USCGC Thunder Bay
USCGC "Thunder Bay" (WTGB-108) is the eighth vessel of the built in 1985 and operated by the United States Coast Guard. The ship was named after a bay in the U.S. state of Michigan on Lake Huron. Design. The Bay-class tugboats operated primarily for domestic ice breaking duties. They are named after American Bays and are stationed mainly in the northeast United States and the Great Lakes. WTGBs use a low pressure air hull lubrication or bubbler system that forces air and water between the hull and ice. This system improves icebreaking capabilities by reducing resistance  against the hull, reducing horsepower requirements. Construction and career. "Thunder Bay" was built by the Bay City Marine Inc., in Tacoma, Washington in 1985. She was launched on 31 July 1985 and later commissioned in 1986. On 1 May 2015, the ninth annual Appreciation Dinner was held by the Rockland Coast Guard City Committee, in which it honors the commanders and crews of the Rockland Station's three cutters, "Thunder Bay", and were introduced, as well as the personnel at Coast Guard Station Rockland. On 4 February 2021, "Thunder Bay" conducted a icebreaking mission at the Penobscot River. On 18  June, the ship finished the In-Service Vessel Sustainment program and departed Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland.