USC&GS Explorer | |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | Explorer |
Namesake | Explorer, a person who engages in the process of exploration, an activity which has some expectation of discovery |
Operator | United States Coast and Geodetic Survey |
Builder | Pusey & Jones, Wilmington, Delaware |
Yard number | 316 |
Completed | 1904 |
Acquired | 30 November 1904 |
Commissioned | 29 December 1904 |
Identification | |
Fate | Transferred to United States Navy 3 June 1918 |
Acquired | 31 March 1919 (returned by U.S. Navy) |
Recommissioned | February 1920 |
Decommissioned | Fall 1939 |
Fate | Transferred to National Youth Administration 1939 |
United States | |
Name | Explorer |
Namesake | Previous name retained |
Operator | United States Navy |
Acquired | 22 May 1918 |
Commissioned | 3 June 1918 |
Decommissioned | 31 March 1919 |
Fate | Returned to U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 31 March 1919 |
Notes | Operated as patrol vessel |
United States | |
Name | Explorer |
Namesake | Previous name retained |
Operator | National Youth Administration |
Acquired | 1939 |
Fate | Acquired by United States Army 1941 |
United States | |
Name | Atkins (FS 237) |
Operator | United States Army |
Acquired | 1941 |
Notes | Classified as "freight and supply ship" (FS); operated by United States Army Corps of Engineers as survey ship |
General characteristics (as Coast and Geodetic Survey survey ship in 1904) | |
Type | Survey ship |
Tonnage | 335 GRT |
Displacement | 450 tons |
Length |
|
Beam | 27 ft (8.2 m) |
Draft | 8 ft 7.5 in (2.6 m) mean at 450 ton displacement |
Depth | 14 ft 6.5 in (4.4 m) |
Propulsion | Steam engine, one shaft |
Sail plan | Schooner rig |
Speed | 10.3 knots (19.1 km/h; 11.9 mph) |
Crew | 43 (7 officers, 36 men) |
The first USC&GS Explorer was a steamer that served as a survey ship in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1904 to 1939 except for a brief time in United States Navy service from 1918 to 1919 for patrol duty in Alaskan waters as USS Explorer during World War I. [1] After initial service along the United States East Coast and off Puerto Rico, the ship transferred to Seattle, Washington in 1907 to begin survey work in Alaskan waters during summer and more southern waters along the United States West Coast in winter. On her return from the Navy in 1919, the ship was condemned and due to be sold but instead was retained as a survey vessel into the fall of 1939. After a stint with the National Youth Administration from 1939 to 1941, she saw service during World War II with the United States Army Corps of Engineers as the freight and supply ship Atkins (FS 237).
Explorer was built by Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware, with yard number 316 and delivered to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey on 30 November 1904. [2] [3]
Explorer was schooner-rigged with two masts with sails which were intended to steady the ship, not for propulsion. Propulsion was by means of a steam engine with cylinders of 13 in (33.0 cm) and 26 in (66.0 cm) with a 20 in (50.8 cm) stroke driving a single 7 ft 6 in (2.3 m) bronze propeller. A boiler 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) in diameter and 11 ft (3.4 m) long provided steam. The Coast and Geodetic Survey intended the ship to perform extensive magnetic survey work in which the extensive of metal in her construction would distort observations, so she was constructed primarily of wood, with metal used only when needed and where it could be used "without defeating the purpose of the wooden hull." The hull's length was 147 ft (44.8 m) overall an 139 ft (42.4 m) between perpendiculars, its extreme beam was 27 ft (8.2 m), and its depth was 14 ft 6.5 in (4.4 m). Displacement was 450 tons on a mean draft of 8 ft 7.5 in (2.6 m). [4]
Explorer′s registry information for 1906 shows a vessel of 335 GRT with the signal letters GVWJ, a speed of 10.3 kn (11.9 mph; 19.1 km/h), an 85-ton coal capacity, and a crew of seven officers and 36 men. [5]
Explorer was commissioned on 29 December 1904 but was weatherbound at Wilmington until 9 March 1905, at which time she departed for Puerto Rico. She began magnetic observations at Norfolk, Virginia, and continued them during the remainder of the voyage. She then commenced hydrographic surveys and updating United States Coast Pilot information. After completing her work at Puerto Rico, she proceeded to Baltimore, Maryland, making magnetic observations during the voyage. She arrived at Baltimore on 21 June 1905 and began repairs. [2]
Explorer left Baltimore on 26 July 1905 and reached Rockland, Maine, on 30 July 1905 to begin surveys. The cruise lasted until 2 November 1905, when Explorer returned to Baltimore for repairs. She got underway again on 4 January 1906 for the winter survey season, bound for the south coast of Puerto Rico, taking magnetic observations on the voyage. She arrived off Puerto Rico on 20 January 1906. She completed her surveys on 28 May 1906 and on 5 June 1906 arrived at Baltimore, where she undertook repairs. [6] Explorer left Baltimore for northern surveys on 23 July 1906, working until the end of the season on 11 December 1906. [7]
