page_title: Wind-class icebreaker
section_title: USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283)
hierarchical_section_title: Wind-class icebreaker / Ships in class / USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283)
caption_attribution_description: English: USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283) 1968 McMurdo Sound Antarctica. Photo by LCDR H. Stracener, USCG.
context_page_description: The Wind-class icebreakers were a line of diesel electric-powered icebreakers in service with the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Coast Guard and Soviet Navy from 1944 through the late 1970s. They were very effective ships: all except Eastwind served at least thirty years, and Northwind served in the USCG continuously for forty-four years. Considered the most technologically advanced icebreakers in the world when first built, the Wind-class icebreakers were also heavily armed; the first operator of the class was the United States Coast Guard, which used the vessels for much-needed coastal patrol off Greenland during World War II. Three of the vessels of the class, Westwind, Southwind, and the first Northwind all went on to serve temporarily for the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program, while two others were built for the United States Navy and another was built for the Royal Canadian Navy; all eight vessels were eventually transferred to the United States Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard.
  The Wind-class ships were the first class of true icebreakers built by the United States.
context_section_description: Builders:  United States (Western Pipe and Steel Company (WPS) in San Pedro, California).
  Laid down: 15 March 1946.
  Launched: 30 April 1946 (List).
  Operator:  United States Navy,  United States Coast Guard.
  Commissioned: 28 December 1946
  Status: Decommissioned 9 May 1978, sold 1980, and scrapped 1982.
  Modifications:
  Operations:
caption: USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283)
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