The Storis began her long career as an ice patrol tender for the United States Coast Guard, commissioned on September 30, 1942. She was to patrol the east coast of Greenland, on the lookout for German activity. It was an appropriate assignment for a vessel so named: “storis” means “great ice” in Scandinavian.
Storis survived her war patrols in the North Atlantic, and was reassigned to Juneau, Alaska, on September 15, 1948, for duties as a light icebreaker. In 1957, she and two other Coast Guard cutters searched for a deep channel through the Arctic Ocean, circumnavigating the North American continent in the process.
An increased number of foreign fishing fleets were active inside US territorial waters off Alaska during the 1970s. New U.S. laws and international treaties were passed to help protect commercial fishing interests, and enforcement fell to the Coast Guard, its ships, and crews. In 1972, the Storis became a new Medium Endurance Cutter (WMEC-38) as a part of this effort.
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It didn’t take long for the cutter to assume duty. On January 17, 1972, Storis identified two Soviet fishing vessels within a protected fishing area: the fishing trawler KOLJVAN, and the fish processor LAMUT. Both vessels were boarded by Coast Guard personnel. The ships were found in violation, as Kolivan was attempting to offload its ill-gotten catch to the processor.
LAMUT decided to make a run for it (a Coast Guard boarding party still aboard). For the next hour, Storis gave pursuit, but the chase ended when a shot was fired from their 25mm cannon across LAMUT’s bow. Finally stopped, all three ships made it to Adak, Alaska, with two of the Russian masters in custody. The incident cost the Russians $250,000 in fines and fees.
As word of the encounter spread among mariners, Storis soon earned the nickname “The Galloping Ghost of the Alaska Coast,” along with a Unit Commendation from the 13th District headquartered in Seattle. Storis was decommissioned in Kodiak, on February 8, 2007. At that time, she was the longest-serving Coast Guard vessel in the fleet.
