NOAA Ship ''John N. Cobb'' (R 552) was a
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
research vessel
A research vessel (RV or R/V) is a ship or boat designed, modified, or equipped to carry out research at sea. Research vessels carry out a number of roles. Some of these roles can be combined into a single vessel but others require a dedicated ...
in commission from 1970 to 2008. She was named for
John Nathan Cobb
John Nathan Cobb (February 20, 1868 – January 13, 1930) was an American author, naturalist, conservationist, canneryman, and educator. He attained a high position in academia without the benefit of a college education. In a career that bega ...
and was the oldest commissioned ship in the
NOAA fleet when she was decommissioned, having previously served in the
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
′s Fish and Wildlife Service from 1950 to 1956 and in the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
′s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries from 1956 to 1970 as US FWS ''John N. Cobb'' (FWS 1601).
Construction and commissioning
W. C. Nickum and Sons designed ''John N. Cobb'' based on a
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
purse-seiner design.
[noaa.gov AFSC Historical Corner: ''John N. Cobb'', Establishing a Rich Legacy nRetrieved August 25, 2018]
/ref> The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) funded her construction using US$150,000 ifrom the sale of the FWS fisheries research vessel ''Washington'', and the Western Boatbuilding Company constructed her in Tacoma, Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
. She was launched on 16 January 1950 and commissioned as US FWS ''John N. Cobb'' (FWS 1601) on 18 February 1950.[
]
Technical characteristics
''John N. Cobb'' had a wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
en hull. As originally constructed, she was designed for exploratory fishing cruises and fishing gear
Fishing tackle is the equipment used by anglers when fishing. Almost any equipment or gear used in fishing can be called fishing tackle, examples being hooks, lines, baits/ lures, rods, reels, floats, sinkers/ feeders, nets, stringers/ ke ...
research and development, with trawling
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...
, longlining
Longline fishing, or longlining, is a commercial fishing angling technique that uses a long ''main line'' with fish bait, baited fish hook, hooks attached at intervals via short branch lines called ''snoods'' or ''gangions''.[< ...]
, gillnetting
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...
, and oceanographic
Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...
sampling capabilities.[ When commissioned in 1950, she had then-modern navigational equipment, including ]radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
, a LORAN
LORAN, short for long range navigation, was a hyperbolic radio navigation system developed in the United States during World War II. It was similar to the UK's Gee system but operated at lower frequencies in order to provide an improved range u ...
navigation system, depth finders, and an electro-mechanical steering system.[
''John N. Cobb'' had a total of 13 bunks, and her mess room could serve eight personnel at a time. During her NOAA service, she carried a complement of two ]NOAA Corps
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps, known informally as the NOAA Corps, is one of eight federal uniformed services of the United States, and operates under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administ ...
officers
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...
, two licensed engineers
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
, and four other crew members, and could accommodate up to four scientists.
Her deck equipment featured three winch
A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable").
In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attache ...
es and one boom crane. This equipment gave ''John N. Cobb'' a lifting capacity of up to as well as of cable that could pull up to .
During her NOAA years, in support of her primary mission of fishery
Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...
and living marine resource research for the National Marine Fisheries Service
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stew ...
(NMFS) division of NOAA, ''John N. Cobb'' was equipped with a shallow-water echo sounder
Echo sounding or depth sounding is the use of sonar for ranging, normally to determine the depth of water (bathymetry). It involves transmitting acoustic waves into water and recording the time interval between emission and return of a pulse; ...
, fishfinder
A fishfinder or sounder (Australia) is an instrument used to locate fish underwater by detecting reflected pulses of sound energy, as in sonar. A modern fishfinder displays measurements of reflected sound on a graphical display, allowing an oper ...
, forward-looking sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...
, and net sonde
Sonde (French for ''probe'') may refer to:
Electronic probes
*CTD (instrument), a type of water quality sensor
*Ionosonde, a radar for examining the ionosphere
*Radiosonde, a piece of equipment used on weather balloons
*Rocketsonde, a sounding roc ...
. She had a single laboratory
A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...
of . She carried a fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
boat for utility and rescue purposes. She could conduct bottom trawl
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...
s down to depths of over .
Operational history
Fish and Wildlife Service
Assigned Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Washington, as her home port, ''John N. Cobb'' made her first cruise in March and April 1950, operating off Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
in search of commercially useful populations of shellfish
Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...
, especially shrimp
Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...
.[ From June to September 1950, she operated in the ]Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
off Alaska, Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, and Washington looking for commercially exploitable albacore
The albacore (''Thunnus alalunga''), known also as the longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Perciformes. It is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct sto ...
populations. In August 1950, her crew discovered a seamount
A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...
rising from the sea bottom to below the sea's surface off the coast of Washington;[ the seamount later was named ]Cobb Seamount
Cobb Seamount is a seamount ( underwater volcano) and guyot located west of Grays Harbor, Washington, United States. Cobb Seamount is one of the seamounts in the Cobb–Eickelberg Seamount chain, a chain of underwater volcanoes created by the ...
