In celebration of the upcoming commissioning of the new US Coast Guard Cutter Storis, the Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum will host a free screening of STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast, with filmmaker and Alaska State Library archivist Damon Stuebner in attendance. The screening is Saturday, Aug. 9, at 1 pm in the APK Lecture Hall at Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum on Whittier Street.
Commissioning of the icebreaker will follow on Sunday in Juneau, with details in this report:
The 100-minute documentary traces the remarkable 64-year service of the original USCGC Storis, from the icy fjords of Greenland to the stormy waters of the Bering Sea. Commissioned in 1942 for World War II, the Storis was the only vessel of its design and class. It became the first U.S. ship to navigate the Northwest Passage, undertook daring search-and-rescue missions, and carried out major fisheries law enforcement, earning the nickname “the Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast.”
Over the decades, Storis played a pivotal role in Alaska’s history. It provided relief after the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, conducted icebreaking to support construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, and served as a command ship for the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup.
In 1991, it was named “Queen of the Fleet” as the oldest commissioned cutter in the Coast Guard, before being decommissioned in Kodiak in 2007.
The screening offers an opportunity to revisit a unique chapter of Alaska’s military and maritime history ahead of the arrival of the new cutter that will carry the Storis name into the future.