USNS ''Titan'' (T-AGOS-15) was a
''Stalwart''-class modified tactical auxiliary general
ocean surveillance ship
''Stalwart''-class auxiliary general ocean surveillance ships ( T-AGOS) were a class of United States Naval Ship (USNS) auxiliary support Ocean Surveillance Ships commissioned between April 1984 and January 1990. Their original purpose was to c ...
in service in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
from 1989 to 1993. From 1996 to 2014, she was in commission in the
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 ...
(NOAA) fleet as the
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 dynamic ...
research ship NOAAS ''Kaimimoana'' (R 333).
Construction
The U.S. Navy ordered ''Titan'' from
VT Halter Marine, Inc., on June 30, 1986. VT Halter Marine
laid her down at
Moss Point,
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, on October 30, 1986,
launched her on June 18, 1988, and delivered her to the U.S. Navy on March 8, 1989.
United States Navy service
On the day of her delivery, the U.S. Navy placed the ship in non-commissioned service in the
Military Sealift Command as USNS ''Titan'' (T-AGOS-15). Like the other ''Stalwart''-class ships, she was designed to collect underwater
acoustical data in support of
Cold War anti-submarine warfare
Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...
operations against
Soviet Navy submarines using
Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System
The AN/UQQ-2 Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS), colloquially referred to as the ship's "Tail", is a towed array sonar system of the United States Navy.
SURTASS Twin-Line consists of either the long passive SURTASS array or the Twi ...
(SURTASS)
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 navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...
equipment. She operated with a mixed crew of U.S. Navy personnel and civilian
merchant mariner
A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship.
The profession of the s ...
s.
After the Cold War ended with the collapse of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
in late December 1991, the requirement for SURTASS collection declined. The Navy took ''Titan'' out of service on August 31, 1993 and struck her from the
Naval Vessel Register
The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...
and transferred to the
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 ...
(NOAA) the same day.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration service
The conversion of ''Titan'' into an
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 dynamic ...
research ship began in May 1995 at the
shipyard of
Maritime Contractors, Inc., at
Bellingham,
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 o ...
. Delivered to NOAA in April 1996 after completion of the conversion, the ship was
commissioned into NOAA service as NOAAS ''Kaimimoana'' (R 333) on April 25, 1996.
Capabilities
''Kaimimoana'' has
berthing
A cabin or berthing is an enclosed space generally on a ship or an aircraft. A cabin which protrudes above the level of a ship's deck may be referred to as a deckhouse.
Sailing ships
In sailing ships, the officers and paying passengers wo ...
for 33 people in 21 single
staterooms and six double staterooms providing her with the capacity to carry up to 12
scientist
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...
s. She can seat 24 people at a time in two crews
mess rooms, eight in the forward room and 16 in the
aft room. She has a medical treatment room with one bunk, overseen by a
United States Public Health Service
The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant ...
Health Programs Officer.
''Kaimimoana'' has of
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: physic ...
space. On deck, she has a
brailing winch, a CTD
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) attach ...
, three
cranes, an
A-frame
An A-frame is a basic structure designed to bear a load in a lightweight economical manner. The simplest form of an A-frame is two similarly sized beams, arranged in an angle of 45 degrees or less, attached at the top, like an uppercase lette ...
, and a
J-frame. She carries two boats, a
rigid-hulled inflatable boat
A rigid inflatable boat (RIB), also rigid-hull inflatable boat or rigid-hulled inflatable boat (RHIB), is a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a rigid hull bottom joined to side-forming air tubes that are i ...
(RHIB) as a rescue boat and a inflatable utility boat. She is equipped with
echosounder
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; ...
s, a
hull-mounted acoustic release
transducer
A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in another.
Transducers are often employed at the boundaries of automation, measurement, and cont ...
, a
navigation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
fathometer
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; ...
,
X-band
The X band is the designation for a band of frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is rather indefinitely set at approxi ...
and
S-band radar,
Global Positioning System
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
receivers, a
VHF radio direction finder, and a
Sperry gyrocompass
A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical direction automatically. The use of a gyroc ...
.
Career
''Kaimimoana'' was
home-ported at
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...
, and was the only NOAA ship dedicated solely to
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
research. She supported NOAAs
Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project
The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) project is a major international effort that instrumented the entire tropical Pacific Ocean with approximately 70 deep ocean moorings. The development of the TAO array in 1985 was motivated by the 1982-1983 El ...
, which is designed to improve understanding of the role of the tropical ocean in modifying the worlds climate.
''Kaimimoana'' deployed, recovered, and serviced the
National Data Buoy Center
The National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). NDBC designs, develops, operates, and maintains a network of data collecting buoys and coastal statio ...
s deep-sea moorings—which measure ocean
currents
Currents, Current or The Current may refer to:
Science and technology
* Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas
** Air current, a flow of air
** Ocean current, a current in the ocean
*** Rip current, a kind of water current
** Current (stre ...
, ocean
temperature
Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer.
Thermometers are calibrated in various Conversion of units of temperature, temp ...
s, and
atmospheric variables—in the
equatorial
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 contin ...
and transmitted
buoy measurements in real time to NOAA's
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) is a federal laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories (RLs). The PM ...
in
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. She also continuously measured upper
ocean current
An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours ...
s, surface
salinity,
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
content, and sea-level atmospheric conditions while underway.
''Kaimimoana'' was retired by NOAA on June 18, 2014. .
''Kaimimoana'' was purchased by Pacific Survey Group in 2015 and renamed the Ocean Titan. Upon acquisition of the Ka Imimoana from NOAA, Pacific Survey Group conducted an extensive mid-life upgrade in 2016/2017. All vessel systems were renewed and upgraded to modern technology. State of the art navigation and position control systems were added to make the vessel DP2. As part of this upgrade 4 new Caterpillar EPA approved generator packages were installed, three additional tunnel thrusters, all new electric drives and controls, power management, switchboard control automation, and alarm and monitoring systems. All critical systems were made fully redundant making the vessel ABS and USCG approved DP2. Additionally, the vessel’s interior was completely redone to give a more comfortable feel for clients and crew as well as increased berthing for clients.
These modifications make the Ocean Titan one of the only fully redundant DP2 Research Vessel’s in private operation in the US. Additionally, her upgrades make her not only versatile but incredibly efficient and acoustically quiet due to extensive sound dampening and vibration reductions. The improvements also increased the vessel's speed, range, and endurance.
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Wertheim, Eric, ed. ''The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, 15th Edition: Their Ships, Aircraft, and Systems''. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute Press, 2007. . .
External links
*
NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive: USNS Titan (T-AGOS-15) NOAA Ka'Imimoana (R-333)Pacific Survey Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Titan (T-AGOS-15)
Stalwart-class ocean surveillance ships
Cold War auxiliary ships of the United States
Ships built in Moss Point, Mississippi
1988 ships
Ships of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA ex-U.S. Navy Stalwart-class oceanographic research ships
Research vessels of the United States
Hawaii-related ships