NOAAS Researcher (R 103)

NOAAS Researcher (R 103), was an American oceanographic research vessel in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 1996. She had been delivered to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1970 as USC&GS Researcher (OSS 03), but did not enter commission until after her transfer to NOAA later that year. In 1988, Researcher was renamed NOAAS Malcolm Baldrige (R 103).

History
United States
Name: USC&GS Researcher (OSS 03)
Namesake: A researcher, a person who engages in diligent inquiry or examination to seek or revise facts, principles, theories, etc.
Operator: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
Builder: American Shipbuilding Company, Toledo, Ohio
Launched: October 1968
Acquired: 18 June 1970
Commissioned: Never
Fate: Transferred to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 3 October 1970
United States
Name: NOAAS Researcher (R 103)
Namesake: Previous name retained
Operator: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Acquired: Transferred from U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey 3 October 1970
Commissioned: October 1970
Renamed: NOAAS Malcolm Baldrige (R 103) 1 March 1988[1]
Namesake: Malcolm Baldrige, Jr., (1922-1987), U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1981-1987
Decommissioned: 23 August 1996
Homeport: Miami, Florida[1]
Identification:
Fate: Sold late 1990s
 Comoros
Name: MV Ushuaia
Namesake: Ushuaia, a city in Argentina
Operator: Antarpply Expeditions
Acquired: Late 1990s
Homeport: Ushuaia, Argentina
Status: Extant
General characteristics (as NOAA ship in 1989)
Type: Oceanographic research ship
Tonnage:
Displacement: 2,963 tons[1]
Length: 278.3 ft (84.8 m)[1]
Beam: 51 ft (16 m)[1]
Draft: 18.3 ft (5.6 m)[1]
Installed power:
Propulsion:
Speed: 13 kn (24 km/h; 15 mph) (cruising)[1]
Range: 11,245 nmi (20,826 km; 12,941 mi)[1]
Endurance: 36 days[1]
Boats & landing
craft carried:
Complement: 10 NOAA Corps commissioned officers, 4 licensed officers, 46 other crew, up to 28 embarked scientists[4]
Aviation facilities: Portable helicopter platform[3]
General characteristics (as cruise ship in 2014)
Type: Cruise ship
Tonnage: 2,923 gross register tons[5]
Length: 84.73 m (278.0 ft)[5]
Beam: 15.41 m (50.6 ft)[5]
Draft: 5.48 m (18.0 ft)[5]
Ice class: C[5]
Propulsion: 2 x Alco geared diesel engines, 1,600 hp (1,193 kW) each[5]
Speed: 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) (cruising)[5]
Boats & landing
craft carried:		 7 x Zodiac inflatable boats[5]
Capacity: 88 passengers[5]
Crew: 38[5]

After her United States Government career came to an end, Malcolm Baldrige became the cruise ship MV Ushuaia, operating between Argentina and Antarctica.

Construction and commissioning

Designed by the Maritime Administration,[1] Researcher was built of welded steel[1] with an ice-strengthened hll as an "ocean survey ship" (OSS) for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey by the American Shipbuilding Company at Toledo, Ohio.[1][6] Launched in October 1968,[1] she was delivered in June 1970[1] to the Coast and Geodetic Survey at the Atlantic Maritime Center in Norfolk, Virginia, and accepted there on 18 June 1970 by the Survey,[7] which planned to commission her as USC&GS Researcher (OSS 03). She had not yet been commissioned when the Coast and Geodetic Survey and other United States Government agencies merged to form NOAA on 3 October 1970. Researcher was commissioned that month[1] and became a part of the new NOAA fleet as NOAAS Researcher (OSS 03).[1] In the mid-1970s, her hull number was changed, and she became NOAAS Researcher (R 103).[1]

Operational career

U.S. Government

Researcher operated as an all-purpose oceanographic research ship in all the world's oceans, conducting oceanographic and atmospheric research.[8]

