CHARLES
S. PEIRCE
NOAA
Ship PEIRCE.
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Twin
diesel, length 165 feet, beam 33 feet, draft 11.2 feet. In service
1962-1985. Named for Charles Saunders Peirce (1839-1914), son of Benjamin
Peirce, and one of the greatest of American intellectuals. Charles
Peirce served with the Coast Survey for thirty years and was famous
in many branches of the physical sciences as well as being a founder
of the branch of philosophy known as pragmatism. He was the first
to conceive an electric switching computer, the first to relate a
standard of length to the wavelength of light, and the first to comprehend
the spiral nature of our galaxy among other accomplishments. After
a series of reversals, he died in poverty and relative obscurity.
