USCGC Rockaway ( WAVP - 377 ) USCGC " Rockaway " ( WAVP - 377 ) , later WAGO - 377 , WHEC - 377 , and WOLE - 377 , was a " Casco " - class United States Coast Guard cutter in service from 1949 to 1972 . Construction and U . S . Navy service . " Rockaway " began life as the United States Navy " Barnegat " - class seaplane tender USS " Rockaway " ( AVP - 29 ) . She was laid down on 30 June 1941 by Associated Shipbuilders , Inc . at Seattle , Washington , launched on 14 February 1942 , and commissioned into the U . S . Navy on 6 January 1943 . She operated primarily in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II . She began conversion to a press information ship , redesignated AG - 123 , in July 1945 in anticipation of the invasion of Japan scheduled for 1945 - 1946 , but this was cancelled and she was converted back into a seaplane tender when the war ended without the invasion being necessary . She was decommissioned on 21 March 1946 and placed in reserve in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet at Orange , Texas . Transferred to the United States Coast Guard . " Barnegat " - class ships were very reliable and seaworthy and had good habitability , and the Coast Guard viewed them as ideal for ocean station duty , in which they would perform weather reporting 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 . The U . S . Navy loaned " Rockaway " to the Coast Guard on 24 December 1948 . After undergoing conversion for use as a weather - reporting ship , she was commissioned into the Coast Guard service as USCGC " Rockaway " ( WAVP - 377 ) on 10 January 1949 . U . S . Coast Guard service . " Rockaway " was stationed at Staten Island in New York City , which remained her home port throughout her Coast Guard career . Her primary duty was to serve on ocean stations in the Atlantic Ocean to gather meteorological data . 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 , and engaged in law enforcement operations . In September 1958 , " Rockaway " salvaged a U . S . Navy seaplane from Bermuda . In December 1964 , she rescued four people from the merchant ship " Smith Voyager " . " Rockaway " was reclassified as an " oceanographic ship " and redesignated as WAGO - 377 in 1965 . She took part in a United States Coast Guard Academy cadet cruise in August 1965 . On 24 February 1966 , " Rockaway " stood by the British merchant ship " Parthia " until a commercial tug arrived to assist " Parthia " . On 1 May 1966 , " Rockaway " again was reclassified , this time as a high endurance cutter , and was redesignated WHEC - 377 . On 26 September 1966 her period on loan to the Coast Guard ended when she was stricken from the Navy List and transferred permanently to the Coast Guard . From 20 January 1967 to 30 March 1967 , " Rockaway " conducted an " Eastern Tropical Pacific Cruise " in the Pacific off Mexico , where she undertook an oceanographic survey . From November 1967 through January 1968 , she conducted an oceanographic survey off Norfolk , Virginia . She was involved in more oceanographic surveys over the Mid - Atlantic Shelf from 6 May 1968 to 12 May 1968 and again from 11 July 1968 to 18 July 1968 . From 14 January 1969 to 19 January 1969 , she conducted a survival craft drift project east of the Chesapeake Bay . In August 1969 , she conducted extensive oceanographic work associated with the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment . She then conducted more oceanographic surveys from Nova Scotia , Canada , to Cape Hatteras , North Carolina , from 20 October 1969 to 23 November 1969 , over the Mid - Atlantic Outer Continental Margin from 30 March 1970 to 5 April 1970 , from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras between 19 May 1970 and 14 June 1970 , and near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland between 6 October 1970 and 21 October 1970 . In November 1970 , she surveyed a nerve - gas dump site . " Rockaway " conducted a fisheries research cruise from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras between 2 March 1971 and 3 April 1971 . Another research cruise took her back to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in May 1971 . From 15 July 1971 to 18 September 1971 , she studied the influence of Mediterranean effluent upon the Atlantic Ocean . On 23 September 1971 , " Rockaway " was once again reclassified , this time as an off - shore law enforcement vessel , and was redesignated WOLE - 377 . Her main mission was to track the locations of the Russian and Japanese fishing fleets that were at that time depleting the fishing areas off the North Atlantic coast . As a buy product of this mission the " Rock " also conducted search and rescue missions that got it the nickname of " lobster Patrol " . Decommissioning and disposal . " Rockaway " was decommissioned on 29 January 1972 She was sold for scrapping in October 1970 to BV Intershift of Rotterdam , the Netherlands .