US FWS Henry O'Malley

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US FWS Henry O'Malley
US FWS Henry O'Malley, from Commercial Fisheries Review, March 1950
United States Navy
NameUSS YP-646
BuilderColberg Boat Works, Stockton, California
Completed1945
Commissioned11 June 1945
Decommissionedmid-1946
FateTransferred to Fish and Wildlife Service 26 January 1948
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
NameUS FWS Henry O'Malley
NamesakeHenry O'Malley (1876–1936), U.S. Commissioner of Fisheries (1922–1933)
Acquired26 January 1948
Commissioned1949
HomeportPearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii
FateSold 16 February 1951
United States
NameMV Santa Rosa
Owner
HomeportSan Diego, California (1977)
IdentificationIMO number: 7308475
FateUnregistered as of 1984
NotesDerelict as of 1987
General characteristics
(as U.S. Navy vessel)
Type
Patrol vessel
Displacement403
tons
Length117 ft (36 m)
General characteristics
(as fisheries research vessel)
Type
research ship
Tonnage550 GRT
Length128 ft (39 m)
Beam29 ft (8.8 m)
Draft15 ft (4.6 m)
Installed power2 x 125-
diesel–electric generators
Propulsion560 hp (420 kW) diesel engine
General characteristics
(as private fishing vessel)
TypeFishing vessel
Tonnage
  • 386 GRT (1951)
  • 357 GRT (1975)
  • 325 GRT (1977)
US FWS Henry O'Malley at San Diego, California, before her departure for Honolulu, Hawaii, from Commercial Fisheries Review, November 1949.

US FWS Henry O'Malley was an American fisheries science research vessel in commission from 1949 to 1951 in the fleet of the United States Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service. She was the first U.S. fisheries science vessel to explore the central Pacific Ocean in search of commercially valuable populations of fish. Her career was cut short by a requirement for cost-prohibitive repairs.

Prior to her time in the Fish and Wildlife Service, the vessel was in commission in the

patrol vessel USS YP-646 from 1945 to 1946. After her Fish and Wildlife Service career ended, she became the private fishing vessel
MV Santa Rosa.

Construction

The

tons.[1]

Service history

U.S. Navy

The vessel was

decommissioned in mid-1946.[2]

Fish and Wildlife Service

In August 1947, the

docking and warehouse site at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,[3] the Congress funded the conversion or construction of three ocean-going vessels to support POFI's work.[3] During 1949 and 1950, these three vessels joined the Fish and Wildlife Service fleet as US FWS Henry O'Malley, US FWS Hugh M. Smith, and US FWS John R. Manning
.

Acquisition, conversion, and commissioning

After YP-646 was reconditioned, the U.S. Navy transferred her to the FWS, which took delivery of her on 26 January 1948.

United States Bureau of Fisheries as the Commissioner of Fisheries from 1922 to 1933.[9] She was the first of the three fisheries research vessels the FWS assigned to POFI to enter service.[5]

Henry O'Malley departed San Diego, California, on 6 October 1949 bound for Honolulu,[6] which she reached on 20 October.[10] After her arrival, the manufacture of bait nets and other gear necessary to outfit her for bait fishing and deep trolling began.[10] She moved to Pearl Harbor on 27 November 1949 to load bait.[5]

First cruise

Henry O'Malley got underway on 28 November 1949 for her first FWS cruise, an 11-day shakedown cruise in the waters of the Hawaiian Islands.[5] Although hampered by bad weather, she tested her equipment — operating her pole-and-line gear and deploying her trolling gear to a depth of 600 feet (180 m) — and trained her crew for research operations before returning to Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1949.[5]

Second cruise

On 11 January 1950, Henry O'Malley departed Pearl Harbor in an attempt to begin her second FWS cruise and first scientific cruise, heading for the

Johnston Island, then operate in the Line Islands[13] before returning to Pearl Harbor on 21 March 1950.[11] However, a main engine failure,[14] again caused by excessive wear on the engine's timing gear,[13] forced her to cut her cruise short,[11] and instead she headed home, conducting exploratory fishing[12] on her way back to Pearl Harbor, which she reached on 10 February.[14] The 19 buckets of live bait she collected[11] — iao (Hepsetia insularum)[12] — did well in her live bait tanks.[11] Some of the bait was studied at the University of Hawaii,[11] while some was dumped into the waters of Pearl Harbor and found to be thriving there five days later.[12]

Third cruise

After repairs, Henry O'Malley departed Pearl Harbor for her third FWS cruise and second scientific cruise on 16 May 1950.

