SURVEYOR
NOAA
Ship SURVEYOR. In service 1960 - 1996. Pacific service. Helicopter
operations in the ice in the Bering Sea.
|
Steam
turbine, length 292.2 feet, beam 46 feet, draft 19.5 feet. Built at
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company at San Diego, California,
in 1959. The building of this ship marked the beginning of a major
effort to modernize the Coast and Geodetic Survey fleet and make it
capable of conducting operations worldwide. The Surveyor also marked
the end of an era as it was the last steamer put into service by the
Coast and Geodetic Survey. In service 1960-1995. Worked in Pacific
Ocean from the Beaufort Sea to the Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica
during its career. Known affectionately as “Old Workhorse”
by those who served, this was the first NOAA ship equipped with a
deep-water multi-beam echosounder. This ship conducted hydrographic
surveys in areas ranging from Norton Sound Alaska to American Samoa.
It was the primary ship for studying the Alaskan Arctic for the Outer
Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) and the
primary ship for studying Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR.)
It was the first NOAA ship equipped with a deep-water multi-beam system
and conducted multi-beam surveys on the United States West Coast,
off the southern coast of Alaska, throughout the Juan de Fuca Ridge
area, and in Hawaiian waters. This ship is commemorated by Surveyor
Fracture Zone, Surveyor Gap, and Surveyor Seachannel. It discovered
Axial Seamount on Endeavor Ridge, a seamount that has apparently been
split in half by seafloor spreading.
