USS Abner Read (DD-526) was a Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named after Lieutenant Commander Abner Read, who fought in the American Civil War. The ship fought in World War II, seeing action in the Aleutian Islands Campaign, where she survived a mine explosion that blew off her stern in 1943. After repairs, she returned to service and operated in support of Allied forces in the New Guinea campaign and the Battle of Leyte. She was sunk off Leyte in 1944.
The National Geodetic Survey (NGS), formerly the United States Survey of the Coast (1807–1836), United States Coast Survey (1836–1878), and United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USC&GS) (1878–1970), is a United States federal agency that defines and manages a national coordinate system, providing the foundation for transportation and communication; mapping and charting; and a large number of applications of science and engineering. Since its foundation in its present form in 1970, it has been part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), of the United States Department of Commerce.
This is a partial glossary of nautical terms; some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. See also Wiktionary's nautical terms, Category:Nautical terms, and Nautical metaphors in English. See the Further reading section for additional words and references.
The TSMS Lakonia was a Greek-owned cruise ship which caught fire and sank north of Madeira on 22 December 1963, with the loss of 128 lives.
NOAA Ship Rainier is an American survey vessel in commission with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) since 1970. Prior to her NOAA service, she was in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey as USC&GS Rainier from 1968 to 1970. She is named for Mount Rainier in the state of Washington and is the sister ship of NOAAS Fairweather and the decommissioned NOAAS Mount Mitchell.
William Pope McArthur was an American naval officer and hydrologist who was involved in the first surveys of the Pacific Coast for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
SS Stevens, a 473-foot (144 m), 14,893-ton ship, served as a floating dormitory from 1968 to 1975 for about 150 students of Stevens Institute of Technology, a technological university, in Hoboken, NJ. Permanently moored on the scenic Hudson River at the foot of the campus across from New York City, this first collegiate floating dormitory became one of the best known college landmarks in the country.
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.
USCS Varina was a schooner that served as a survey ship in the United States Coast Survey, a predecessor of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, from 1854 to 1875.
MS Lofoten is a Norwegian passenger and cargo vessel owned and operated by Hurtigruten ASA. The ship was built in 1964. After MS Nordstjernen was retired from coastal service in 2012, MS Lofoten became the oldest ship in the current fleet still in operation. It operates cruises around the coast of Norway and sometimes in the Svalbard archipelago. The vessel was declared worthy of preservation in 2001 by the Norwegian Director General of Historic Monuments to preserve Norway's cultural heritage. She has been refitted several times—in 1980, 1985, 1995 and most recently in 2004.
Sea Witch was a MARAD Type C5-S-73b container ship built at the Bath Iron Works shipyard for American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines. She operated in the Atlantic trades for five years. So engaged on the evening of June 1, 1973, the vessel was involved in a disastrous collision with the oil tanker Esso Brussels in lower New York Harbor and was damaged so badly that she was removed from active service.
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 (1871–1900), the second steamer of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, was named for the former superintendent Alexander Dallas Bache and launched August 1871 at Wilmington, Delaware.
MV C.O. Stillman was an oil tanker that was built by a German shipyard in 1928 for a Canadian-based shipping company. A Panamanian subsidiary of Esso bought her at the end of 1936 and she was sunk by the German submarine U-68 in the Caribbean on June 4th, 1942 about 41 nautical miles (76 km) southwest of Isla de Mona, Puerto Rico.
NOAAS Peirce, was an American survey ship that was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 1992. Previously, she had been in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1963 to 1970 as USC&GS Peirce.
R/V Ocean Starr is an American research vessel. She was in the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Bureau of Commercial Fisheries fleet from 1966 to 1970 as BCF David Starr Jordan. The ship later served under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 2010.
NOAAS Oscar Dyson is an American fisheries and oceanographic research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fleet since 2005.
MV Eider was an American motor schooner in commission in the fleet of the United States Bureau of Fisheries from 1919 to 1940 and in the fleet of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1940 to 1942 and again in the late 1940s. She ran a passenger-cargo service between Unalaska and the Pribilof Islands, and also carried passengers, supplies, and provisions to destinations on the mainland of the Territory of Alaska and in the Aleutian Islands. She occasionally supported research activities in Alaskan waters and the North Pacific Ocean, and she conducted patrols to protect Alaskan fisheries and marine mammals. In 1924, she provided logistical support to the first aerial circumnavigation of the world.
USRC Jefferson was a three-masted, coal-fired steamship built for the US Revenue Cutter Service in 1845. Her design and construction were advanced and experimental for her time. Her hull was made of riveted iron plates, rather than wood planks. She was fitted with experimental propellers rather than paddlewheels, but was still expected to sail. Like many early attempts at new technology, the ship was an operational failure. She was slow and subject to mechanical breakdowns. Originally expected to patrol Lake Ontario for smugglers from Canada, it became clear that she was not going to be able to catch them. She was reassigned to the US Coast Survey, where speed was less important, in 1848. In 1849 she made at least one survey on the Atlantic coast, albeit with ongoing mechanical issues. After this survey season, she was converted to sidewheel propulsion and ordered to San Francisco where she was to lead survey efforts on the West Coast of the United States. In June 1851, on her voyage to take up her new assignment, she was damaged in a storm off the east coast of Patagonia. Jefferson made it to port without loss of life, but the ship was a total loss. She was condemned as unseaworthy and abandoned in Argentina. Her place on the west coast was taken by USCS Active.
