R/V Clifford A. Barnes

Previous Life

R/V Clifford A. Barnes began life as USCG BITT WYTL 65613. She was built in 1965 at Western boat in Tacoma Washington. There were 15 of her class built, most of the class still in Coast Guard service until 1995. I believe the Bitt was the only WYTL to serve on the west coast. The class' major missions were: Ice Ops, Search/Rescue and Pollution Response. BITT's first duty station was Bellingham Wa. Her last duty station was Valdez Alaska. She was decommissioned and in 1982 and surplused to the National Science Foundation.

Here is a picture of BITT (38k JPEG) in her USCG days, probably taken somewhere in Alaska. You can see she had a much longer aft deck and no crane. I apologize for the condition of the photo, it has been exposed to sunlight for too long and has a water stain near the top of the mast.

As of September 2000 there are 11 WYTL are still in active service on the east coast.