Westwind (AGB-6)--a steel-hulled, twin-screw icebreaker--was launched on 31 March 1943 at San Pedro, Calif., by the Western Steel and pipe Co., and transferred to the Soviet Navy on 21 February 1945 at Seattle, Wash., under the lend-lease program. Renamed Severny Polyus by the Russians, the icebreaker remained in Soviet hands through the end of World War II. She was returned to the United States Navy on 19 December 1951 at Bremerhaven, Germany.
Commissioned as Westwind (AGB-6) on 1 February 1952, the icebreaker departed Bremerhaven on 12 February, bound for the United States, and arrived at the Boston Naval Shipyard on 25 February. Decommissioned on 13 March 1952 and turned over to the Boston Naval Shipyard for custody on that day, Westwind was transferred to the United States Coast Guard on 19 March. Westwind (AGB-6) was struck from the Navy list on 8 September 1952.
Redesignated as WAGB-281, Westwind subsequently operated in the waters off Greenland and Newfoundland in the 1950's. Eventually shifted to the Great Lakes, Westwind continued in Coast Guard service into 1979 on those bodies of water.