There’s a new name in Gulf of Mexico waters south of Dauphin Island, Alabama, and it’s a name that spent decades on rescue missions in the far icier seas off the North Slope of Alaska.

It’s a long voyage from Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), the northernmost settlement in the United States, to a barrier island on the Mississippi Sound. But a contingent present at the Dauphin Island Marina on Friday morning had made the trip to represent Clifford Saavgaq Okpeaha, his Iñupiat people and UIC Government Services.

On Friday, UIC formally dedicated the Saavgaq, the third in its fleet of small vessels based on Dauphin Island. [The Iñupiat speakers present had a more nuanced pronunciation of the name, but it appeared the rough approximation “Sah-vak” will be the standard for the boat.] Company officials and Iñupiat visitors, including some of Okpeaha’s close kin, said an overarching legacy of service made the distance between the Beaufort Sea and the Gulf of Mexico irrelevant.

Clifford Saavgaq served as coordinator of Barrow Volunteer Search and Rescue for more than 30 years. He also was described as a whaler with a great willingness to share traditional skills and values.

UIC President Pearl Brower said that names held a special value among the Iñupiat, who often name newborns after the recently deceased, in the belief that the attributes of the namesake can be transferred to the infant. “Naming is not taken lightly,” she said.

In this case, she said, the boat was being named “after a man who gave his all to his people and his community.”

“He was a man who was always at the ready to help, whether it was to search on the water, across the tundra, in a boat, on a snow machine, in a helicopter, by foot, whether it was night or day, summer or winter, rainy, snowy, 60 degrees below zero with zero visibility, Saavgaq was there,” said Brower. “Nothing held him back from being of service to his people and his community.”

“As we name this new vessel in his honor, we know that a part of him will live on through this recognition,” she said.

Among those present was Ida Okpeaha, sister to Clifford Saavgaq Okpeaha, recalled her brother, who died of cancer in 2019, as a patient, humble man who “didn’t know how to be mad at anybody.”

Like others in the delegation, she said she was surprised by the Gulf Coast heat. But in other ways, they said, the felt a kinship with home.

“It’s similar in some ways. We are an ocean people,” said Brower. “Being here has a lot of similarities to who we are and the connection we have with the ocean, with sea, with water. So it’s kind of neat to see those similarities really transcend all sorts of different boundaries.

“While yes, we could have named a vessel at home, we are a company that is across the entire country,” she said. “And we just have this incredible opportunity to share who we are as Iñupiat people, who our shareholders are, and really the amazing contributions that our Iñupiat people have given to our community, our region, our state, but really beyond. So what an amazing opportunity to be able to showcase and highlight someone like Saavgaq.”

Mike Hundley, senior vice president of UIC, likewise said the new mission of Saavgaq the boat mirrors the values of Saavgaq the man.

“We’re an Alaskan Native Corporation. Our organization is built on the Iñupiat values. We live these values each and every day as we support the Department of Defense and Federal Customers,” said Hundley. “Today is the best example of I have of culture and mission. As you’ll heard, Clifford Saavgaq performed search-and-rescue for over 30 years on the North Slope, assisting those in need. Today, as you see, the newly named vessel Saavgaq trains our young men and women in the Coast Guard to perform similar search-and-rescue missions. Clifford Saavgaq make a difference. The vessel named in his honor will continue to make a difference as a Coast Guard training asset.”

UIC is a division of an Alaskan Native Corporation formed to benefit its Iñupiat shareholders, in part by providing a framework for business ventures. Those include a wide variety of government services; in the Mobile area, UIC conducts search-and-rescue and other training exercises for Coast Guard personnel flying out of the service’s Aviation Training Center in Mobile.

That means that among other missions, the Saavgaq will head out into the Gulf and provide a target for the type of missions where Coast Guard aviators and rescue swimmers winch someone up from another vessel in order to save them from a sinking ship or get them to a medical facility. Footage of such rescues sometimes shows patients being lifted off cruise ships, which provide a large and relatively stable target. But the Saavgaq and a sister ship, the Alice Solomon, are just 41 feet long, providing a much smaller target.

“Our job is to provide the boat and the staff to get on station with the Coast Guard helicopters” said Capt. Dale Croy. Over the course of an intensive program, the student pilots get hands-on practice on simulated rescue missions. “If you can train on our platform, it’s much easier to land on an oil rig. What I mean is, they get to be very precise.”

“We’re the only people in the U.S. that do this,” Croy said, “so it’s pretty unique.”

Croy said the addition of the Saavgaq will give his operation more flexibility when it comes to scheduling maintenance time. It also will provide the capability to run more missions, he said, such as occasions when the Alice Solomon tows a target for live-fire weapons training.

The Saavgaq already decades of service behind it: It began life as a U.S. Coast Guard utility boat in 1973. After about 30 years of service on the Great Lakes, it was operated for a decade by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. Croy said it had received an extensive refit since UIC brought it to Alabama.

“We’ve taken the last 10 to 11 months and really freshened it up,” he said. “So everything on that boat is current technology.”

Dauphin Island Mayor Jeff Collier, who was on hand for the ceremony, said he was glad to see a development that would benefit the Coast Guard. “The Coast Guard has been a part of Dauphin Island for many, many years, an integral part,” he said.