purchased and restored by the Glacier Society. Its name refers to Byrd’s habit of having an Eagle Scout on each of his expeditions. The boat trains Eagle Scouts and others, and berths in both Newport, R.I., and Cape May, N.J., Koether said.

Another boat, the Captain’s Gig, a 26-foot motor whaleboat that came off the Glacier, is used by Sea Cadets and Boy and Girl Scouts in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

But Koether is still shocked at the loss of his old ship.

“It’s a tremendous tragedy. It’s an irreplaceable asset,” he said.

“It was identified to become a national landmark and was cited as a mechanical engineering marvel. The applications were in and approved. All we had to do is get it to the pier. The federal bureaucracy interfered.”