In 1987, the long-serving United States Secretary of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige, Jr., died in office of injuries suffered in a rodeo accident. In his honor, Researcher was renamed NOAAS Malcolm Baldrige (R 103) in a ceremony at Pier 1 at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., on 1 March 1988.[1][8][9] She was the first ship to be outfitted with an upgraded oceanographic system, the Scientific Computer System (SCS), which consisted of two MicroVAX computer systems that were networked to provide for both data acquisition and data processing functions. One of the MicroVAX systems was dedicated to acquiring, logging, and displaying data in real time and performing real-time data quality assurance functions, while the second MicroVAX was allocated to scientists embarked on the ship for data analysis and direction of their research.[6]

Malcolm Baldrige was the second NOAA ship to circumnavigate the Earth, leaving Miami, Florida, in February 1995, proceeding through the South Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean, and then through the Panama Canal to Norfolk, Virginia, where the voyage ended in early 1996.[8] NOAA decommissioned Malcolm Baldrige on 23 August 1996.[6]

Cruise ship
MV Ushuaia on 17 February 2011.

Sometime in the late 1990s, Malcolm Baldrige was sold to an firm in Argentina, Antarpply Expeditions, which converted her into a cruise ship to run tours to Antarctica. Renamed MV Ushuaia and registered in the Comoros, she is based in the city of Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego in Argentina on the Beagle Channel near the southern tip of South America.[10][11][12] Ushuaia could carry 84 passengers.[13]

On 4 December 2008, Ushuaia hit a rock in Wilhelmina Bay off Antarctica. The Chilean Navy transport Aquiles took off her passengers — 14 Dutch, 12 Americans, 11 Australians, eight Germans, and six Chinese, as well as Canadians, New Zealanders, Britons, Italians, French, Spaniards, Swiss, a Belgian, and a Cypriot — and five Argentine crew members on 5 December 2008 and transported them to the Base Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva in the South Shetland Islands, from which they were flown to Ushuaia on 6 December 2008 aboard the Argentine Air Force KC-130H Hercules tanker TC-69.[14]

In 2014, Ushuaia underwent renovation and refurbishment, from which she emerged with a capacity of 88 passengers in 44 cabins and suites, a large dining room, a bar, an open-plan observation lounge equipped with multimedia equipment that allows it to double as a lecture room, a library, a changing room, and a small infirmary.[5] She carries seven Zodiac inflatable boats.[5]

See also

References
  1. Ships of the NOAA Fleet, Office of NOAA Corps Operations, June 1989, p. 9.
  2. Ships of the NOAA Fleet, Office of NOAA Corps Operations, June 1989, p. 11.
  3. Ships of the NOAA Fleet, Office of NOAA Corps Operations, June 1989, p. 13.
  4. Ships of the NOAA Fleet, Office of NOAA Corps Operations, June 1989, p. 10.
  5. antarcticatravels.com Our Vessels: Ushuaia
  6. NOAA Marine Operations: NOAA Ship Malcolm Baldrige
  7. Ship Operations Report 1970, National Ocean Survey
  8. NOAA History, A Science Odyssey: Tools of the Trade: Coast and Geodetic Survey Ships: Researcher
  9. Anonymous, "NOAA Ship Researcher is named Malcolm Baldridge to Honor Late Commerce Department Secretary," Marine Fisheries Review, p. 51, in National Marine Fisheries Service Southwest Fisheries Science Center Collected Reprints 1988, Volume II, March 1993.
  10. Mary Lu Abbott (2006-02-05). "Native expedition to the Arctic frontier". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
  11. "Icebreakers: MV Ushuaia". Archived from the original on December 8, 2008. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
  12. Ushuaia on EquasisWeb
  13. Gene Sloan. "Expedition ship carrying Americans runs aground in Antarctica". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
  14. Antarctic Cruise Tourists Rescued, Sky News, 5 December 2008
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