Naval History Homepage and Site Search
With thanks to Old Weather, a 
Project
|
Log Books of the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey, 19th and 20th Centuries USC&GSS Guide General description, specifications and time line |
|
USC&GSS Guide (NOAA Photo, click images to enlarge) |
Back to US Log Book Homepage |
(Commemorated by Guide Seamount on California coast)
Characteristics: Steamer, built by New Jersey Drydock & Transportation Company, Elizabethport, New Jersey in 1918 as Bird-class minesweeper USS Flamingo, cost $500,000, 187ft long x 35ft beam x12ft draft. Along with Discoverer 1 and Pioneer 1, known as "Bird-boats" in C&GS service.
Log Period and Areas of Service: 1923-1941, Pacific coast.
Summary of Service
1923 - Transferred to C&GS.
to 1941 - Carried out many early bathymetric surveys off West Coast in company with USC&GSS Pioneer. Radio acoustic ranging navigation developed onboard.
1924 - Sound signal observed over 200 miles off Oregon coast, identifying the SOFAR (Sound Fixing and Ranging) sound layer.
Fate: 1941 - Returned to Navy, converted to rescue and salvage ship, ARS-1, renamed USS Viking.
Links: DANFS, NOAA History site, Wikipedia
Sister ships Guide and Pioneer, bow to bow and alongside each other (right) at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Island, 1940. Guide believed on the left in above image. |
|
A general note on the sources.