HECK
NOAA Ships RUDE and HECK.
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Twin
diesel, , length 90 feet, beam 22 feet, draft 7.2 feet. Built for
the Coast and Geodetic Survey by Jakobson Shipyard, Oyster Bay, New
York, in 1966. Originally designed as a wire drag vessel for use with
its sister ship the RUDE. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico service. Deactivated
1995. Named for Captain Nicholas Heck who more than anyone, developed
wiredrag as a method for discovering undersea obstructions in the
early Twentieth Century. Prior to the advent of sidescan sonar, this
was the only method to search large areas for obstructions and lost
vessels and aircraft. Captain Heck was also known for developing radio
acoustic ranging, the first navigation system to eliminate the need
for visual means to determine position; and as Chief of the Division
of Seismology and Terrestrial Magnetism, he was a leader in the development
of geophysics in the first half of the Twentieth Century. He drew
attention to the correlation between earthquake epicenters and the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the 1930’s. He was a recipient of the
Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union.