Explorer returned to Baltimore on 15 December 1906 for repairs before a major transfer in operations. On 19 February 1907 she departed Baltimore for Seattle, Washington by way of the Strait of Magellan, making magnetic observations during the voyage. [7] On 3 July 1907 she reached San Diego, California, and she arrived at Seattle on 15 July 1907. On 17 August 1907, she sailed for the District of Alaska, beginning a pattern of conducting surveys in the north in Alaskan waters during summer and to the south along portions of the United States West Coast in winter. [8] On 12 November 1907, her launch was run down by the steamer Indianapolis in thick fog at Seattle, and two of four crewmen aboard the launch drowned in the incident. [9]
The United States entered World War I in April 1917, and Explorer was transferred to the United States Navy on 22 May 1918 for war service as a patrol vessel. The Navu commissioned her as USS Explorer on 3 June 1918. The ship was assigned to patrol the canneries and fishing grounds of what was by then the Territory of Alaska, including Prince William Sound. [10] The ship. along with USC&GS Patterson and the U.S. Navy submarine chasers USS SC-309 and USS SC-310, was assigned the patrol duty as a result of rumors of German and Industrial Workers of the World activity among the cannery and fishery workers. [11] The Navy returned Explorer to the Coast and Geodetic Survey on 31 March 1919.
Upon Explorer′s return from naval service, she was condemned in anticipation of selling her, [12] and the Coast and Geodetic Survey laid up her up at Seattle. However, the Coast and Geodetic Survey director's annual report for fiscal year 1920, covering 1 July 1919 to 30 June 1920, contained an entire section dealing with the urgent need to survey Alaskan waters to enable commerce to develop in the Territory of Alaska. The report emphasized the shortage and limitations of vessels. [13] Explorer thus was put back in commission for Coast and Geodetic Survey work in February 1920. The ship was equipped for wire-drag surveying and to serve as mother ship for smaller vessels, and the survey launches USC&GS Helianthus and USC&GS Scandinavia [note 1] both of which had been repaired after World War I U.S. Navy service on the section patrol, were assigned to her. The vessels proceeded to Alaska for triangulation, topographic survey, and hydrographic survey of Stephens Passage. [14]
Explorer continued in service, and appears in the Coast and Geodetic Survey annual reports and the United States registry under "Vessels of the Coast and Geodetic Survey," into 1939. [15] [16] With a new survey ship, also named USC&GS Explorer (OSS 28), due to enter service in the Coast and Geodetic Survey in the spring of 1940, Explorer performed her final work for the Survey in Puget Sound in the fall of 1939 and was decommissioned after 35 years of service. [17]
After her decommissioning, Explorer was transferred to the National Youth Administration in 1939. [17] In 1941, the United States Army acquired her, converted her into a "freight and supply ship" (FS), and renamed her Atkins (FS 237). The United States Army Corps of Engineers then used her for hydrographic survey work during World War II. [18]
USS Oceanographer (AGS-3) was a survey ship of the United States Navy during World War II that produced charts chiefly of passages in the Solomon Islands area of the Pacific Ocean. Upon transfer to the Navy, she had initially briefly been named and classed as gunboat USS Natchez (PG-85). Before her World War II Navy service, she had been USC&GS Oceanographer (OSS-26), a survey ship with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1930.
USC&GS A. D. Bache (1901-1927), often referred to only as Bache, continued the name of the Bache of 1871 and has been confused, including in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, with that ship even though an entirely new hull and boiler were built in 1901 and only the name and some machinery and instruments were transferred to the new hull. The Bache of 1901 was transferred to the U.S. Navy for World War I service between 24 September 1917 through 21 June 1919 when she was returned to the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
USS Lydonia (SP-700) was United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919 that saw service during World War I. Prior to her U.S. Navy service, she had been William A. Lydon's private yacht, Lydonia II, from 1912 to 1917. She spent most of the war based at Gibraltar, escorting and protecting Allied ships in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Europe. After her U.S. Navy service ended, she served from 1919 to 1947 in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey as the coastal survey ship USCGS Lydonia (CS-302).
