News Releases
GSA Auctions 'Perfect Storm' Rescue VesselGSA # 9807 March 16, 2001 WASHINGTON, DC - A former U.S. Coast Guard cutter whose heroic rescues garnered notice in the movie, The Perfect Storm, made its debut on the U.S. General Services Administration auction Web site, GSA AuctionsTM , http://www.gsaauctions.gov, on Wednesday after spending more than six months without a permanent home. Reported to the U.S. General Services Administration as excess by the U.S. Coast Guard in January 1994, the decommissioned Tamaroa was initially housed at New York's Intrepid Sea Air Museum until 1997. It was later housed at the Hudson River Park Conservancy until 2000. The Tamaroa is now at New York City Harbor in New York. The Tamaroa was originally the U.S. Navy commissioned vessel USS Zuni, a 205-foot salvage tug. As the USS Zuni, she saw duty during World War II at Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima and participated briefly in the Allied assault on Tinian. It was later commissioned into the Coast Guard as the USCGC Tamaroa for search and rescue and law enforcement missions. The USCGC Tamaroa was one of the vessels sent to assist in the rescue of a sailboat during the so-called "No-Name Storm of Halloween 1991." The rescue successful, the USCGC Tamaroa returned to rescue four New York Air National Guardsmen whose helicopter had run out of fuel during a similar rescue mission. These rescues earned the cutter the U.S. Coast Guard Foundation Award and were later detailed in The Perfect Storm, a popular book and movie. The auction is set to close at 7 p.m. CST, on March 29, 2001. The GSA AuctionsTM Web site has been developed to complete GSA's transformation to an all-electronic asset management system. The site offers completely Web-enabled auctions through which the general public may bid electronically on a wide array of federal assets. For details, please visit GSA's Web site, www.gsa.gov. For more information about the Tamaroa, please contact Gary Mote at (404) 331-2774.
Last Reviewed 10/20/2006
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