.[
In 1953, ''John N. Cobb'' cruised off the ]Aleutian Islands
The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a cha ...
, conducting a preliminary search for salmon
Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...
populations and developing fishing techniques that would allow the successful use of gill net
Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...
s in the open ocean.[ Later in 1953, she explored ]Prince William Sound
Prince William Sound (Sugpiaq: ''Suungaaciq'') is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Tr ...
off Alaska to assess the availability of herring
Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae.
Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...
there.[ In 1955, she tagged ]petrale sole
The Petrale sole (''Eopsetta jordani'') is an edible flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae. It is a demersal fish that lives on sandy bottoms, usually in deep water, down to depths of about . Males can grow to in length, females to , and they ca ...
in the Esteban Deep – a submarine canyon
A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley cut into the seabed of the continental slope, sometimes extending well onto the continental shelf, having nearly vertical walls, and occasionally having canyon wall heights of up to 5 km, from c ...
– in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...
, British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.[ That spring, working in conjunction with chartered ]halibut
Halibut is the common name for three flatfish in the genera '' Hippoglossus'' and ''Reinhardtius'' from the family of right-eye flounders and, in some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish.
The word is derived from ''h ...
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
s, she began the first survey of salmon populations in the eastern North Pacific Ocean, and by the time she wrapped up this work in 1961, the general distribution of salmon in the North Pacific and Bering Sea
The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...
was understood.[ Meanwhile, the Fish and Wildlife Service was renamed the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and reorganized in 1956, creating a new Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF), and ''John N. Cobb'' became a part of the BCF fleet.][
]
In 1959, ''John N. Cobb'' was supporting the USFWS's Exploratory Fishing and Gear Research (EF&GR) element in 1959 when it fielded its first scuba diving
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...
team,[ which operated from her. In August 1959, she took part in the Chariot Project with the ]United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President H ...
to assess the feasibility of using nuclear explosives
A nuclear explosive is an explosive device that derives its energy from nuclear reactions. Almost all nuclear explosive devices that have been designed and produced are nuclear weapons intended for warfare.
Other, non-warfare, applications for nuc ...
to excavate harbors or canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
s off the northwest coast of Alaska, but the project never came to fruition.[ Of her first 41 cruises in the 1950s, she focused on experimental fishing methods and equipment in 11, engaged in midwater trawling in seven, conducted bottom and shrimp trawling in two, and tested a fish pump device in two.
In 1960, ''John N. Cobb'' experimented with the use of a high-resolution ]echo sounder
Echo sounding or depth sounding is the use of sonar for ranging, normally to determine the depth of water (bathymetry). It involves transmitting acoustic waves into water and recording the time interval between emission and return of a pulse; ...
to locate dragging
In computing, a pointing device gesture or mouse gesture (or simply gesture) is a way of combining pointing device or finger movements and clicks that the software recognizes as a specific computer event and responds to accordingly. They can be ...
areas off Washington that contained commercial quantities of fish. In 1961, she worked with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to study deep-water marine resources off Washington and Oregon. In 1963, she joined the BCF ship '' George B. Kelez'' in experimental trawling for salmon off Alaska.[
]
NOAA
On 3 October 1970, a reorganization occurred which created NOAA under the United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...
. Under the reorganization, the BCF came under the control of the new National Marine Fisheries Service
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), informally known as NOAA Fisheries, is a United States federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that is responsible for the stew ...
NMFS, an element of NOAA, and via a phased process during 1972 and 1973 the ships of the NMFS and of another element of NOAA, the National Ocean Survey – successor to the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (abbreviated USC&GS), known from 1807 to 1836 as the Survey of the Coast and from 1836 until 1878 as the United States Coast Survey, was the first scientific agency of the United States Government. It ...
, which was abolished upon the 1970 creation of NOAA – were brought together to form a consolidated NOAA fleet. ''John N. Cobb'' became a part of the new NOAA fleet via this process and was redesignated NOAAS ''John N. Cobb'' (R 552).[ With her home port at NOAA's Marine Operations Center-Pacific (MOC-P) in Seattle and operated by NOAA's Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, ''John N. Cobb'' conducted research off southeastern ]Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
and the Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. She supported research of the NMFS Auke Bay Laboratory in Juneau
The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...