USC&GS Carlile P. Patterson was a survey ship of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in operation between 1883 and 1918. Subsequently, she had a brief period of naval service and fifteen seasons as a merchant vessel before she was wrecked on the Alaska coast in 1938.
USC&GS Pioneer was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1922 to 1941. She was the first ship of the Coast and Geodetic Survey to bear the name.
USC&GS Arago was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast Survey from 1854 to 1878 and in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1878 to 1881. From October 1861 into 1863 Arago was at times attached to the Navy's South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off South Carolina to provide hydrographic support. She was the first ship of the Coast Survey or Coast and Geodetic Survey to bear the name.
USC&GS Natoma was built as the private motorboat Natoma in 1913 for Charles H. Foster, President of the Cadillac Motor Car Company of Chicago. In 1917 the United States Navy acquired the boat for use in World War I. The vessel was commissioned USS Natoma for Section Patrol duties and designated SP-666. Natoma spent the war years patrolling New York harbor and approaches. On 9 April 1919 the boat was transferred to United States Coast and Geodetic Survey surveying on both coasts until 1935.
USS Elsie III (SP-708) was a United States Navy patrol vessel in commission from 1917 to 1919 that saw service during World War I. After the completion of her U.S. Navy career, she was in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey as the survey launch USC&GS Elsie III from 1919 to 1944.
Gilbert T. Rude (1881–1962) was an officer in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey—one of the ancestor organizations of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) -- and the United States Navy. He served as Chief of the Division of Coastal Surveys in the Coast and Geodetic Survey. A NOAA ship was named for him.
USC&GS Isis was a survey ship that served in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1915 to 1917 and from 1919 to 1920.
The second USC&GS Fathomer was a steamer that served as a survey ship in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1905 to 1942.
USC&GS Marinduque was a steamer, owned by the Philippine Insular Government, that served exclusively in the Philippines. The ship was purchased by the Philippine Bureau of Coast Guard and Transportation to support both government logistical and administrative travel needs as well as the usual functions of a coast guard vessel. The vessel was transferred to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey serving as a survey ship from 1905 to 1932. Marinduque and Romblon were sister ships, both built in Japan.
USC&GS Romblon was a steamer, owned by the Philippine Insular Government, that served exclusively in the Philippines. The ship was purchased by the Philippine Bureau of Coast Guard and Transportation to support both government logistical and administrative travel needs as well as the usual functions of a coast guard vessel. The vessel was transferred to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey serving as a survey ship from 1905 to 1932. Romblon and Marinduque were sister ships, both built in Japan.
USC&GS Mikawe was a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey launch in commission from 1920 to 1939.
USC&GSS Research was a survey vessel owned by the Philippine Insular Government to be the first vessel operated by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in the Philippines from 1901 until 1918.
The first USC&GSS Pathfinder, also noted in some NOAA histories as "old Pathfinder", was a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ship in service from 1899 to 1941, when she was beached in sinking condition on January 30, 1942, after 40 years service in the Philippines.
USC&GS George S. Blake, in service 1874–1905, is, with the U.S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross, one of only two US oceanographic vessels with her name inscribed in the façade of the Oceanographic Museum, Monaco due to her being "the most innovative oceanographic vessel of the Nineteenth Century" with development of deep ocean exploration through introduction of steel cable for sounding, dredging and deep anchoring and data collection for the "first truly modern bathymetric map of a deep sea area."
USC&GS A. D. Bache, the second steamer of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, was named for Alexander Dallas Bache, a former superintendent of the Survey. She was launched in August 1871 at Wilmington, Delaware, and was in commission from 1871 to 1900.
USS Onward (SP-311), a former yacht named Galatea and then Ungava was a patrol yacht acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War I. She was transferred to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey where she served briefly until return to the Navy for a brief time before her disposal by sale. She was renamed Thelma Phoebe.
USS Helianthus (SP-585) was a patrol vessel in commission in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919, seeing service in World War I. After her U.S. Navy service, she was in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey as the survey launch USC&GS Helianthus from 1919 to 1939. She was named after the Helianthus, the genus to which the sunflower belongs.