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History | |
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Name | USNS Vindicator (T-AGOS-3) |
Namesake | A vindicator is someone who justifies something by providing evidence or who maintains or defends a cause against opposition |
Operator | Military Sealift Command |
Ordered | 26 September 1980 |
Builder | Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, Tacoma, Washington |
Laid down | 14 April 1983 |
Launched | 1 June 1984 |
Acquired | 21 November 1984 (delivered) |
In service | 21 November 1984 |
Out of service | 30 June 1993 |
Stricken | 30 June 1993 |
Identification | IMO number: 8835619 |
Fate | Transferred to U.S. Coast Guard 30 June 1993 |
Acquired | Transferred from U.S. Coast Guard 2001 |
Fate | Transferred to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration October 2001 |
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Name | USCGC Vindicator (WMEC-3) |
Namesake | Previous name retained |
Acquired | By lease from U.S. Navy 30 June 1993 |
Commissioned | 20 May 1994 |
Decommissioned | 19 August 1994 |
Notes | In reserve 1994-1999 |
Recommissioned | 24 August 1999 |
Decommissioned | 1 May 2001 |
Homeport | Norfolk, Virginia |
Identification |
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Fate | Returned to U.S. Navy 2001 |
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Name | NOAAS Hiʻialakai (R 334) |
Namesake | Hiʻialakai is a Hawaiian word meaning "embracing pathways to the sea" and holding a deeper meaning of "guiding leaders of the seas" [2] |
Acquired | Transferred from U.S. Navy October 2001 |
Commissioned | 3 September 2004 |
Decommissioned | 14 December 2020 |
Sponsored by | Margaret "Maggie" Awamura Inouye and Isabella A. Abbott |
Homeport | Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi |
Identification |
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General characteristics (as U.S. Navy ocean surveillance ship) | |
Class and type | Stalwart-class ocean surveillance ship |
Displacement | 2,285 long tons |
Length | 224 ft (68 m) |
Beam | 43 ft (13 m) |
Draft | 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) |
Propulsion | Diesel-electric: Two General Electric 800-hp (597-kw) diesel engines, twin fixed-pitch propellers |
Speed | 11 knots |
Crew | 33 (15 U.S. Navy personnel, 15 civilians) |
Armament | none |
General characteristics (as U.S. Coast Guard Cutter) | |
Type | Medium endurance cutter |
Length | 224 ft (68 m) |
Beam | 43 ft (13 m) |
Propulsion | Diesel-electric: Two General Electric 800-hp (597-kw) diesel engines, twin fixed-pitch propellers |
Speed | 11 kt cruise |
General characteristics (as NOAA oceanographic research ship) | |
Class and type | ex-U.S. Navy Stalwart-class oceanographic research ship |
Tonnage | |
Displacement |
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Length | 224 ft (68 m) |
Beam | 43 ft (13 m) |
Draft | 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) |
Depth | 20 ft (6.1 m) |
Installed power | 1,600 horsepower (2.1 megawatts) |
Propulsion | Diesel-electric: Two General Electric 800-hp (597-kw) diesel engines, twin fixed-pitch propellers |
Speed |
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Range | 20,232 nautical miles (37,470 km; 23,283 mi) |
Endurance | 35 days |
Boats & landing craft carried | Up to five small work boats |
Complement | 28 (6 NOAA Corps officers, 3 licensed engineers, and 19 other crew) plus up to 22 scientists |
Sensors and processing systems | Multibeam sonar; echosounder |
USNS Vindicator (T-AGOS-3) was a United States Navy Stalwart-class modified tactical auxiliary general ocean surveillance ship that was in service from 1984 to 1993. Vindicator then served in the United States Coast Guard from 1994 to 2001 as the medium endurance cutter USCGC Vindicator (WMEC-3). From 2004 to 2020, she was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet as the oceanographic research ship NOAAS Hiʻialakai (R 334).
Vindicator was ordered on 26 September 1980. She was laid down on 14 April 1983 by the Tacoma Boatbuilding Company, at Tacoma, Washington, and was launched on 1 June 1984. Tacoma Boatbuilding delivered her to the U.S. Navy on 21 November 1984.
The Navy placed the ship in non-commissioned service in the Military Sealift Command on the day of her delivery as USNS Vindicator (T-AGOS-3). Designed to collect underwater acoustical data in support of Cold War anti-submarine warfare operations using Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) sonar equipment, Vindicator spent the final years of the Cold War searching for Soviet Navy submarines.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of December 1991 brought the Cold War to an end, the requirement for such search operations declined. On 30 June 1993, the Navy removed Vindicator from service and simultaneously struck her from the Naval Vessel Register and leased her to the United States Coast Guard. [3]
With their own ship moored at the United States Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland, from June to October 1993, the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard medium endurance cutter USCGC Tamaroa (WMEC-166) reported aboard Vindicator and manned her during her Coast Guard acceptance trials. [4] Vindicator was commissioned into Coast Guard service on 20 May 1994 as the medium endurance cutter USCGC Vindicator (WMEC-3) for use in counternarcotics operations, based in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving as a "mother ship" for 38-foot (12 m) pursuit boats used to intercept drug smugglers. During 1994, manned by many former crew members of the by-then-decommissioned Tamaroa, Vindicator took part in Operation Able Manner, a joint U.S. Coast Guard-U.S. Navy effort to interdict would-be Haitian migrants to the United States. [4] [5] She was decommissioned on 19 August 1994 and placed in reserve at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay.