United States West Coast-style fishing vessels and equipment in areas of the mid-Pacific Ocean not previously explored by fisheries scientists.[16] During the voyage, she caught only 18 skipjack, her crew finding that her size and relative lack of maneuverability made it difficult to maintain contact with schools of fish.[16] While scouting for tuna, she took bathythermograph readings, and she gathered biological specimens during night-lighting operations.[16] She also collected stomachs, gonads, and vertebrae from and gathered morphometric data on four pole-caught skipjacks, which contributed to scientific understanding of skipjack diets, spawning, growth, and population characteristics.[16] During the cruise, her crew found that hot lava pouring into the sea on the coast of the island of Hawaii during an eruption of the volcano Mauna Loa had killed many fish, whose carcasses had then risen to the surface, and she spent a day collecting the dead fish to examine the contents of their stomachs.[16] She returned to Pearl Harbor on 8 June 1950 after three weeks at sea.[16]

Fourth cruise

Plans for Henry O'Malley′s next cruise — her fourth in FWS service and third scientific cruise — called for her to conduct exploratory fishing off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where she was to explore the French Frigate Shoals,

Palmyra Island, spending one morning at each location conducting exploratory fishing for tuna.[19] Throughout her cruise, she conducted surface trolling.[19] She also took subsurface water temperature readings during her outbound and homebound voyages to determine their relationship to the North Equatorial Current, South Equatorial Current, and Equatorial Counter Current and collected yellowfin tuna ovaries, stomachs, and gonads and made morphometric assessments of the fish to determine the existence of different races of yellowfin.[19] However, what the November 1950 edition of the Fish and Wildlife Service publication Commercial Fisheries Review described as "operational difficulties" forced her to cut her cruise short, and she proceeded to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 30 August 1950, two weeks earlier than planned.[19]

Decommissioning and sale

Henry O'Malley underwent extensive repairs,

USD$127,501.[20]

Later career

The

fishing boat MV Santa Rosa in 1951.[2] She was assigned the official number 261691.[21] She was listed as sold in 1952.[1] In 1956, Edward P. Silva of San Diego, California, registered her under the same name and with the same tonnage, but with the radio call sign WD5312.[2] In 1975, her tonnage was listed as 357 GRT.[2]

In 1977, John L. Gomes of

La Jolla, California,[2] registered her as a 325-GRT[2] fishing boat, again with the radio call sign WD5312, still named MV Santa Rosa,[21] and with her home port at San Diego.[21] Santa Rosa dropped out of the registration rolls in 1984[21] and was listed as lying derelict at the Port of San Diego as of 1987.[1]

See also

  • NOAA ships and aircraft

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d shipbuildinghistory.com Patrol and Training Craft (YP) October 22, 2015 Accessed 7 August 2021
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Williams, p. 312.
  3. ^ a b c d Commercial Fisheries Review, October 1948, p. 27.
  4. ^ a b c Commercial Fisheries Review, November 1948, p. 3.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Commercial Fisheries Review, March 1950, p. 4.
  6. ^ a b Commercial Fisheries Review, November 1949, p. 29.
  7. ^ Find-A-Grave Henry O'Malley Accessed 5 August 2021
  8. ^ Associated Press, "Henry O'Malley Dies," Fort Worth Star Telegram, April 24, 1936 p. 2 Accessed 5 August 2021
  9. ^ Galtsoff, p. 115.
  10. ^ a b Commercial Fisheries Review, December 1949, p. 31.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Commercial Fisheries Review, March 1950, p. 45.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Commercial Fisheries Review, May 1950, p. 39.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Commercial Fisheries Review, May 1950, p. 38.
  14. ^ a b Commercial Fisheries Review, March 1950, p. 45; May 1950, p. 38.
  15. ^ Commercial Fisheries Review, June 1950, p. 22.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Commercial Fisheries Review, June 1950, p. 22; July 1950, pp. 28–29.
  17. ^ a b c d Commercial Fisheries Review, July 1950, p. 29.
  18. ^ Commercial Fisheries Review, July 1950, p. 29; October 1950, p. 33.
  19. ^ a b c d e f Commercial Fisheries Review, October 1950, p. 33.
  20. ^ a b c d e Commercial Fisheries Review, March 1951, p. 19.
  21. ^ a b c d Williams, p. 313.

Bibliography

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