PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — August 1, 2013 — The fate of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa, once homeported in New Castle and immortalized in the book "The Perfect Storm," is at the bottom of the ocean.
"It's a sad state of affairs," said Tom Robinson, executive director of the Zuni Maritime Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Richmond, Va., whose mission is to preserve the ship in an operational condition.
Long before it became famous for a daring rescue during the "No Name Storm of Halloween" in 1991, the Tamaroa was known as the USS Zuni, a U.S. Navy salvage tug. In 1943, "The Mighty Z" was sent to the South Pacific, where it won four battle stars and saved several torpedoed ships and hundreds of crew members, Robinson said.
Today, it is the only surviving warship that fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima, Robinson said. It was decommissioned from the Navy in 1946, but was active for 46 more years, due to being recommissioned as the Tamaroa.
The Tamaroa had many duties, including search-and-rescue and law enforcement patrols. On July 23, 1985, the vessel changed home ports to New Castle.
The most famous event in Tamaroa's history served as the basis of Sebastian Junger's best-seller "The Perfect Storm." In 2000, the book was adapted into a film starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg that drew more than $300 million at the box office.
During that storm, when seas built to 40 feet in 80-knot winds, the Tamaroa rescued three people from the sailboat Satori 75 miles off Nantucket before setting out in the violent seas again to rescue the crew of a downed New York Air National Guard HH-60 helicopter that had run out of fuel on a similar rescue mission.
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