After five years of inactivity, Vindicator was recommissioned on 24 August 1999. At one point, she was under evaluation to be a test ship for a Marine Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Demonstration Module. [6] [7] The Coast Guard found that Vindicator and five other Stalwart-class ships the Navy had transferred were inadequate as Coast Guard cutters because of their inability to carry helicopters and low top speed, and budget limitations prevented the Coast Guard from addressing these shortfalls. [8] Budget cuts in early 2001 resulted in termination of the lease, and she was decommissioned again on 1 May 2001 and returned to the Military Sealift Command. [9] [10]
In October 2001, Vindicator was transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). After a $4,000,000 conversion into an oceanographic research ship, she was commissioned into NOAA service on 3 September 2004 as NOAAS Hiʻialakai (R 334), co-sponsored by Margaret "Maggie" Awamura Inouye, the wife of United States Senator from Hawaiʻi Daniel Inouye, and University of Hawaiʻi Professor Emerita Isabella A. Abbott. [2] [11] She was decommissioned on 14 December 2020. [12]
Hiʻialakai was equipped with multibeam sonar and echosounder equipment for underwater mapping work. She was well equipped to support both shallow- and deep-water dive projects. She was able to carry up to five small work boats for transporting divers to and from working areas, multiple dive lockers to store scientific gear and equipment, a membrane Nitrox fill system for filling dive tanks, and a three-person, double-lock decompression chamber. [11] [13]
Hiʻialakai had a wet laboratory with a scientific freezer, a dry laboratory, and a computer and electronics laboratory. On deck, she had a 46-foot (14 m) telescoping boom with a lifting capacity of 6,600 pounds (3,000 kg) at full extension, an A-frame with a maximum safe working load of 22,000 pounds (10,000 kg), and a J-frame with a maximum safe working load of 3,500 pounds (1,600 kg). Her normal complement of boats consisted of a 29-foot (8.8 m) boat with a 455-horsepower (339 kW) diesel motor and a capacity of 10 people, a 26-foot (7.9 m) boat with a 210-horsepower (160 kW) diesel motor and a capacity of 10 people, a 17-foot (5.2 m) boat with a 90-horsepower (67 kW) outboard motor and a capacity of five people, and an 18-foot (5.5 m) SOLAS-approved rescue boat with a 90-horsepower (67 kW) outboard motor and a capacity of seven people. [13]
In addition to her crew of 28, Hiʻialakai could accommodate up to 22 scientists. [13]
Hiʻialakai was home-ported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiʻi. She operated in the Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific Insular Area, which includes American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam. [11] Her first cruise in NOAA service – to support assessment, monitoring, and mapping at Nihoa, Necker Island (also known as Mokumanamana), the French Frigate Shoals (also known as Kānemilohaʻi), the Gardner Pinnacles (also known as Pūhāhonu), Maro Reef (also known as Nalukākala), Laysan (also known as Kauō), Lisianski Island (also known as Papa‘āpoho) and the surrounding Neva Shoals, Pearl and Hermes Atoll (also known as Holoikauaua), Kure Atoll (also known as Mokupāpapa and as Ocean Island), and Midway Atoll (also known as Pihemanu Kauihelani) – began on 13 September 2004. [2]
Hiʻialakai supported the research of NOAA's National Ocean Service, National Marine Sanctuaries, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, as well as that of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Hawaiʻi. She conducted coral reef ecosystem mapping, bio-analysis assessments, coral reef health studies, and fish stock studies. Her coral reef mapping supported a mapping effort initiated in 2002 by the United States Coral Reef Task Force. She carried out most of her dive-intensive operations in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, which became the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, in 2006. [11]
In 2008, the maritime archeologists discovered on a voyage aboard this ship found what turned out to be the wreck of the 19th century whaling sail ship Two Brothers in the French Frigate Shoals. [14]
A 2015 assessment of the American Samoa coral reefs was the ship's longest duration voyage at 103 days. Hiʻialakai conducted 3,500 dives with all three of her boats during this voyage. [12]
The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol to identify their ships by type and by individual ship within a type. The system is analogous to the pennant number system that the Royal Navy and other European and Commonwealth navies use.
USCGC Tamaroa (WAT/WMEC-166), originally the United States Navy Cherokee-class fleet tugUSS Zuni (ATF-95), was a United States Coast Guard cutter. Following the U.S. Coast Guard custom of naming cutters in this class of ship after Native American tribes, she was named after the Tamaroa tribe of the Illiniwek tribal group.
