USCGC Casco ( WAVP - 370 ) USCGC " Casco " ( WAVP - 370 ) , later WHEC - 370 , was a " Casco " - class United States Coast Guard Cutter in service from 1949 to 1969 . Construction and U . S . Navy service . " Casco " began life as the United States Navy " Barnegat " - class small seaplane tender USS " Casco " ( AVP - 12 ) . She was built by the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton , Washington . She was launched on 15 November 1941 and commissioned into the Navy on 27 December 1941 . She operated in the Aleutian Islands and Central Pacific and supported the Okinawa campaign during World War II , operated in the Philippine Islands after the war , and was decommissioned on 10 April 1947 . Transferred to the United States Coast Guard . The " Barnegat " - class ships were very reliable and seaworthy and had good habitability , and the United States Coast Guard viewed them as ideal for ocean station duty , in which they would perform weather reporting , law enforcement , and search and rescue tasks , once they were modified by having a balloon shelter added aft and having oceanographic equipment , an oceanographic winch , and a hydrographic winch installed . " Casco " was transferred to the United States Coast Guard on 19 April 1949 , and was commissioned as USCGC " Casco " ( WAVP - 370 ) the same day . U . S . Coast Guard service . " Casco " was assigned to operate from Boston , Massachusetts , which was her home port throughout her period of service in the Coast Guard . She served as a weather reporting ship , and also supported Coast Guard law - enforcement and search - and - rescue operations in the Atlantic Ocean , operating on ocean stations . While on duty in one of these stations , she was required to patrol a 210 - square - mile ( 544 - square - kilometer ) area for three weeks at a time , leaving the area only when physically relieved by another Coast Guard cutter or in the case of a dire emergency . While on station , she acted as an aircraft check point at the point of no return , a relay point for messages from ships and aircraft , as a source of the latest weather information for passing aircraft , as a floating oceanographic laboratory , and as a search - and - rescue ship for downed aircraft and vessels in distress . She was the first ship of future Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral J . William Kime . " Casco " responded to the a distress call from the sinking fishing vessel " Magellan " on 22 August 1949 , rescuing " Magellan " s crew and then saving " Magellan " from sinking . When the fishing vessel " Wamsutta " became disabled , " Casco " took her under tow and towed her from a point north of Nantucket , Massachusetts , to Boston on 23 January 1950 . On 26 August 1950 , " Casco " rendezvoused with the Greek merchant ship " Igor " northeast of Bermuda and evacuated an " Igor " crewman in need of medical assistance . On 24 November 1954 , she went to the assistance of the disabled fishing vessel " Sea Ranger " and towed " Sea Ranger " to safety . On 17 February 1956 , " Casco " took 21 men off of a United States Navy seaplane that had ditched south of Bermuda , then towed the seaplane to St . George ’ s Harbor at Bermuda . On 20 October 1958 , " Casco " took a crewman in medical distress off of the merchant ship " Maye Lykes " . In cooperation with universities in the eastern United States and international agencies , " Casco " conducted oceanographic experiments between South America and Africa from 1 August 1963 to 19 August 1963 . " Casco " was classified as a high endurance cutter and redesignated WHEC - 370 on 1 May 1966 . " Casco " helped fight a major fire on Long Wharf at Boston on 27 March 1968 . Decommissioning and disposal . The Coast Guard decommissioned " Casco " on 21 March 1969 . She was transferred to the U . S . Navy , which sank her as a target in the North Atlantic at 16 : 33 hours on 15 May 1969 at Latitude 36 - 40N Longitude 024 - 16W .