The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Acacia was decommissioned three days before the cutter Mackinaw, on Wednesday, June 7, in Charlevoix. As the Mackinaw, the Acacia also was built in 1944 and will become a museum, sailing to Chicago at the end of the month, where she will remain on the Great Lakes and be moored at Navy Pier.

The 62-year-old World War IIera cutter was commissioned September 1, 1944, at Duluth, Minnesota, and was named after the U.S. Lighthouse Service Acacia that was sunk by German submarine U-161 off the British West Indies March 17, 1942. Her crew was rescued, though she was the only buoy tender sunk during the war.

Moving to her final homeport of Charlevoix in 1990 from Grand Haven, the 180 foot WLB-class, seagoing buoy tender was one of 39 buoy tenders built for the Coast Guard between 1942 and 1944.

The Acacia's area of operation, which now will be covered by the new Mackinaw, extended from Chicago on the southern shores of Lake Michigan to Alpena on Lake Huron. The ship and crew performed aids to navigation duties, search and rescue of lost or disabled vessels, and offered icebreaking assistance.

The Acacia assisted ice-bound commercial vessels and helped maintain the vital waterways of the Great Lakes for more than six decades and now will become a museum following a distinguished career of service.

The Acacia was the last of the Coast Guard's 180-foot buoy tenders.