USCGC Acushnet (WMEC-167) was a cutter of the United States Coast Guard, homeported in Ketchikan, Alaska. She was originally USS Shackle (ARS-9), a Diver-class rescue and salvage ship commissioned by the United States Navy for service in World War II. She was responsible for coming to the aid of stricken vessels and received three battle stars during World War II, before a long career with the Coast Guard. Acushnet patrolled the waters of the North Pacific and was one of the last World War II era ships on active duty in the US fleet upon her retirement in 2011.
The Medium Endurance Cutter or WMEC is a type of United States Coast Guard Cutter mainly consisting of the 270-foot (82 m) Famous- and 210-foot (64 m) Reliance-class cutters. These larger cutters are under control of Area Commands. These cutters have adequate accommodations for crew to live on board and can do 6 to 8 week patrols.
The USCGC Bibb (WPG-31) was a 327-foot (100 m) Secretary-Class Coast Guard ship commissioned in 1936. Seven similar "combat cutters" were built and named for secretaries of the United States Treasury. Bibb was named for U.S. Secretary of the Treasury George M. Bibb.
Two ships of the United States Coast Guard have been named USCGC Tamaroa, ultimately after the Tamaroa tribe of the Illiniwek tribal group.
The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO) is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which operates a wide variety of specialized ships and aircraft to carry out the environmental and scientific missions of NOAA.
USCGC Valiant (WMEC-621) is a United States Coast Guard multi-mission medium endurance cutter in service since 1967. Valiant is home ported in Jacksonville, Florida and operates in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico for the Commander, Coast Guard Atlantic Area. Missions include search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, marine environmental protection, and national defense operations.
USNS Adventurous (T-AGOS-13) was a Stalwart-class modified tactical auxiliary general ocean surveillance ship of the United States Navy in service from 1988 to 1992. She was in non-commissioned service in the Military Sealift Command from 1988 to 1992, operating during the final years of the Cold War. She was transferred to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1992 and in 2003 was commissioned into service with NOAA as the fisheries research ship NOAAS Oscar Elton Sette.
The USCGC Evergreen was a Cactus-class seagoing buoy tender operated by the United States Coast Guard. She served in the North Atlantic during World War II and participated in the International Ice Patrol in these waters after the war. She was the first dedicated oceanographic vessel in the Coast Guard's history. She was decommissioned in 1990 and sunk by the US Navy for target practice in 1992.
Rescue and salvage ships are a type of military salvage tug. They are tasked with coming to the aid of stricken vessels. Their general mission capabilities include combat salvage, lifting, towing, retraction of grounded vessels, off-ship firefighting, and manned diving operations. They were common during World War II.
USS Seize (ARS-26) was a Diver-class rescue and salvage ship commissioned in the United States Navy during World War II. Her task was to come to the aid of stricken vessels.
USCGC Cuyahoga (WIX-157) was an Active-class patrol boat built in 1927 which saw action in World War II. Cuyahoga sank after a night-time collision in the Chesapeake Bay while on patrol in 1978. She was later raised and re-sunk as an artificial reef off the Virginia coast and is a popular recreational dive site.
USCGC Clover WAGL/WLB/WMEC-292, a Cactus (A) Class buoy tender was built by Marine Iron and Shipbuilding, Duluth, Minnesota. Her keel was laid 3 December 1941, and she was launched 25 April 1942. She was commissioned on 8 November 1942 in the United States Coast Guard as the United States Coast Guard Cutter Clover. She was built as a WAGL, redesignated a WLB in 1965, and again redesignated a WMEC in 1979.
USCGC Point Glass (WPB-82336) was an 82-foot (25 m) Point class cutter constructed at the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland in 1962 for use as a law enforcement and search and rescue patrol boat. Since the Coast Guard policy in 1962 was not to name cutters under 100 feet (30 m) in length, it was designated as WPB-82336 when commissioned and acquired the name Point Glass in January 1964 when the Coast Guard started naming all cutters longer than 65 feet (20 m).
USCGC Aspen (WLB-208) is the eighth cutter in the Juniper-class 225 ft (69 m) of seagoing buoy tenders. She is under the operational control of the Commander of the Eleventh U.S. Coast Guard District and is home-ported at Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco, California. Her primary area of responsibility is the coastal waters, river bars and high seas from the California–Oregon border to San Diego, California. Aspen conducts heavy lift aids-to-navigation operations, and law enforcement, homeland security, environmental pollution response, and search and rescue as directed.
The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Wikipedia's articles on recreational dive sites. The level of coverage may vary:
Recreational dive sites are specific places that recreational scuba divers go to enjoy the underwater environment or for training purposes. They include technical diving sites beyond the range generally accepted for recreational diving. In this context all diving done for recreational purposes is included. Professional diving tends to be done where the job is, and with the exception of diver training and leading groups of recreational divers, does not generally occur at specific sites chosen for their easy access, pleasant conditions or interesting features.
USS Tamaroa (AT-62) was a U.S. Navy tugboat which served from 1936 until she was sunk in a collision in 1946. She is not to be confused with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Tamaroa (WMEC-166).