USFS Brant

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This article is about the fishery patrol vessel. For U.S. Navy ships, see USS Brant.
USFS Brant
USFS Brant in 1927
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
NameUSFS Brant
NamesakeBrant, a species of goose of the genus Branta
BuilderKruse & Banks, North Bend, Oregon
Launched3 June 1926
Completed1926
Commissioned1926
Identification
FateTransferred to Fish and Wildlife Service 30 June 1940
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
NameUS FWS Brant
NamesakePrevious name retained
Acquired30 June 1940
IdentificationFWS 523
FateSold 1953
United States
NameBrant
NamesakePrevious name retained
Owner
Foss Launch and Tug Company
Acquired1953
FateSold 1959
United States
NameBrant
NamesakePrevious name retained
OwnerJoseph and Bernedee Rose
Acquired1959
FateBurned and sank 8 May 1960
General characteristics (as BOF fishery patrol vessel)
Type
patrol vessel
Tonnage
Length100 ft (30.5 m)
Beam21 ft (6.4 m)
Draft10 ft (3.0 m)
Installed power1 x 14 
storage battery
Propulsion
Speed
  • As built: 9 to 10.5 knots (16.7 to 19.4 km/h) (average)
  • ca. 1951: 9 knots (17 km/h) (maximum)
RangeAs built: 1,500 nautical miles (2,800 km; 1,700 mi)
Crew9, plus 6 passengers

USFS Brant was an American

United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) fleet from 1926 to 1940. She then served as US FWS Brant (FWS 523) in the fleet of the Fish and Wildlife Service
from 1940 to 1953. She then operated commercially until she sank in 1960.

Bureau of Fisheries

Construction and characteristics

Coolidge & H. C. Hanson designed Brant for U.S. Bureau of Fisheries fishery patrol service in the

storage battery, a radio, and an Allan Cunningham anchor windlass.[2] She had accommodations for a crew of nine and up to six passengers.[2]

Operational history

In early July 1926, Brant departed

Bar on the Oregon-Washington border and sent out a distress signal;[2] a United States Coast Guard cutter responded and towed her to safety.[2]

Brant returned to Alaska in March 1927 and established her annual pattern of operations, which involved patrols in

pilothouse had undergone extensive modifications.[2]

Brant′s operations changed over time as her responsibilities evolved. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, she conducted patrols each spring off

US$20,000 appropriation by the Public Works Administration.[2] During the mid- and late 1930s, she operated each autumn in Southeast Alaska, patrolling to protect the local fisheries and conducting surveys of salmon spawning streams.[2]

On 15 July 1938, Brant ran aground on Williams Reef in the Kodiak Archipelago 8 nautical miles (15 km; 9.2 mi) from Kodiak and suffered heavy damage.[2] Two United States Navy seaplane tenders, USS Teal and USS Wright, arrived to render assistance and succeeded in refloating her.[2] Teal then towed her southward and passed the tow to the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Alert, which towed her the rest of the way to Ketchikan, Territory of Alaska.[2] The BOF fishery patrol vessel USFS Crane then towed her to Seattle, where she underwent extensive repairs.[2]

With her repairs complete, Brant departed Seattle on 4 January 1939 and proceeded to

passenger plane with six people on board that had been reported missing during a 12 February 1939 flight from Ketchikan to Juneau.[2][3] In March 1939, she transported several Civilian Conservation Corps workers from Juneau to Little Port Walter at Port Walter, Territory of Alaska.[2]

In his annual report on fisheries in 1939, the chief of the BOF's Division of Alaska Fisheries, Ward T. Bower, referred to Brant as the "flagship of the patrol fleet."[2]

Fish and Wildlife Service

bow
view of US FWS Brant as she appeared after a major renovation sometime between 1940 and 1953
US FWS Brant sometime between 1940 and 1953.

In 1939, the BOF was transferred from the United States Department of Commerce to the United States Department of the Interior,[4] and on 30 June 1940, it was merged with the Interior Department's Division of Biological Survey to form the new Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS),[5] an element of the Interior Department destined to become the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as part of a major reorganization in 1956.[6] The vessel thus became part of the FWS fleet as US FWS Brant (FWS 523).[2]

As late as 1947, Brant remained in use in the FWS fleet as a base of operations for surveying streams; in this role, she served as the

kW) Union diesel engine manufactured at Oakland, California, in 1951 which on average consumed 800 US gallons (3,000 L; 670 imp gal) of diesel fuel a day, and her fuel tanks had a capacity of 4,000 US gallons (15,000 L; 3,300 imp gal).[2] By that time, her main engine and propeller controls were located in her engine room, as were fire and bilge pumps and a battery bank.[2]

Brant's

Foss Launch and Tug Company.[2]

Later career

The Foss Launch and Tug Company based Brant at

oil exploration survey vessel.[2]

Loss

On the morning of 8 May 1960, Brant was underway to an oil exploration survey location off

life jackets and launched a skiff equipped with an outboard motor in case they had to abandon ship.[2][7] They were unable to stop Brant, because the fire made it impossible for them to reach her engine controls in the burning engine room, but they did attempt to set Brant on a course toward the shore so that she would beach herself.[2][7] Finally, with the fire again out of control and no means left aboard to fight it, Brant's captain feared that she might explode and ordered her crew to abandon ship, and they hurriedly jumped overboard.[2][8] With her engine still running, the unmanned Brant began circling, endangering the men in the water, although her entire crew of eight was rescued by small vessels in the vicinity and survived uninjured.[2][7]

At 08:33, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter

hold where oxygen tanks were stowed,[2][7] and she sank in the Pacific Ocean in 150 feet (46 m) of water off Point Conception at around 14:00.[2]

At the time Brant sank, she was valued at US$40,000 and the oil exploration equipment lost with her at US$45,000.[2][7] A remotely operated underwater vehicle later identified her debris field on the ocean bottom.[2]

References

  1. ^ U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat Inspection, Merchant Vessels of the United States (Including Yachts and Government Vessels), Year Ended June 30, 1933, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1932, pp. 151, 1131.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center AFSC Historical Corner: Brant, Flagship of the Alaska Patrol Fleet
  3. ^ Anonymous, "Flier Sights Wreckage of Lost Airship," San Bernardino Sun, February 15, 1939, Page 1 Retrieved September 7, 2019
  4. ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1930's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  5. ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1940's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  6. ^ "Fisheries Historical Timeline: Historical Highlights 1950's". NOAA Fisheries Service: Northeast Fisheries Science Center. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 16, 2011. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Schwemmer, R., Brant in Shipwreck Database Summary, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries: West Coast Region, 2000 (not paginated)
  8. ^ Wheeler, E. D., and R. E. Kallman, Shipwrecks, Smugglers, and Maritime Mysteries of the Santa Barbara Channel, Pathfinder Publishing, Ventura, California, 1984, p. 122.
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