NOAAS Oceanographer
_off_Seattle_c1974.jpg) NOAAS Oceanographer (R 101) off Seattle, Washington
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States | |
| Name | USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS 01) |
| Namesake | |
| Builder | Aerojet General Shipyards, Jacksonville, Florida |
| Laid down | 22 July 1963 |
| Launched | 18 April 1964 |
| Completed | 20 April 1966 |
| Commissioned | 13 July 1966 |
| Fate | Transferred to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 3 October 1970 |
 United States | |
| Name | NOAAS Oceanographer (R 101) |
| Namesake | Previous name retained |
| Acquired | Transferred from U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 3 October 1970 |
| Decommissioned | July 1981 |
| Recommissioned | 8 April 1986 |
| Decommissioned | 1989 |
| Recommissioned | ? |
| Decommissioned | 1996 |
| Homeport | Seattle, Washington |
| Identification |
|
| Fate |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | research ship |
| Tonnage |
|
| Displacement | 4,033 tons (full load) |
| Length | 92.4 m (303 ft) |
| Beam | 15.8 m (52 ft) |
| Draft | 6.0 m (19.7 ft) |
| Installed power | 5,000 megawatts ) |
| Propulsion | bow thruster ; 937 tons fuel |
| Speed | 15.8 knots (sustained) |
| Range | 12,250 nautical miles (22,690 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Endurance | 34 days (150 days provisions) |
| Complement | 79 (13 officers, six licensed civilian officers, 60 crewmen) plus up to 24 scientists |
| Sensors and processing systems | One navigational radars ; additional sensors installed before 1986 reactivation (see text) |
| Notes | 1.2 MW electrical power |
NOAAS Oceanographer (R 101), originally USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS O1), was an American Oceanographer-class oceanographic research vessel in service in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1966 to 1970 and in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 1996. She served as flagship of both the Coast and Geodetic Survey and NOAA fleets.
Construction
Designed by the U.S.
wet and dry oceanographic, meteorological, gravimetric, and photographic laboratories. She also had several precision oceanographic winches
.
Operational career
USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS 01) was
research ship
NOAAS Oceanographer (R 101), the first NOAA ship to bear the name, as well as flagship of the NOAA fleet.
North Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean, making many good-will stops along the way before concluding the voyage by arriving at Seattle on 11 December.[3] In 1968, she supported Project Sea Use, a multi-party expedition to Cobb Seamount in the North Pacific Ocean which developed much of the initial scientific understanding of the seamount.[4]
In 1969 she completed the circumnavigation of the globe she began in March 1967 when she returned to the U.S. East Coast.
Other highlights of Oceanographer's career included participation in the first large-scale, coordinated international sea-air interaction survey, known as the
People's Republic of China.[5]
Oceanographer was placed in
X-band Pathfinder radar, Inmarsat, an MX1102 Global Positioning System, a new salinometer, a Shipboard Environmental Acquisition System with expendable bathythermograph gear, a new meteorological station, and a Doppler current profiling system
, and returned to service with this new equipment on 8 April 1986. Placed in reserve in 1989, she later returned to service again.
Final disposition
Oceanographer and NOAA Ships
decommissioned in 1996, Oceanographer was sold to the Kirkland Yacht Club Marina of Kirkland, Washington, to act as a breakwater and was renamed M/V Protector.[8] Protector was tied up at the marina
from 1997 to 2005.
In August 2005, Protector was renamed M/V Sahara and towed to a
Seattle, Washington, shipyard to be refitted as a luxury cruise ship.[9] In 2010, Lia Hawkins died while working on the conversion. Courts awarded $3.45 million to Hawkins's estate. The ship's owner, G Shipping Ltd., a Malta-based company controlled by Italian race-car driver and hotelier Emanuele Garosci appears to have had the ship claimed by the courts in lieu of payment.[10] As of 2016, the conversion project had been canceled and the ship was for sale for US$1,200,000.[11]
The ship was broken up in Mexico in 2019.[12]
See also
- NOAA ships and aircraft
References
- ^ a b c Announcement of keel laying of USC&GS Ship OCEANOGRAPHER July 22, 1963. Invitation to commissioning ceremony of ESSA Ship OCEANOGRAPHER on July 13, 1966
- ^ a b c d Commissioning Ceremonies Program, USC&GSS Oceanographer, July 13, 1966.
- ^ Invitation to attend departure of USC&GS Ship OCEANOGRAPHER on its around the world science and ambassadorial cruise of 1967. Departing Jacksonville, Florida, March 31, 1967, and scheduled to arrive in Seattle, Washington, on December 11, 1967
- PMID 5772740. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
- ^ "NOAA History - Tools of the Trade/Ships/C&GS Ships/OCEANOGRAPHER". NOAA History. June 8, 2006. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
- ^ "Brief History of NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown". NOAA Marine Operations. October 10, 2001. Archived from the original on February 8, 2006. Retrieved May 10, 2006.
- ISBN 9781591146858
- ^ "Local News- Catching up with newsmakers". Seattle Times Newspaper. December 31, 2005. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
- ^ Rachel Tuinstra (December 31, 2005). "Kirkland's "white elephant" destined for new adventures". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2007-10-29.
- ^ "Jury awards $3.45M for family of ship worker who drowned on job". The Seattle Times. 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
- ^ "303' NOAA Flagship for sale in Seattle. Diesel-electric, ice-class". YouTube. July 30, 2015. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
- ^ "Oceanographer (6600826)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
- Prézelin, Bernard, and A. D. Baker III, eds. The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1990/1991: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Armament. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1990. ISBN 0-87021-250-8.