, Alaska, collecting fish and crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
specimens using trawls and benthic longlines; and fish larva
Ichthyoplankton (from Greek: ἰχθύς, , "fish"; and πλαγκτός, , "drifter") are the eggs and larvae of fish. They are mostly found in the sunlit zone of the water column, less than 200 metres deep, which is sometimes called the epip ...
e, fish egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
s, and plankton
Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...
using plankton nets and surface and mid-water larval nets. Scientists from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory The National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) is a United States research laboratory that undertakes research into marine mammals under the direction of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
T ...
in Seattle also conducted surveys of whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
s and porpoise
Porpoises are a group of fully aquatic marine mammals, all of which are classified under the family Phocoenidae, parvorder Odontoceti (toothed whales). Although similar in appearance to dolphins, they are more closely related to narwhals an ...
s – including cetacean
Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively carnivorous diet. They propel them ...
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
and humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hump ...
prey investigations – and of seals
Seals may refer to:
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...
, and studied harbor seal
The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared sea ...
ecology near tidewater glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s while aboard ''John N. Cobb''. She also took part in coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
and sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through t ...
benthic habitat studies, the mapping of near-shore estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
habitats, sablefish
The sablefish (''Anoplopoma fimbria'') is one of two members of the fish family Anoplopomatidae and the only species in the genus ''Anoplopoma''. In English, common names for it include sable (US), butterfish (US), black cod (US, UK, Canada), ...
tagging and telemetry
Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...
studies, assessments of juvenile rockfish
Rockfish is a common term for several species of fish, referring to their tendency to hide among rocks.
The name rockfish is used for many kinds of fish used for food. This common name belongs to several groups that are not closely related, and ca ...
habitats, and oceanographic sampling and long-term coastal monitoring, and she provided support to remote field camps and the Little Port Walter Marine Station in Port Walter, Alaska.[
In the early 1980s ''John N. Cobb'' collaborated with other research vessels in a research project using small mesh ]purse seine
Seine fishing (or seine-haul fishing; ) is a method of fishing that employs a surrounding net, called a seine, that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats. Seine nets can be dep ...
s to sample juvenile salmon off the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington.[ In the immediate aftermath of the ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill on ]Bligh Reef
Bligh Reef, sometimes known as Bligh Island Reef, is a reef off the coast of Bligh Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska. This was the location of the 1989 ''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill. After the incident, 33 US Code § 2733 mandated the operation ...
in Alaska's Prince William Sound on 29 March 1989, ''John N. Cobb'', which was in an inactive status at the time, quickly returned to active duty and played an important role in post-spill research on the effects of the spill on the environment. In subsequent years, she supported numerous studies of the lasting ecological effects of the spill on Prince William Sound.[
In the mid-1990s, ''John N. Cobb'' came to the assistance of the purse-seiner ''Karen Rae'', which was in distress in ]Icy Strait
The Icy Strait is a strait in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska, at about . The strait separates Chichagof Island to the south and the Alaska mainland to the north. The strait is from its west side at the intersection of the Cros ...
[ in the ]Alexander Archipelago
The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...
in southeastern Alaska.[
As fisheries science renewed its focus on the marine ecology of juvenile salmon and other epipelagic fishes, ''John N. Cobb'' helped to pioneer the use of surface rope trawls from 1997 to 2007.][ This led to the creation of the Southeast Coastal Monitoring Project and allowed the development of an understanding of the ]biophysical
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. Bi ...
factors affecting fluctuations from year to year in salmon populations.[
''John N. Cobb''′s 50th anniversary in the fleets of NOAA and its predecessors was celebrated in 2000. On 10 May 2004, she rendered assistance to the ]Alaska Marine Highway System
The Alaska Marine Highway (AMH) or the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is a ferry service operated by the U.S. state of Alaska. It has its headquarters in Ketchikan, Alaska.
The Alaska Marine Highway System operates along the south-central ...
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
, which had run aground that morning in Peril Strait
Peril Strait or Shee Káx’ is a strait in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. It is between Chichagof Island to its north and Baranof Island and Catherine Island (Alaska), Catherine Island to its south. The strait is long and r ...
near Cozian Reef Cozian Reef or Nikolas Rock is located just above the northern tip of Baranof Island in Peril Strait which is in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Alaska.
Cozian Reef is a prime maritime navigational hazard demonstrated by its alternative name, N ...
, about north of Sitka
russian: Ситка
, native_name_lang = tli
, settlement_type = Consolidated city-borough
, image_skyline = File:Sitka 84 Elev 135.jpg
, image_caption = Downtown Sitka in 1984
, image_size ...
, Alaska.[Anonymous, "M/V LeConte Runs Aground, All Passengers Safe," sitnews.us, May 10, 2004 Retrieved August 25, 2018]
/ref> She joined other vessels in rescuing ''LeConte''′s 86 passengers from life raft
A lifeboat or liferaft is a small, rigid or inflatable boat carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard a ship. Lifeboat drills are required by law on larger commercial ships. Rafts (raft, liferafts) are also used. In t ...
s, picking up most of them herself.[
NOAA's plans called for ''John N. Cobb'' to remain active until August 2008, but the main ]crankshaft
A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting ...
in her original 1931 Fairbanks-Morse
Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinders, radios, farm tractors, fee ...
locomotive
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...
engine broke in June 2008, rendering her inoperable. Repairs were estimated to cost $245,000 and take four to six months to complete, so NOAA decided to bring her long career to an end. She was decommissioned on 13 August 2008 at the Sand Point facility in Seattle, and was the oldest NOAA ship at the time of her decommissioning.
