USCGC Gentian (WLB-290) was a Cactus-class buoy tender built by Zenith Dredge in Duluth, Minnesota. Her keel was laid on October 3, 1941, and she was launched on May 23, 1942, entering service on November 3, 1942. As a buoy tender, she was designed for maintaining navigational aids and performing various support functions. Initially stationed in New York from December 1942 to January 1944, Gentian was later reassigned to Cape May, New Jersey, where she undertook a broad range of duties including navigational aid maintenance, search and rescue operations, ice breaking on the Hudson River, towing Coast Guard vessels, and law enforcement. Notably, on February 3, 1944, she evacuated 42 persons from the disabled Swedish vessel Dagmar Salen and extinguished an engine fire onboard. In 1949, she assisted USCGC Eastwind after a collision off Cape May. Throughout the 1950s, Gentian responded to several maritime incidents, including collisions involving tankers and motor vessels such as Michael, Atlantic Capetown, Maya, Gulftrader, and Sol de Panama. In 1956, she was transferred to Miami, Florida, and later supported hurricane evacuations during Hurricane Gracie in 1959. She also participated in drug interdiction operations, notably in Operation Big Slam in 1960 and the pursuit of the FV Islander in 1961, which rammed her but sank; Gentian sustained only superficial damage and arrested the crew. Decommissioned in 1976, Gentian underwent extensive modernization during the early 1980s under the Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), receiving new engines, generators, navigation electronics, and structural updates. Reassigned to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, in 1983, she served off Grenada during the US intervention and seized a vessel with marijuana in 1984. She continued supporting law enforcement, disaster relief, and operations off Haiti in the 1990s. In 1998, Gentian's black-hull buoy tender role ended, and she was temporarily decommissioned, repainted white, and refurbished for extended sea deployments. Recommissioned in 1999 as WIX-290, she served as a Caribbean Support Tender, training sailors and supporting operations in the region until her final decommissioning on June 23, 2006. Subsequently, on October 15, 2007, she was transferred to Colombia and serves as ARC San Andrés (PO-45).

This description has been generated using GPT-4.1-NANO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.