Later career
After decommissioning ''John N. Cobb'', NOAA donated her to the Seattle Maritime Academy
Seattle Central College is a public college in Seattle, Washington. With North Seattle College and South Seattle College, it is one of the three colleges that comprise the Seattle Colleges District. The college has a substantial international ...
, a branch of Seattle Central Community College
Seattle Central College is a public college in Seattle, Washington. With North Seattle College and South Seattle College, it is one of the three colleges that comprise the Seattle Colleges District. The college has a substantial international ...
,[Bermant, Charlie, "Port battles state over derelict boat," pteader.com, December 7, 2016 Retrieved August 25, 2018]
/ref> and she was moved to Salmon Bay
Salmon Bay is a portion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which passes through the city of Seattle, linking Lake Washington to Puget Sound, lying west of the Fremont Cut. It is the westernmost section of the canal and empties into Puget Sound' ...
in Seattle. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on 11 February 2009, but the Academy never repaired her broken crankshaft,[ and she remained moored in Salmon Bay under the ]Ballard Bridge
The Ballard Bridge, also known as the 15th Avenue Bridge, is a double-leaf bascule bridge in Seattle, Washington. It carries 15th Avenue NW over Seattle's Salmon Bay between Ballard to the north and Interbay to the south. The Ballard Bridge foll ...
for about seven years.[Hitz, Charles R., "Cobb 2017 – A Good Year," carmelfinley.wordpress.com, December 28, 2017 Retrieved August 25, 2018]
/ref> In 2015, the Academy sold her to Daniel J. Webb,[ who moved her to ]Port Townsend
Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 United States Census.
It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County. In addition to ...
, Washington, in February 2016 to repair her crankshaft.[ However, ''John N. Cobb'' by then was waterlogged and too heavy for the port's equipment to haul out of the water.][ Unable to pay her mooring fees or for her repairs, Webb abandoned her at Port Townsend.][Twietmeyer, Nick, "Poulsbo bids farewell to derelict tugboat," kitsapdailynews.com, April 6, 2018 3:51 p.m., Retrieved August 25, 2018]
/ref> A legal dispute over payment of mooring fees and for repairs to the vessel broke out during 2016 between the Port of Port Townsend and the State of Washington, which represented the Seattle Maritime Academy; the port claimed that the Academy had violated the law by selling an unseaworthy vessel to an owner who could not afford to repair her, while the state countered that the law exempted unregistered vessels used primarily for government purposes, that the Academy had never registered ''John N. Cobb'' and therefore was not bound by the law, that the Academy was free to surplus the vessel in any way it saw fit consistent with the wishes of her donor, and that any matter of financial restitution to the port was matter between the port and Webb.[
Meanwhile, the Port of Port Townsend sought and gained custody of ''John N. Cobb'' because of her overdue mooring fees, pumped the water out of her, and hauled her out of the water in October 2016 for an inspection, estimating her to be worth US$300,000 once repaired but requiring US$250,000 in repairs, and estimating her scrap value as US$50,000.][ Hoping to find a buyer who would preserve her but willing to sell her to a scrapyard if no other buyer came forward, the port then put her up for sale.][ On 26 April 2017, Ron Sloan purchased ''John N. Cobb'', and he contracted with the fishing vessel ''Sunnford'' to tow her from Seattle to ]Winchester Bay
Winchester Bay is an unincorporated community in Douglas County, Oregon, United States. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Winchester Bay as a census-designated place (CDP). The census definition of the area may ...
, Oregon, where she arrived on 18 August 2017.[ As of 2017, ''John N. Cobb'' was undergoing repair][ for commercial use in ]tuna
A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...
fishing and for charter for fisheries research and other activities during the off-season.Finley, Carmel, "The John N. Cobb to go for tuna!," carmelfinley.wordpress.com, August 24, 2017 Retrieved August 26, 2018
/ref>
See also
* NOAA ships and aircraft
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates a wide variety of specialized ships and aircraft to carry out NOAA's environmental and scientific missions.
Administration
NOAA′s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMA ...
Notes
References
*
*
External links
*
* Prézelin, Bernard, and A. D. Baker III. ''The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1990/1991: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Armament''. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, 1990. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:John N. Cobb
1950 ships
Ships built in Tacoma, Washington
Ships of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Ships of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Ships on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Seattle
Fishing ships of the United States